Would never buy an acer again.

For others who may have the same problem here is the error during boooting.

For Realtek RTL8139(X)/8130/810X PCI Fast Ethernet Controller
PXE-E61: Media test failure, check cable
PXE-M0F: Exiting[/QUOTE]

Sorry to say, no offence, but unfortunately some computer users are newbs and freak out at every little problem from unpopular manufacturer.
Acer laptops are just like any other laptops, prone to the problems of any other manufacturer. Lets all face it, they all go to the same parts manufacturer to have the same components, mainly what you pay your extras for are the BRANDING, SUPPORT offered by the different companies and CUSTOMIZED settings and software. I have worked with many Acers and I found many generic drivers which work for other brands of laptops which would show us how they all use basically the same parts, just have the manufacturer place their logo and name of the software.
As for problems, look at the big Dell issue with a whole line of laptops with that Battery and Charger issue. Hp’s demon was the pages and pages of recalled serial numbers for laptops with bad NETWORK CARDS which were causing the mainboards to fail. Toshiba had its battery issues as well when it recalled laptops too.
All because as I said before “they all use basically the same parts” so some manufacturer of batteries dropped the ball.
I think Dell is drastically over priced for no reason, HP had too many swing and misses with their boards (but when you get a good one YOU GET A REAL GOOD ONE), Toshiba now is into the same mass production so anything can go wrong (but hey, they still have good technology like the flip over touchscreen) and finally Acer has its CHEAP laptops as all the other companies do, where they but the low rated parts and the moderate to expensive ones where they put quality stuff. So a expensive dell, may have the same as a Acer which costs 100 or so dollars less, doesn’t mean the Dell is better because of price you mainly pay for Brand and Service. Check the specs compare prices and make your decision. Some people need to change their stance on this “higher price mean it is better” thing, that’s how some companies know they can survive on name instead of quality these days.

I bought an acer 2920z in december 08.

It is the best laptop i've used in my life! Stable and worth it.

I RECOMMEND ACER!!!

i 've'nt really done any technicall research on it but i could remember a cousin of mine once advice me not to buy their laptop when i was planining to buy the one am using now.

They are cheap compared to the competition. It depends on what you want to use the laptop for. Acer might have some good products but I would not buy from them after the experience with a monitor I bought.

I know it is a Euorpen brand, and the reputation is not bad. But I still prefer the DEll or Apple!

Not sure why ppl keep bumping an old thread, but anyhow.

ACER a "European brand" eh? Since when did Taiwan become part of Europe??

ACER laptops only seem to be of any worth if you pay the money to get one of their high-end models; in which case you'd still be better of look at Toshiba or Dell if stepping into that price bracket.

I am a professional who travels quite a bit and puts a computer to quite some heavy use. I have had an acer extensa 5210 for two years now...It is a great hardy laptop. A friend of mine accidentally say on it once! A 180lb fella...nothing happened to the damn thing!

It has a 15 inch glossy screen with crisp clear screen. Easily downgrades from vista to XP, all components have xp drivers. Multiple card reader, firewire, wireless, bluetooth, DVD burner, empowering technology (meant for vista but works with XP), and linux (Ubuntu Jaunty Jackalope) takes off (out of the box) on this baby like jet....no extra driver installation needed at all.

When i obught it two years ago, $370.

Feel lucky. My Aspire 5512 had to be send to repair after 3 months as it got vertical stripe of lighter colour (very common with acer loose chasing), hard disk at least once a week triggered blue screen for disk scan (Acer claim that HDD is OK). Just 1 year, after manufacturer warranty expired, hinges give up (Acer examination stated inappropriate usage, excuse me??? At that point I had no scratch at all from inside or outside and hinges give up because of weak material used by company for what they been later criticized. When laptop returned from repair there been scratches, thanx for careful handling). In 2nd year network card give up, because it was part of mother board I couldn't use PCMIA card which any other product would had no problems to do therefore I had to pay hefty charge to get mother board changed. Now in the 3rd year graphic card gave up it is is part of mother board so there is no chance to just swap it.

My decision, no repair I will just sell it for spare parts. Thing to remember, never-ever-ever buy product from Acer. Amen

Hey Peter, I am really sorry about what happened to your laptop. I was planning to buy another acer extensa though, but now I am starting to have some second thoughts (seriously...). I know that the aspire serries targets the casual home user...but even then, that is a pretty poor performance. A friend of mine just bought an Aspire, it looks and feels rather fragile compared to the extensa. It is also quite a headache downgrading from Vista to XP...no XP drivers. But I guess the way things are going all note book users are soon going to be forced into Windows 7 if they still want to continue running microsoft OS.

Aspire which I got was little higher class (when I got it it cot me £700). Beside having at that time quite top notch CPU it had large disk (80GB was lot 3 1/2 year ago) and what was very good ATI X700 graphic card. It was later on that I discovered that ATI did not provide driver update for it as Acer did not sign contract like other manufacturers so I was stuck with buggy driver
So it was suitable for my studies, programming work and some random gaming...

As for your friend and choice of OS, I think Windows 7 will be better then Vista so instead of downgrading I would do upgrade. Many machines are eligible for free upgrade you should check it here. If that doesn't work for him *unix is always an option to try