Acer tech support
In this tech support showdown, we purchased multiple laptops to cover different categories: Cheap, Business, Premium and Gaming.In our Tech Support Showdown, we asked Acer our standard question, “how do I change the touchpad sensitivity to make the cursor faster?” We also asked one brand-specific question per laptop, with Acer’s questions revolving around its Acer Care Center function software and its AcerEXTEND smartphone compatibility software. This includes: “is there a way to check my laptop’s battery life?” for the Aspire 5; “is there a way to make my laptop’s fans quieter?” for the Nitro 5; “is there a way to back up my system?” for the TravelMate P; and “how do I set up AcerEXTEND?” for the Spin 5.
Web and social support
If you prefer to solve any issues yourself, Acer’s support website and Acer Answers (opens in new tab) are your best bet. Over the past year, Acer has added more support for Windows 11 and the always-updated Chrome OS. Plus, support comes in 14 different languages. Acer continues to update its database with more articles, including everything from drivers and manuals to warranty information and learning about product alerts and recalls. On the support site, you can find your specific laptop’s drivers and manuals by entering your SNID or serial number on the main support page. Acer Answers is great for offering solutions to general laptop problems. You can type in your question or keywords to be directed to a selection of troubleshooting pages. For example, I searched for “How do I change the touchpad sensitivity?” and got one result for touchpad troubleshooting (opens in new tab), which offered several solutions to various touchpad issues, including the one I asked. Another great function is Acer’s support software that comes on every Acer Laptop: Acer Care Center. Here, you’ll get options for checking the health of your hard drive and battery. The software also offers some tune-up functions, such as deleting junk files, initiating a disk clean or disk defragmentation, and updating and managing system recovery. Through Acer Answers, you can live chat with an Acer representative available daily from 5 a.m. to 2 a.m. CST. However, I could never get through to an agent, as the page would get stuck every time I would enter my SNID. I then tried using my smartphone, and while I could enter my question, the chat would open on a blank page. Acer’s system could be down, but this is not the right way to contact an Acer agent. It’s a good thing there’s social media. Another way to get through to Acer is via Twitter (@Acer) or Facebook (@AcerUSA). At 9:08 p.m. I messaged Acer on Twitter asking “How do I change the touchpad sensitivity?” It only took 10 minutes before an agent got back to me with a link to an Acer community support page which had an Acer YouTube tutorial about changing my touchpad settings. They even stuck around to say “You’re welcome!” when I thanked him. This rep gets top marks. As for Facebook? That’s another kettle of fish. I asked Acer on Facebook “My system is a little slow, how can I tune-up my laptop?” at 9:08 p.m. Acer replied the next day at 11:39 a.m. asking me for my email and phone number so someone could contact me. I immediately replied. I didn’t hear anything back until 5:33 p.m. when Acer tried to ring me twice, but only rang for 20 seconds. I missed these calls as I was preoccupied, and tried to ring back 5 minutes later only to be greeted with an automated message. That’s not nearly enough time to pick up a call, especially if it’s unexpectedly late hours. Good thing I wasn’t idly waiting for it. Afterward, I received an email which offered a step-by-step process of how to fix the issue…by completely rebooting the laptop. While the “Refresh your PC” option would restore my system and keep my data, this was a very long-winded and complicated solution to my question when I could simply press the “System Tune-up” option on the Acer Care Center app. It’s interesting to note that Acer now has dedicated agents that respond to users who pose questions or leave product reviews on Walmart, Target, Costco and Newegg as well as other major retailers. So, if there’s a question about an Acer laptop you just purchased, you can also go to the product’s review section to ask questions or find answers.
Best Acer laptops
Phone support
For those who prefer a more vocal walkthrough, Acer has several call center numbers to contact. Its U.S. support number, 1-866-695-2237, can be found on its main website, and is available 24/7. There’s also its UK number support number, 0371 760 1000, which is only available Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. until 6 p.m GMT. However, some laptops, including the Acer Nitro 5 and Acer Spin 5, came with a support pamphlet with a service number: 1-866-661-7100. However, there are also dedicated numbers for specific laptop categories, including 866-517-2237 for gaming, 833-417-5317 for Concept D products, and 866-506-1960 for TravelMate model notebooks Acer has call centers located in the United States (Texas), Colombia, Uruguay and India. Before any call, you’ll have to go through a virtual assistant who will ask for your laptop’s SNID — a number found under the laptop. If used before, it will recognise your number and previous SNID number, and also ask if you are inquiring about the same problem.
Acer Aspire 5
My first call to Acer’s customer support service took place at 4:20 p.m. GMT using 1-866-695-2237. After an automated message asking to dial in my Acer Aspire 5’s SNID number, It took 10 minutes and 22 seconds to connect to an agent. For my first question, I asked “How can I change my touchpad sensitivity to make the cursor faster?” The Acer representative said there was no way to change the touchpad’s speed. Of course, there is a way, so I worded the question differently and suggested my cursor was slow, and I just wanted to speed it up. Again, the representative said there, unfortunately, was no way to do this. I reaffirmed if there was absolutely no possible way to change my touchpad’s sensitivity, which prompted him to check if there was. After 30 seconds, he eventually found a way, and directed me to the Windows Start menu, to open up settings, head into devices and find Touchpad under Mouse. If I hadn’t persisted, my cursor would have been forever slow. The call lasted 14 minutes and 20 seconds. My second call took place at 1:24 p.m. GMT, using the U.K. phone number provided on Acer’s site. This time, it took 17 minutes and 6 seconds to connect to an agent. I asked a brand-specific question: “Is there a way to check my laptop’s battery life?” The agent politely put me on hold for a few seconds, and came back with a way via Windows 10 to manage my battery settings to turn on battery saver mode. It’s not exactly what I wanted, but the agent did explain how this preserved my laptop’s battery life. I then asked again if there was a way to check my battery’s health status. I was put on hold for about 30 seconds before he came back and stated my specific device, the Acer Aspire 5, did not have a way to check my battery health. On the contrary, Acer’s very own Acer Care Center comes with every Acer laptop, and lets users run a checkup on battery health by pressing “Check Now.” While the agent was polite and fast, they didn’t give me what I wanted. The call lasted 23 minutes and 57 seconds. I made a third call using the 1-866-695-2237 number at 2:47 p.m. GMT, asking the same question about battery life to see how the American number compared to the U.K. number. It took 2 minutes and 13 seconds to connect to a representative in Colombia. After asking the same question, the representative took me through the same steps via Windows 10 without mentioning the way to check my battery life through the Acer Care Center. At least using this number was a much faster way to connect to an agent. The call lasted 6 minutes and 36 seconds.
Acer Nitro 5
My next call to the Acer support service took place at 5:10 p.m. GMT. I used the number on the pamphlet supplied with the Nitro 5 laptop. It took 1 minute and 46 seconds to connect to an Acer representative, which was a lot speedier. I asked “how can I change my touchpad sensitivity to make the cursor faster?” The agent promptly directed me to type in the search bar “Mouse,” and that I could change the sensitivity there. As this doesn’t change the touchpad sensitivity, I said it didn’t work on my touchpad. The agent then quickly pointed me toward the touchpad menu and told me I could change it from there, then waited on the line until I could see the results. All-in-all, I got what I wanted. The call lasted only 4 minutes and 20 seconds. My second call took place at 11:39 a.m. GMT over the weekend. It only took 2 minutes and 6 seconds before I got through to a representative in Colombia. This time, my question was specific to the Nitro 5: “Is there a way to make my laptop’s fans quieter?” The representative asked for the laptop’s SNID, as the one I originally put (which was recognised on my last call) didn’t register. After telling the agent, he noted it was a Nitro 5, and it has a special application named NitroSense that can control my fan speed. I then asked “which is best for gaming?” The agent said to keep the laptop cool, I could turn on the CoolBoost feature for maximum speed, but it would make the fans quite loud. He then asked me if I needed help with anything else before ending the call. The call lasted 6 minutes and 44 seconds.
Acer TravelMate P
My first call to Acer support, using 1-866-695-2237, took place at 11 a.m. GMT. It only took 2 minutes and 13 seconds before I got through to a representative in Colombia. I asked “how can I change my touchpad sensitivity to make the cursor faster?” This time, even when I had entered my TravelMate’s SNID number during the automated call, the representative still asked for it. Getting through this stage took up the bulk of the call. Either way, I was asked if my laptop used Windows 10, which I confirmed along with the model of Acer laptop. He promptly navigated me toward the device settings but pointed me to Mouse. I was told how to change the cursor speed, although this didn’t work as it wasn’t for my touchpad. After about 7 minutes of the representative trying to figure out a way to make it work, from checking the hardware to clicking apply, I eventually suggested that there was a touchpad option, as it was staring at me in the face the entire time. I was told I could change the sensitivity and cursor speed from here, and asked if I needed any more help. I found the solution myself, but at the very least, the agent politely tried to find a way to make it work. The call lasted 16 minutes and 31 seconds. My second call took place at 6:35 p.m. GMT. It took just 1 minute and 50 seconds to connect to a representative in Colombia. This time I asked “Is there a way to back up my system?” The representative said I could either use a USB hard drive to transfer my files or use software such as Google Drive to store what I need. What I was referring to was the Acer Care Center’s “Recovery Management” feature, which lets users create a recovery drive if any data is lost or damaged. I asked if there was any other way to back up my data, to which the representative replied there wasn’t. The agent said if I’d like to start transferring documents now, I could call back later and they would guide me through the process of rebooting the system. It seems agents aren’t aware of the different features the Acer Care Center includes, but still offer other options to solve an issue. The call lasted just 5 minutes and 5 seconds
Acer Spin 5
My first call to the Acer support service took place at 9:20 a.m. GMT. I used the number on the pamphlet supplied with the Spin 5 laptop. It took me 2 minutes and 11 seconds to connect to a representative in Colombia. I asked, “How can I change my touchpad sensitivity to make the cursor faster?” The speaker volume was quite low, but the agent apologised and tried to speak louder for me to hear. The agent reconfirmed if I was asking to change my touchpad’s cursor speed, and then told me there were multiple ways to do this. I was told to access the Control Panel, type in “Mouse” in the search bar, click on “Mouse Click Settings” and change the pointer speed from there. I tried to no avail, stating this didn’t change my cursor speed. The agent went silent for about 10 seconds and said they would try to find another way. I reiterated that I was looking to change it on my touchpad. It then seemed to have clicked and they navigated me to the touchpad menu in device settings where I could change the cursor’s speed. The call lasted exactly 11 minutes. On my second phone call, which took place at 11:06 a.m. GMT, it took 3 minutes and 34 seconds to connect to an agent in Colombia. I asked “how do I set up AcerEXTEND?” The representative first thought I was asking about the extended warranty but I corrected the agent by suggesting it was a smartphone feature. After that, the agent explained that this was something they would have to look up on the system, which was down due to an update. I was calling on a Monday, and was told to call back on Wednesday once it had been fixed. They also said I could find help through Acer’s support website. While this is true, it made me question why they couldn’t look it up online and walk me through it, as they surely would still have an internet connection. Whatever the case, I didn’t get the answer I wanted.
Warranty
Acer supports its laptops with a limited one-year warranty, a one-year warranty for Predator notebook, and a three-year warranty for displays. However, warranties can change over time for different Acer laptops, so it’s best to check Acer’s warranty chart (opens in new tab). For example, Predator laptops manufactured before 2019 get a two-year warranty, and my TravelNote P came with a three-year hardware warranty. Note that you need to register the laptop with Acer to ensure you get the entire warranty entitlement, which can be done by creating an Acer account. All my Acer laptops came with 90 days of warranty on software, which isn’t very long. If you’re sending in your laptop to be serviced, Acer will pay for your return shipping from the Acer repair center. As part of Acer’s paid extended service plan, you get free accidental damage protection plan and on-site service plan, which cover two-way shipping from the repair center. The accidental damage protection plan covers spills, drops and cracked screens that may occur during the warranty period. As for the extended service plan, keep in mind that the extended warranty must be purchased within 365 days. If you plan to upgrade your laptop’s RAM or storage drive, know that Acer typically does not void the warranty.
Bottom line
Acer’s tech support services have seen improvements compared to last year, especially in terms of its phone support. However, the best way to reach out to Acer is through Twitter, as you’ll get a fast response with a helpful answer. I could never get through to a live chat team, which is disappointing, but could be due to services being down. I had no problems (except for my last call) getting through to a representative over the phone, with both U.S. numbers putting me through to an agent well under 5 minutes. However, Acer’s phone support team could use some touching up on the brand’s exclusive features. I didn’t always get the right answer, but if you’re persistent on finding a solution, the team will eventually find a way to solve the issue, and in a polite manner, no less. The best way to solve an issue is to find it yourself through Acer Answers or on its community support page, and if you’re after someone to speak to, Twitter is the way to go. In terms of warranty, having the ability to replace your RAM and storage while still remaining within the warranty guidelines is great, but only having 90 days of warranty on software isn’t ideal. However, a 3-year warranty on hardware for the TravelMate P business laptop is always a plus. Acer’s tech support is getting better, but still has room for improvement.
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