Should i buy the AO751 or not? Please help

Hello to everyone!!

I would like to ask you if you think overall AO751 is a wise choice for a netbook? What are my requirements? Good keyboard, good screen, good browsing speed and smooth video watching. As i have read in most of the acer 751 reviews the biggest disadvantage of this netbook its the processor, which causes the netbbok to have a lower performance than the other netbooks. This is important for me as most of the time i travel via the train for 2-3 hours, a good netbook with smooth video watching is important for me.

To the people that upgraded to windows 7? What are your comments and reviews of this upgrade? Did it make a visible change, especially on the video watching(HD movies). I fully understand that requiements of users for netbooks shouldnt be high because the netbooks are not laptops. BUT because i wouldnt want to switch to low res movies this is important for me. Last if any of you upgraded the RAM as well...what are ur comments about that? Was it good afterall?

Thank you in advance!!

 

A lot of people are reporting freezing issues with this model along with video problems. So far I have been lucky with mine not freezing but video is a different story. I have my eye on the Dell 11z which has a better processor. From what I have been reading,there will be more options coming out for this model soon, including an even better processor and 4g of ram. You also get a free upgrade to os7 when it is released. I also think their customer service is better.

 

Is this freezing a common issue? Is it happening to the ones bought from now on? I'm also thinking on buying one...

 

I bought 1 last Saturday. It freezes. I'm about to return it to Walmart.

 

If you happen to get your hands on a 751 that does not have the freezing issue: It's a decent piece of technology. But there's a good chance that you'll end up spending a whole lot of time trying to fix it, which may work out - but does not necessarily have to. I'm happy with mine (since I actually managed to get rid of the freezing), but I would definitely not recommend buying a 751 until Acer has officially addressed the matter. So far, it seems as though the company is acting as if there was no problem at all. Also, customers trying to get help from Acer do not seem to be satisfied with Acer's actions, a lot of 751s are returned without the actual problem having been fixed.

It's sad, but at this point of time buying a 751 is like playing the lottery: You may end up lucky, but most likely your money is plainly wasted...

 

Just ordered one 6-cell/Acer 751 from Amazon for $290 (free shipping)--
have not gotten it yet--wish me luck--I really want to use ot for Skype video chat

 

I bought one last week from Comet in the UK, was a bargain at £240 for the XP version and has not given any problems.

My only upgrade so far is upping the ram to 2GB, and I have had no freeze ups and video plays back well. I tried to follow the guides on here as 720 HD was very jerky originally but after downloading PowerDVD 9 and running it once and then installing KMPlayer I have smooth playback even on 720 video.

I've had plenty of Netbooks, starting with an eeePC701 on day of release, through the 900 and 901, Msi Wind and Toshiba NB100 and performance wise the 751 doesnt seem very different.

I even run Photoshop CS3 perfectly (and with the higher resolution it's much easier to use than on the other netbooks), and I dont notice any delay when adjustments are made to images.

Perhaps having 2GB ram and only XP makes a difference, but I have been quite satisfied with the 751 so far.

 

I would not buy this machine if I had known about this freezing thing. The 15 day return policy at most retail outlets pretty much isolates them this issue because it may take a couple of weeks before you realize how horribly annoying this is.

 

751 Freezing probability is probably exaggerated in this fo

Since people who have 751 working well would not often visit this forum--they would normally only visit such a forum if they have problems--so, I expect that the fraction of 751 that has freezing problem is grossly exaggerated if you read complaints in this forum--instead of 25-50% (which these posts suggests), its probably only a few percent, or even a few tenths of percent. (at least I hope so, since I just ordered one).

 

Re: 751 Freezing probability is probably exaggerated in this fo

I also agree on this... besides there are a lot more topics of people that have no complaint, no issue at all... I would say it's below 1%

 

Re: 751 Freezing probability is probably exaggerated in this fo

Maybe the number of defective units is really low, but: As I wrote before, if you end up with a defective 751, chances are that even sending the unit in for repair may not fix the problem, in which case there's fairly little to be done (except trying out all the approaches described in forums such as this one here)... as there are a number of netbooks to choose from, I don't really see why anybody should risk buying a model that is known to have problems - even if these problems don't actually neccessarily occur on a large number of units (which is still a theory; a lot of people may simply try to get a refund instead of searching the internet for a fix...).

 

Re: 751 Freezing probability is probably exaggerated in this fo

I would pick another one, but there are no other options for the 11.6" size for the price and benefits this acer offers...

 

By now you have witnessed the sense of outrage associated with users who have found that their 751 doesn't work correctly. You might also realize that if you get one of the "special elves", you will have some serious issues in trying to get it fixed. That said, let me try to answer the explicit questions you have.

Keyboard: The keyboard is pretty good, a little mushy, but not bad. It flexes a little on some units, worse on others. This is a fixable problem if you are willing to take up the keyboard and insert a small piece of double-backed tape under the "G" key and the "P" key, just like the Gateway division of Acer did on their LT31 computer.

Screen: The screen is very nice, but has a shiny surface that can send a wicked reflection from nearby light sources (or the sun over your shoulder). Depending on the content you are watching, you may want to reduce the resolution so your system can process the image more smoothly.

Browsing Speed: Not bad with Firefox as long as you have installed AdBlockPlus and NoScript. The first cuts down the page load time and the second keeps Flash content from autoloading and stalling the system. NoScript takes some getting used to, but if you go to the same sites regularly, it will remember and you will not have to reset the defaults for the page after the first visit.

Video Speed: Depending on the video source you can get very nice video performance, but look at the other threads on this topic. Quite a number of users have had "ah hah!" moments getting the video to work the way they would like it to. And remember that the 751 does not have a DVD player.

Run Time: You want a 6-cell battery, a 3-cell battery will not meet your needs for video play time.

Windows: The fastest Windows is XP, but that said the direction of driver development will be toward the use of Windows 7, so some day real soon the GMA500 video processor will get a jump from a driver update that may not be available for XP. To speed up your machine you will need to go through your machine and turn off the background programs that you don't need. Google "Windows XP speed up" or "Windows Vista speed up" to get a better idea what I am suggesting and be sure to check several sites because some people have modest goals for system speed up, but you have to be a little more aggressive in the speed up department. Remember too that Windows 7 will not be a free upgrade for you (probably) and if you really want it the upgrade price difference might make the purchase of an Acer 1410 attractive. (did I say that out loud?)

 

I bought mine 1 week ago. I've had many freezes. It seems to happen most if I try to play back a movie in Windows Media Player. I'm lucky if I can go 1 minute before it freezes. Before finding this site I contacted Acer support. They suggested a number of fixes, none of which worked. There latest suggestion is to update the BIOS, however, from other posts it seems that does not fix the problem. I bought this machine at Costco, so I have 90 days to return. I'll wait a bit longer to see if it is fixed. If not I'll return it and probably get the Acer 1410. It is a more expensive and more upgraded version from the 751, but I've not read of freezes. If you do decide to buy a 751 I recommend that you buy it from some place with a liberal return policy.

 

I have to say that I've not had all these freezing problems - maybe just lucky. I've come from a fantastic eeePC 1000h which is a great machine. The processor on the 751 is not as good as the N270 I'm used to but for MS Office, Surfing the web etc, which is what a netbook was designed for after all, it's good enough for now. Plus the screen is WOWEEE.....

 

As long as you realize this is NOT A LAPTOP you should be fine. Ordered mine from walmart and the hard drive devoured itself on first boot. No problem, wally world will take it back for 30 days.

My model came with Vista whch it handled no problem running office and firefox no problem. Get the ffdshow codec as other posts have said which will help video performance tremendously.

Now I have Win7 loaded and it runs even better. Get driver updates from Windows Update and you should be fine. Read other posts in this forum for shutting down services you don't need.

Yeah your're going to have to tweak it from out of the box, but once you do, the 751h runs great for what it costs.

Also get a bigger battery. the 3 cell on mine only lasts around 3 hours. I found the 9 cell on eBay for around $50. The 9 cell is supposed to be good for 12 hours.

I ordered mine initially because of the screen size and full size keyboard then I read all the reviews... A lot of reviews slam the 751h on performance so I was worried but as soon as I got it and followed the recommendations of this forum I have no problems. This thing runs better than what you pay for it. But hey, if you want a great deal there are usually catches. The catch on this one is it takes a bit of tweaking and you're good to go.

Search on this forum and all your questions should be answered well. It worked for me.

 

The creator of this thread has not responded and it was their only post on the forum...

Taking for granted they've been scared off, lol...

For what its worth, I'm loving my 751. It aint no powerhouse but it has great battery life and plays all my standard def vids with ease.

What else do I like? Quick access hatches on the bottom to the RAM/HDD/WiFi and the hatches have screws with clips so they don't drop out and get lost in the carpet.

Its the best WiFi I've had. It picks up twice as many local access points than my HP 2133 Mini-Note and 3 other computers and laptops do.

The screen is magic. Anyone with Windows 7 should goto http://www.interfacelift.com and grab a host of HD wallpapers and have their desktop be a slideshow. Looks fantastic and gets many "WOWs" wherever I go.

It works 100% for my needs and its inexpensive... So 2 thumbs up from me...

 

So far, so good

Got the 6-cell Acer 751 I ordered from Amazon remarkably quickly (only about 4 days after I ordered it--what a deal at $290 with free shipping and no tax--I was told that others got it for even less a few days before --$280)--so far, no freeze up in the 10 or so hours I used it and Skype video chat worked fine --I did upgrade immediately to 2GB. Will be testing it thoroughly in the next few days --I expected to be laid up after surgery and will hae plenty of time to see whether I got a lemon or not (BTW recent comments on the "main freeze" thread seems to indicate that flaky RAM might be a source of the freeze up, and that perhaps one should stick to 533 MHz RAM upgrades--perhaps 800 or 667 MHz RAM does not gracefully run at 533 MHZ (at least as far as Acer 751 is concern).

 

I still don't get the "underpowered" arguments, yes it is a lower power processor, but it is still 1.33Ghz and in my case, with XP installed will run Photoshop CS3 without any problems.

I can edit images with the preview function set to on and there is almost no slowdown in the program. The 751 is definitely the best netbook there is for photo organising and editing. My only change from stock was to up my ram to 2gb.

 

I agree... my first netbook was an eepc 701 - then an eeePC900. They had 900 celerons in them and they ran just fine. MY previous eeePC 1000h was a 1.6 and yes the screen refreshed quicker but it would do as it was a much lower resolution!

Pound for pound the 751 is a great little machine. Yes Intel buggered the GMA500 drivers up but that seem to be better with the new W7 update release. I use it for work. Run Office 2007 on it. Show presentations with embedded flash video with no problems etc...

I think too often we love to jump on the 'what a piece of crap I bought' bandwagon without realising that what we bought is pretty much what we got.. a netbook with a great screen and adequate processor... it's not supposed to be a powerhouse laptop to compete with the 800 quid slimline Sony Vaios out there!