Problem with Acer Company (wrong specs advertised in laptop manual)

[Pyrrhus]

I bought an Acer Aspire 5610 last Christmas. I spent $975 on receipt from Staples.

Both Staples and Acer had advertised that laptop RAM is upgradable up to 4Gigs. However the laptop only recognizes up to 2Gigs.

I called Acer and they said it's not their fault. The same with Staples.

In the manual that came with the laptop it says that it can have ram up to 4 Gigs.

What is my recourse on this matter?

I have a three year service warranty with Staples.

[Frankie3s]

There's probably fine print somewhere in the manual that say's errors and omissions are not their fault or responsibility of. Doubt you will have much luck with this.

[versusqc]

Wont go in the technical explanation, but it's a limitation related to the OS being 32 bits, therefor only indexing 2 to the 32 ko(correct me if I'm wrong) of memory in total, often leaving you with 2-3go of RAM. Update to a 64 bits OS, or suck it up for now, but it's definitly not the fault of Staples or Acer

[Cronzor]

http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/000811.html

He should still be seeing more than 2 GB.. I suppose it's possible some of it is being allocated to video.

[Ojam]

Acer model numbers are confusing, but the first 4 digits is the series, and then there is a "model" of that series in the numbers after. So in this case 5610-xyxy where xyxy would be your model. There is a good chance there is only 1 manual printer for the series and the series supports up to 4gigs, not necessarily your model - plus as mentioned about about 32bit os's, and video memory.

[Blackmajik]

What does your BIOS tell you? If it shows a total of 4GB, than it is the OS and if it shows 2GB still, it is the limitation on your hardware. Maybe do a BIOS update if it doesn't show all 4GB in BIOS?

[Pyrrhus]

It's hardware limitation. Their chip supports up to 2gigs.


I think that suing them for false advertising would interest me.

[Pyrrhus]

There's probably fine print somewhere in the manual that say's errors and omissions are not their fault or responsibility of. Doubt you will have much luck with this.

Their adverts said 4gigs as well.

If I posted a laptop for sale and put core 2 duo instead of core solo people would probably delete my post. I don't see why manufacturers should be held to a lower standard.

[aggronieszka]

Wont go in the technical explanation, but it's a limitation related to the OS being 32 bits, therefor only indexing 2 to the 32 ko(correct me if I'm wrong) of memory in total, often leaving you with 2-3go of RAM. Update to a 64 bits OS, or suck it up for now, but it's definitly not the fault of Staples or Acer

Almost.

A 32 bit OS will read (and mostly use) about 3.5gb ram.

A 64 bit OS will read MUCH more.

The limitation in the computer could be a number of things:

-soldered in ram
-at the time, it was only guaranteed to work to 2gb
-limitations in testing at the time of purchase

and etcetera.

If you have 2 slots, and neither has perma-ram, I would just get a 4gig kit and check to see how much is recognized. I did this for a long time with my rigs (before going to a 64 bit processor).

Now, if you have a 64 bit CPU, get a 64 bit OS and get an 8 gig ram kit. Your machine will fly :)

[GYR8]

I found the online manual (http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/portal20.cfm?recordid=987&formid=3425&website=AcerPanAm.com/canada&siteid=7297&words=all&keywords=&areaid=17) at the Acer website. It is dated December 2005.

On page 17 it says "System memory: 256/512 MB of DDR2 533/677 MHz memory, upgradeable to 2 GB using two soDIMM modules (dual-channel
support)"
On page 20 it has "512 MB or 1 GB DDR2 533/667 MHz soDIMM modules" listed in the Options & Accessories section.

What information is quoted in your manual? Is the printing date later or earlier?
At this link (http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/portal20.cfm?recordid=1182&formid=3425&website=AcerPanAm.com/canada&siteid=7297&words=all&keywords=&areaid=17), the manual references numerous different models, including the following on page 23:
"System memory:

Aspire 5680/5650/5630/5610/5610Z/3690 Series
• Up to 2 GB of DDR2 533/667 MHz memory, upgradeable to 4 GB using two soDIMM modules (dual-channel support)

Aspire 3690 Series
• Up to 512 MB of DDR2 533 MHz memory, upgradeable to 2 GB using two soDIMM modules (dual-channel support)"

I am thinking that this is the manual you have. They made sure to indicate that the 3690 could only go to 2GB, so you will need to explain to Acer that you were misled (as were anyone else who used this information for marketing the product), based on their error of apparantly not putting the 5610 into the same category.

Now this might be a bit of a stretch, but there is a bios update available on the support site, dated December 2008. Maybe this adds support for 4GB? There is no list of what it actually changes in the bios though. Tread carefully when updating the bios, as I a merely suggesting you look into this. An email to Acer might get you the answers about the update.

Hope this helps,
GYR8