Acer Aspire 8930G

Ray Mullen10 August 2009

I have purchased this, my first ever laptop, and I am thoroughly impressed so far. I managed to get mine for under £700 from http://www.simplyacer.com/Acer_Aspire_8930G_638742.html with the upgrade to Windows 7, when it becomes available. The keyboard is a good size and includes a number pad which means that I can still play some old pc games on it. The quality of the Blu-ray player is excellent and combined with the screen gives you a good wide screen experience.

paulrazzell29 September 2009

so I can plug in my computer into a tv on pc system?

Thomas Martin06 October 2009

The best laptop ever. runs any game or software i throw at it with no problems. Very fast!, good looking, very reliable I would highly recommend this laptop.

Liam04 November 2009

I have just purchased this laptop for just under 1k however it is yet to arrive. I am intruiged and looking forward to the fingerprint reader that this features, and the blu-ray player is an added bonus. I will be mostly using this play games, so the 4GB of RAM, the high supply of space and hopefully a decent Gfx card will give me what i need :D The small trackpad is not a problem for me, as i play mostly at home and will be using a mouse.

Simon Ward08 November 2009

had this laptop for around a year now, never had any problems, runs games effortlessly along with internet open aswell, bit heavy to lug around all day but i use it as a desktop replacement. i was so impressed i even bought my partner the slightly smaller 6930g which i also highly recomend if your on a cheaper budget.

ConorW03 December 2009

I bought this Laptop last December. I was looking for a desktop replacement with a good enough spec for gaming and the Acer 8930G seemed to be the right fit. I was originally quite happy with the machine, the big screen is great for watching videos and the system was powerful enough to handle the newest games at high resolution. However, within 2 months of the purchase date, the laptop failed and had to be sent back to the manufacturers for repair. I received it back a month later, with a new mother board fitted. When I got it back I noticed that the USB ports were intermittently not working so it had to go back again. When it was returned (another month later) the issue was not resolved, so the laptop had to go back again. Then when I got the unit back, it failed again within 2 weeks. I returned it AGAIN, this time it got a new hard drive. On receiving it back the USB port issue had returned, so the machine had to go back yet again! I was promised a new machine from the manufacturers, but the same old machine arrived today. In the 11 months I have owned this Laptop I have had it in my possession for approximately 1/2 that time, between repairs. I have spent countless frustrating hours on the phone to Acer customer support, which is a call centre in India staffed by people with pigeon English and little or no technical knowledge. I had insisted that I want a refund or replacement at this stage, as this product is completely sub-par. However, after agreeing to send a replacement machine, Acer have reneged on that agreement, confirming that this is the standard they expect from their machines in general. I now own an untrustworthy, patched together Laptop, scarred from all the travel and repairs and this is what Acer believe I should expect after buying their "top of the line" machine? I also own a 2 year old Dell Latitude laptop, which I use for work. My Dell travels to work with me every day and gets knocked around, but has never failed me. My Acer has hardly ever moved from the desk in my spare room, but has had nothing but issues. The data loss of having 2 major system failures in the space of 6 months, combined with the hassle of dealing with this customer unfriendly company have more than cost me the value of this machine in the time I have owned it. I literally would have been better off throwing the money away rather than buying this machine.

Liam06 December 2009

I brought this laptop last dec and it was great when it works, the best laptop I have ever owned. The problem is when it goes wrong acer support is terrible. The screen on my laptop broke at the end of sep but seeing as it was still under warranty I sent it off to be fixed by a company called infoteam based in Plymouth. This is 2 months later now and after several emails from them first saying it had been fixed and I could expect it back within 5 days, that never happened. Then I was told a replacement had been sent and to wait 2 weeks for it, after the 2 weeks I got told that the agent on the phone had lied and no laptop was sent. The next lie I got told was that a full refund was being sent my way and all I had to do was phone this number, and after 40 mins on hold I got told by the guy that it was a payment department and they couldn't help me out. So at the moment its been left that I have to wait another week before their information is updated do there's no point in contacting them. For a big company their customer service is a complete joke I don't know how they can get away with it. But like I said at the start when the laptop worked it was great and I would deffinately recommend it, but I will never be buying an acer again after being messed around by them so much.

Smangle09 December 2009

heya all ive got one of these 8930g's its a lovely machine however when i got it new and burnt off the restore discs it somhow corrupted the second one i didnt find this out till i had some battery issues (vista kept saying there was no battery installed) took it to a local pc world who checked the battery and charger and said it was all ok they told me to try and restore the system to see if that worked half way through the restore the computer spat its dummy out and shut down saying the disc was currupted so i brought myself vista ultimate and installed over all the acer software after contacting acer about the issues the happily told me that the battery problem was basicaly my own fault for changing the installation software (even though it was currupt) they also told me they would have to charge me to put vista premium back on before they would look at it even though im well intitled to upgrade if i want and i already had to pay for ultimate because the stupid machine couldnt even burn a restore disc properly any one else had issues like this before id love to hear an easy fix if there is one cool smangle

Craig 14 December 2009

The Acer 8930G is a fantastic laptop, plenty of processing and graphics power for games and applications and the multimedia side is first rate. The blu-ray drive is great,the full 1080 HD screen is vibrant and a joy to watch and the 5.1 surround sound booms out the speakers better than any other laptop I have heard. Downsides are - this laptop is bulky, the 18.4" screen makes for a bigger and heavier laptop than most plus the choice of protective cases for a machine this size are limited. Also the cine-dash touch pad looks very trick but the volume is difficult to get right, it either goes too high or low or fails to recognise you want to change it at all - this is nothing drastic but can get annoying. Also the amount of needless bundled software Acer incude is far too excessive, programs that do the same thing and silly games that all have to be deleted manually because they slow everything down so much. Another minus for me was the remote Media Centre control, mine has a range of approx. 1 foot which is a joke for a remote control, I can still reach the keyboard and make changes easier. Unfortunatley my experiences with Acer Customer Support seem to be the same as everyone else that has posted a review on here - they were no help whatsoever, blunt bordering on rude and maintain that this is an acceptable range for their remote and is perfectly normal. The built in TV card is by Avermedia and the jack plug adapter which converts the standard RF aerial plug to a thin pin type connector is easily broken, mine broke a fortnight after buying it but I'm reluctant to return it to Acer after witnessing their attitude to customer service first hand. My 8930G also shuts itself down 10 minutes into playing high end PC games which I take to be an overheating issue - again I'm reluctant to put the laptop back to Acer about this matter so am putting up with it, once the warranty has expired I will get these problems looked at by an independant repairer. This is completley the wrong attitude I know and Having made a very expensive purchase of a top end notebook I should get these issues sorted by Acer but I simply have no respect or trust for Acer Customer Support. All in all though I am happy with this machine and would not put anyone off purchasing one.

Len29 March 2010

My Aspire 8930G is just five months old. Nothing but problems since day one. Cinedash control failed three times. Bio protection malfunctioned. Disk D vanished the partition has reverted to Type 12, and cannot be restored using Diskpart. Trouble with display darkening with no user intervention. Acer Arcade program vanished from machine. Latest suggestion is that I restore it to factory default, meaning I lose lots of recently installed programs.

Adam. Plymouth07 April 2010

Reading the comments below, then further down the thread, I am wondering why people are still buying Acer laptops. I know 3 other people that have had major motherboard failures and I myself had a screen fail then a motherboard. Their products are well speced but at a cost. The headline spec is always impressive with brand names, their other components are less so. They will fail. I dont mean in 4, 5 or 6 years, you will be lucky to get 3 years out of them but more likely less than that. No real axe to grind here, just be carefull, ask around, check forums. Then if you still want one, take the gamble. Whats the worst that can happen. You can always rip out the hard drive and sell it for spares on an auction site.

Andrew Price09 April 2010

I bought my 8930G last August and it still works like a dream. I will be changing from Vista to Seven soon as I had the free upgrade. I have hooked it up to a HD tv using the HDMI cable and watched Blu-Ray movies in full 1080p HD. Gamimg wise it performs better than my old desk-top pc. I have had a small problem wih the cine dash not working correctly but a quick google of the issue resulted in me removing the battery and then reconnecting it, after that the cine-dash hasn't failed since. I am going to put a new drive in when I change it to seven to make sure everything works ok, then add this drive as a second hard-drive when I am happy with Windows Seven.

Len18 April 2010

Forgot to mention in my previous post that I am missing 222GB of disk space as a result of D drive vanishing. The latest irritation is, that the fingerprint launch icon keeps popping up at the top left of the screen, even when typing. Does anyone out there know how to stop this please??? This is potentially a great computer, but let down by software problems.

Len25 April 2010

Uninstalled fingerprint launch, got rid of irritating popup. To lose 222GB of disk space with no solution is unacceptable. My next computer will not be Acer, and will be purchased from a local family run business, NOT a computer superstore.

CHRIS03 May 2010

Bought this recently for just £630 from Play.com. Bargain! Will be using it mainly as second PC at home through wireless network (working well so far), but also as an entertainment device when on holiday with 2 young kids - blurays and DVD's really play well and sound better than most laptops I've heard. Plays Skyplayer well so being able to watch Skysports in wi-fi areas will also be a bonus!

Dan22 May 2010

I bought an Aspire 8920, It was great in the begining, looks great, ran any software, watched all blu-ra movies etc but after a little more than a year some blu-ray disc would no longer play, or be recognised by the machine at all, thought it was discs at first but they work on stand alone player in living room without problem. Now i cant play any Blu-ray movie, quick look at some forums tels me this is not unusual with the drive used in the acer laptops. Will need to send macine awat to get fixed or buy a new laptop. neither option will be cheap or welcome when i thought i had a laptop to last at least 3 years,. BOO HISS to acer

Andy DruHoo03 July 2010

I'm in the market for a new, large screen (17 inch+) laptop for music, movies and surfing. I really liked the spec of the 8930G and was impressed with the reviews I have read....... until i read this lot. Thank you all for your feedback, I will not be buying Acer., probably go with a Sony Vaio. Acer... you really should be looking after your customers, but not me, I won't be one. :o)

Diederik ten Brink04 July 2010

I've had this laptop for almost a year. I've had no problems, the laptop worked fine, until a week ago. The power supply seems to be broken. My computer falls out when I play games. I've tested with OCCT, and after 5 minutes of testing it fails... I've not yet called Acer, but as I hear all these comments, I think they won't repair my laptop.

Josh18 July 2010

i bought this a while ago for less then £700, however, the disc drive does not work, so i can't play dvds or blu ray films, was just wondering if anyone knows how to fix this?

Nick Ward26 August 2010

Do not buy this machine!!! I have owned mine for over a year now and has been nothing but grief!!! Machine was fine for about 2 months then started to get really slow. Upgraded to Windows 7 which helped for a while. Then the charging circuit broke after about 6 months and was sent off for repair which took about 4 weeks!! Came back and system was telling me i need to replace my battery. So i ordered a new battery and the system would register the battery being there, but wouldn't charge it!! Thought I would try the system restore to put machine back to factory settings but this was corrupt! I then had to ordered recovery disks from acer at a cost of £50!!!!! This still made no difference so I sent the battery back as faulty, only to be sent a new one which made no difference!! Laptop is now due to be collected on Tuesday by the tech guys/pcworld to be looked at again. Its a shame as this is a great looking machine that worked well for a couple of months, but there is too many posts on the web about the same issues as I'm having, but no solutions and Acer not prepared to accept there is an issue!! Buy a brand with a uk help desk and make sure you take out an extended warranty as this would cost me a fortune had I not had it!!!

Thomas Martin27 August 2010

as you may have seen from my comment before which i wrote just under a year ago now i thought this laptop and everything about it was pretty darn amazing but that was until a child sat on it and knocked out a load of pixils on the screen which meant sending it to acer for repair. Finally after two months i got it back, fired it up and it worked fine, came back to it later and noticed that the illuminated logo on the back was not working, so i sent it back to acer again, it may have been a small detail but still it counts as being returned faulty. Got it back three weeks later /three weeks,just to replace a light bulb/ it was all working fine apart from the fact that half of the clip on panels were hanging off so i had to clip them back on, later on in the day i was on it just on itunes listening to music and i started to smell burning, i lifted up the front of the laptop and immedietly discovered that the burning smell was comming from the cpu, then all of a sudden th e whole laptop cut out and it kept trying to restart so i took the battery out disconnected it from the mains and just left it to cool down, basically the laptop had overheated and the cpu had blown, the reason, well i took the back cover off to find that the cpu fan wasnt plugged in as i knew that is was beyond repair as it looked as though the motherboard was blown aswell, i gave up and decided to ring amazon, which is where i got it from and they allowed me to send it back for a full refund nd hat was the end of my acer. So i still belive this is a great laptop but dont bother with acer repair as they are usless. But anyway i think the new laptop that should replace this laptop is the dell studio 1749 as that is the laptop that i now have and it is amazing and dell are so helpful

Alex27 August 2010

When I First Got It, It Was Fine, Perfect, But Overtime The Laptops Features Started To Become Rather Annoying, Like The Finger Print Scanner That Is Placed Right Between The Touch Pad Buttons, Which Starts A Programme Every Time You Put You Hand Anywhere Near The Touch Pad, So I Uninstalled It Along With Some Other Useless Stuff That Is On There, And I Have A History With Acer As Whenever I've Bought Anything Of Theirs, Something Have Been Really Naff, My Sisters Acer Laptop Overheated Even When Was Well Vented And My Charger Has Stopped Working... Twice... It Isn't The Charger, It Is The Plug In The Screen Hinge, I Don't Recommend This Laptop If You Like To Regularly Use A Laptop

Pedro 'Giggidy' Gadget Show17 October 2010

I have got this laptop for £635 from play.com. It's full HD screen is simply amazing and has a very high brightness (helpfull for keen gamers like myself). Just to mention, for any gamers out there, it runs Call of duty: Modern Warfare 2 in the highest possible graphics settings without any lag at all! This is amazing and very unexpencted from a mid-range laptop! By Peter McCall

Anonymous21 October 2010

wow what an amazing laptop i love just looking at it

lolarnn26 February 2011

In businesslike indoctrination, lore by teaching designates currently the method by Jean-Pol Martin that allows pupils and students to prepare and to teach

Vik Iyer02 June 2011

Very similar reaction. I think it is a great laptop but for the the second time, the PC is not charging up, assuming that the charging circuit has gone once again. Utterly pathetic beyond belief - they probably get away with it because they price very well and maybe because enough of the PCs do work. No question that there are many of us getting screwed though. I did not take extended warranty because I was not convinced Acer's service would be up to much and comments seem to back this up. Not as many problems as others but I am out of work right now and so angry that it has broke again.

Brian08904 July 2011

whats the Battery Life LIke Anyone

Aukmune01 September 2011

I have an Aspire8930G Duo P8600 Nvidia GeF 9700M and I wish I didn't. My wife bought it for me just over 2 years ago it cost her a pretty penny as she had to get it through her catalogue, if I had known the problems I was going to have with it I would have chosen a different one. Two months old and it crashed (yeah I know I should have returned it but the 8930G was no longer available and it IS a half decent laptop when it works ) nothing I could do would get it to reboot and I know enough about computers having built and maintained my own desktops for ten years. An hour on the phone to Acer support talking to a man who treated me like a complete dunce got me nowhere, eventually he said ''You'll have to send it to the repair center in Plymouth I'll email you the details '' DOH!!!! Anyway I got the address and sent it away, now I had been told I would be getting a phone call telling me what the problem was but it didn't happen so after a week I called the support number I'd been given and was transferred to BILLING ...what ? Basically they had gone ahead and 'repaired' the laptop without informing me as to the problem so I asked to be transferred to the repairs dept , after a bit of insisting on my part I reached the tech services dept who told me it hadn't been repaired yet according to their records . I referred him to billing saying it had, anyway he said call again in two days so I did to be told that the problem was MY FAULT as I had installed a PROGRAM, err yeah AV and CC and my Photo programs, but they had repaired/restored it so I was sent back to billing . They then held my laptop to RANSOM saying I couldn't have it back unless I paid them £65 I told them I hadn't given permission to repair it and as it was only a few months old I was going to return it to the seller, no no no couldn't do that as they had repaired it, so I had to pay there and then on the phone giving my bank details to someone I didn't know . When it came back it was, in my opinion, in a disgusting state oily fingerprints all over the screen and case and had a couple of scuff marks on the lid , I was not happy but I had a workin laptop so I bit my tongue and got on with using it. I look after all my all my gear properly, keep it clean physically and don't let it get clogged up with crap, install and remove properly when necessary, run the AV and crapcleaner and spybot regularly. It has never had any problems with viruses etc. Sometime later I had a mail from Acer saying I could have an upgrade to Win7 so I sent my £12 off and got the install discs woot woot, that was a nightmare in a bag it took me 3 attempts to install each time having to reinstall from the Vista recovery discs before Win7 as it was an UPGRADE to Vista . From the moment I got 7 to install I began having minor problems half the original Acer stuff was missing including the FingerPrint Recognition eventually I managed to get some of it working with help from t'internet warriors workarounds and I was happy enough although I've never managed to get the FPR working. Then 6 months or so back I started having problems with the battery/AC connection , which ever wazzack designed it with the power input as part of the hinge mechanism is a prat as it seems to have a loose connection ? Now I am having problems with the battery charging sporadically sometimes its ok then all of a sudden it will bleed power like a stuck pig , it has a mind of it's own as to whether it will charge up or not it says its full 100% then it shuts down and the battery shows empty on rebooting ,It says its recharging but the icon doesn't fill up. I have been all through battery management , tried everything I have found on the tech forums and still I am having problems. My last resort was to remove the battery and run on AC power only and at the moment I am searching for a replacement battery but as I am no longer able to work through illness money is tight so I will have to save a bit of cash somehow. When I runs properly it is a very good laptop the bluray player is excellent ,screen res is fantastic for films and photos but the sound is poor. It has good storage capacity althoug with the problems I have had everything is now on USB storage just in case, it never runs too hot, plays topspec games and programs and I have to say it multitasks brilliantly but when it goes wrong the support and help from Acer is **** RANT over... but I will NEVER recommend Acer and I will NEVER buy any of their products again and I have told Acer as much, their reply to me on the phone ''OH OK SORRY ABOUT YOUR PROBLEM BYE ''

SamuelCharman24 October 2011

You have given this laptop a completely wrong review it is just a bunch of problems as u can see.

dan27 November 2011

Iv had this laptop about 3-4 years. It was the best bang for your buck. On vista it sucked, I lied by a few weeks concerning my purchase date and made myself eligible for a £12 windows 7 upgrade. It now operates twice as fast and three times more reliable. It had around 2 hours run time in the first year, was very impressive looking, easily hooked up to a 50 inch tv and had a nice sound for music playback. (you need to reduce the front centre speaker to trick the system into boosting the bass signal or it sounds tinny like every other laptop) The blue ray player is a right pain and only seems to work well with power dvd 10. Dont rent dirty blue rays as they wont play due to being so sensitive. Acer used the wrong plastic to cover the IR Remote sensor. As standard the remote will work no more than 2 feet from the laptop making it pointless. Once it was out of warranty I used a very short small drill to put a hole in the plastic giving a range of 20-25feet now. My power jack also failed and had to modify the jack to redirect the negative power down the body of the hinge. You can just repair the broken wire in the hinge but it will break every month there after. It has now run for years without charging issues. So this has been a nice sturdy laptop in general but if your buying an old one give it a good check over concerning these common issues. My main gripe is the battery now misreports remaining charge and shuts down after 40 mins and then runs for another 40 mins saying 0% before it goes click/black screen. Yes iv calibrated it but windows 7 seems to have an issue of some sort. When I boot into vista it reports around 1hr correctly. I bought a replacement but it didnt charge due to some chip mismatch so il have to try and rebuild the pack myself. It comes apart easily and am just looking for a good deal on 18650 lithium cells. Iv made an external lifepo4 battery pack with cigarette lighter power adaptor that runs for 16 hours and has served me well on camping trips. Im glad I bought this laptop but its not perfect by far