Same Old Song and Dance

[viridian5]

The Acer discs didn't fix the mysterious pop-up box or open applications problems. All it did was take away my Microsoft Office trial and switch Norton for McAfee. Acer's technical support had me wipe and restore again from my computer's factory specs so my programs are back. Now Acer is sending me restore discs that have Office trial and possible

Comments

[marasmine]

Hugs. I'm not surprised that you don't have a lot of faith in them. Fingers crossed that your friend can spot something fairly simple causing it (so it is a simple fix, not because you didn't spot it).

[viridian5]

I hope so too. So much so.

[vom_marlowe]

I don't know, but I thought I'd just toss this out there. What if you send the Acer back to PCConnections, saying that it never worked, get a refund, and try one of the Toshibas with XP instead, or another brand? It doesn't seem right that you should have to wait.

[viridian5]

The Toshibas I considered that fit my specs and price range were at newegg.com, but today I'm looking at PC Connection's Toshibas.

I'm going to have my friend take a shot at it, because returns are such a pain in the ass. If I'd gotten Gray at a store the damned thing would be returned by now, but it's an internet seller and there are some complications to boot. Lord knows how long returning Gray and getting a new computer in return would take. No matter what, I'd have to wait.

ETA: Actually, shopping at PC Connection for Toshiba cuts me down to one model that reaches my specs and is listed as having a modem: Satellite Pro A200-EZ2204X. The other two have a blank spot for their modem listings.

[vom_marlowe]

If you want me to hunt up reviews or anything, just let me know!

Yeah, asking your friend to take a whack at it sounds good. I'll tell you though that I had a computer that didn't purr out of the box and I ended up returning it because it died about six months after I got it. A real PITA because I'd finally gotten everything transferred over. But I hear you about returns--I spent literally six hours on the phone to bloody CompUSA to get them to take it back. Arrrrrgh.

[viridian5]

I'd appreciate it. This is yet another model I never saw in stores.

PC Connection really wanted to pass the buck to Acer. If my friend can't salvage the situation, I'll se how long it takes me to get satisfaction on returning it.

[kitsukatze]

Sometimes things just don't work, and you should just try getting a refund, or a new one. But for your sake I hope your friend can fix it for you.

Just a tiny anecdote:
A couple of days ago I had the weirdest of pc-problems. My CD-ROM wouldn't open or react in any way. Tried for a whole day to figure out what was wrong without succeeding. Then I got really frustrated, and smacked the tower. Then it bloody opened! Sometimes brute force or death-glares are the best of solutions.

Wish you the best of luck though.

[viridian5]

With other recent events, I really didn't need another thing going wrong. I'm already hounding my lawyer to try to get her to do what she's supposed to do....

If only brute force or glares worked on software problems!

[kitsukatze]

Isn't it typical that al the annoying shit happens at once?

Aw, sorry, had a incredibly crappy day. RL intervened.

[viridian5]

That's been 2008 for me!

No problem.

[andmydog]

Out-of-the-box software tends to be buggy. If you can get the computer to run, and get it connected to the internet, I'd do that, and then let it do all the online updates it wants to.

(Also, "you have to run the Wizard before using the full functionality of this application" has nothing to do with the functionality of the computer. Application = single program, not OS, just fyi.)

You may want to try going into Find and looking for ePresentation, and seeing if you can open and then close it from there. Your new software might just be confused, because again, new software tends to have all kinds of interesting quirks. That's what the online updates are there to fix.

[viridian5]

It had been updating Microsoft stuff throughout the holiday weekend but so far hadn't found the magic whatever-it-needs. The restore discs overwrote all of that, so I'll see what it picks up while I'm online waiting for Friday.

(I figured it was a single program. My problem is that I don't know what that program is, what's not functioning, or how important it might be.)

I turned on and flipped through some of Acer's Empowering tech stuff but haven't hit on the problem yet.

[andmydog]

If your computer is running, then it's not a big problem for right now. Also, since you have the restore disks, you can't do any permanent damage, so why don't you go into the Control Panel and Add or Remove Programs, and delete Acer ePresentation. If when you do this, it says that it can't uninstall the program because of X, then you have something specific to tell the techs about... because in THAT case, the Acer software they included has a problem. But if you CAN delete it, then it'll stop trying to run in the background, and you won't get the "please close this program" pop-up any more.

Does the pop-up for the "please run System Wizard" say what application it's trying to run?

[viridian5]

Acer ePresentation Managment is the thing closest name to it, and that manages your abilities to use the notebook to give presentations. (I could beam things from Gray up onto a wall, apparently.) It selects a mode: notebook, projection XGA, or projection normal. Because it affects the working of my notebook, I'm worried about removing that.

Do you have any idea what "HPD" stands for? One of the Acer techs I talked to seemed to have some idea what Acer ePresentation HPD was but wouldn't tell me and directed me to techs who also wouldn't tell me.

It truly doesn't say what application. It's a nondescript gray box--no X at the corner at the box to close it, no ability to get it to lead you somewhere if you click on it, no company or program identifiers I could see--that just says, "You have to run System Wizard before using the full functionality of this application" then disappears on its own. It shows up above the bottom task bar on the far right. It's useless except for worrying me.