My laptop broke. Again.

Hey guys!
So I've been a bit MIA due to not having a laptop for a few weeks.
If you know me personally, then you know that my luck with laptops, really isn't that great! I mean a well known PC store and IT support company actually lost my laptop when I was in school! So it took them 30 days to realise the laptop was "missing" as well as then a fight to get replacement. You can imagine the struggle I had in school/college "sorry, I can't hand in my essay. Why? Oh because I started it, my laptop broke, then it got lost and is now probably used on the black market or somethin" Yes, I remember having a good few mental breakdowns having to re-do essays.

For some reason last year, I decided I wanted a new laptop. I have no idea why, the laptop I had was fine, but I had money and I wanted something new. I had £200 and went for an Acer Aspire notebook style laptop. Later on I realised that the 2GB RAM and 32GB Storage, really wasn't enough for what I wanted. I mean, in the end there wasn't even enough room to update Windows. So using a Windows laptop, without Windows running properly did cause a few issues! Thankfully I solved that issue by getting an external hardrive. 

Apart from that "issues" there wasn't really anything wrong with the laptop. It ran fine. That was until I decided to reset the laptop. Because I was running out of space, I thought if I reset the laptop back to the beginning, removing all my junk, then start fresh and move everything to my external hardrive, the laptop would run smoother.
I started the process of resetting it, and an "error" came up. I followed the instructions and the laptop ended up being stuck in a loop. THANKFULLY I insured my laptop with Argos when I bought it. So I called them up, which they then advised me that it is still under the 1 year manufacturers guarantee, so I need to call Acer. So they gave me their number and I called them up. After explaining what happened, they booked the laptop in for repair. This meant I had to send it off, but knowing it had tracking numbers, I didn't worry too much.
Couple of days later, laptop was fixed and back with me. FANTASTIC. I thought yes, this is great! Looking at the paperwork they gave me, it said a "main board" broke, Means nothing to me, but cheers anyway!
I loaded it up,  started to use it to find that it was stuck in an admin mode. I was confused and wasn't sure how to get out of it. Once again, I phoned Acer up and they said "just reset it, and it'll start from scratch" Which is when I explained what happened last time, so they said to send it back and they'll have a look. (thank goodness its free shipping) I got the laptop back once again only a few days later and they got it off admin mode, and put to "normal reset" in the paperwork, it also showed the "main board" failed.

So all this was last year. Now we're getting to this year. About a month ago, I decided I didn't really use the laptop, and I asked if my other half would like it for his photography. So I went to reset it and joked saying "you can have it if it doesn't break again" moral of the story. Don't make jokes.
Once again "error" but this time, I thought "no. I'm going to fix this. I'm a strong, independent woman, I don't need no IT Support" I got the ipad up and got googling! I was able to get the laptop out of its loop, and got to a troubleshoot section. I stared to think to myself "yeah boii, I've done it" It was troubleshooting and came up with "preparing windows" I was 99% confidence I've done this! That was until 2 hours later it was still "preparing windows" That's when I stuck my middle finger up to the laptop and called Acer. Explained, again, and sent it off, again
Because it was Easter and Bank Holiday, it took longer to get back, but only by a week or so. I got it back read the paperwork "faulty main board" tbh I thought it might have a few main boards, so I just assumed it was a different one gone again.
So I told my boyfriend, it's back from repair, you can have it JUST DON'T RESET IT". I plugged the laptop in to charge it and this awful noise came from it. The fans were going CRAZY. And I don't mean "I've been sat on a same surface and got too hot" fan noise, it sounded more like the PS4 when that fan gets going. I'll attach a video so you can see what I mean.

The laptop wasn't on! So I turned it on, and the fan shut off. So then I turned the laptop off, and the fans went crazy again! So within an hour of receiving the laptop back, I was back on the phone to Acet (I mean we were practically on first name terms by then" It stopped and the lady said just leave it for couple of hours, see how it goes. So I left it, turned off, unplugged and unattended. An hour later my dad came in saying "your laptop is making a weird noise" So I said, I doubt it's mine, it's probably mums on. So then my dad brought my laptop in, holding it from arms distance from him, and the fan was going crazy. The fact there was no power going into it, starting to really worry me. 

This was when my anxiety was kicking in, and I had to get my dad to take over. I phoned up Acer, asked them if my dad could take over (they were nice enough and understood) They explained to my dad what to do, to drain the battery enough so it will stop and is safe to put in a box to send back. 

So once again, it was sent off. 

The next day I got a call from Acer, saying that because this is the 3rd, possibly 4th time the laptop has broken, that depending on what the engineer says, it could be written off. So now I was getting stressed. Because last time I heard them words, my parents had to fight to get a new laptop from another company.
Couple of days past, but I didn't hear anything. So I phoned up, and got told that it was in the process for being put for replacement, and that I'll get a call back. I didn't get a call back, but I phoned the next day and got told that the mainboard did blow again, so they're going to write the laptop off. 

Another few days passed, and I got another call, this was giving me two laptop ID'S to look up. They said to go away, have a look at both models, then if I don't like the idea of any of them, they'll give me a voucher. 

I booted up the spare laptop I was using, and put in the first model. I thought "yeah this one will do, its got more ram and space" but thought i'd look at the second one too. and that's when I thought "lol no. I'm having this one" 

First of all, I had to phone Acer back up, to make sure I didn't have to pay any extra for this replacement. (The poor guy was like "umm .. no?") I told him the laptop, and he typed it in and said it'll be with you soon. 

So the laptop I had, was £200. 2GB Ram 32GB hardrive. The replacement laptop (that I'm using now) was a £380 4GB Ram, 1TB hardrive  WHAT. I was so shocked. I honestly thought they were going to say "ok, but you need to pay the excess price" But no. I just got given, this BEAST of a laptop as a replacement. 

I honestly cannot fault the Acer customer service team at all. I never had to wait too long for someone to answer the phone. There was never any problems sending or receiving the laptop. Although I had to keep phoning back about the replacement laptop (mainly because i'm a worrier) there was no issues. The staff were lovely and never made me feel "stupid" like some IT support can. 

After this experience with Acer, I wouldn't mind buying other Acer products, because I know their support team are good and efficient. 

Now I have a laptop back and a good one at that, I can start to make my PDF cross stitch patterns again! I am hoping, in a couple of months time, I might be able to start selling my cross stitch patterns, especially now I have a working laptop. Fingers crossed! 

until next time 

x