written by on 10/01/2011
I bought the Advent 5401 for university course work and it was excellect and easy to use. Decided one day to run a anti-virus scan and during the scan the screen went blue. When i rebooted it had nothing but coloured lines. At this point it was 2 days out of warranty. Went back to PC World to see if they would do anything for me. The guy in the shop told me to **** off with it as it was out of warranty and to buy a new one on. He said they were in the business of selling not repairing. Temnporarly repaired it myself until i could afford a new one. Looking to buy an old one now to use as parts so i can try and repair my own for one of the children. Except for the graphics problem they were a very well specked laptop. If anyone is interested in selling me their old one (minus hard drive) please let me know and you can put it on e-bay and post the description here for me. sorry for it being so long. Thanks for reading.....
written by on 22/11/2010
Bought this Laptop 2 years ago, video chip on mobo overheated!! Wrote to PC World using template from www.nvidiadefect.com and was awarded a voucher to have mobo replaced. Picked up after repair (mobo replacement)lasted 2 days then went again. Returned and got repaired a second time only for the overheating problem still there - used Rivatuner to monitor. Managed to fix myself by lowering the gpu clock rates to 300/600/300 from 400/800/400 under the performance 3d settings used when playing most games. Battery depleted and missing 1GB of Ram so returned to sort these issues out, should have back in a couple days, hopefully. Will need to purchase a cooling pad to avoid any further problems.
written by on 29/09/2010
I was gobsmacked to learn I have suffered the same fault as everyone else. Two weeks after my warranty I got the 6 screens and it refused to boot normally. DO NOT BUY THIS LAPTOP, OR FOR THAT MATTER ANY OTHER ACER LAPTOP
written by on 20/08/2010
i bought the advent 5401 and after warranty ran out it went to 6 screens ,i asked about and it was the graphics card ,the nvidia card is a bad one ,after arguing with currys i got a voucher for the repair of a new or so they said motherboard £273 ,now again its gone wrong so again i rang currys customer service quoting they had sold me a laptop that was not fit for the purpose they sold me it for ,after going to the store i was told i would get depreciation against my lap top in vouchers ,its now 2 years old and they said it should last 6 years at least ,anyway i have been offered £255 and i can keep my laptop ,i suppose a winner but no more advents
written by on 08/07/2010
I want to tell you that i had the same problem the screen wasnt clear and it was in 6 parts.I could not see anything 2 technicians told me that it could not be fixed the video card is overheating and it is melted and atc and that i have to change the mainboard but i have found a way to fix it
written by on 07/02/2010
Got the same Advent 5401 fault as everybody else after 12 months.
The usual 6 little images on the display when you boot up thus not allowing you to load up Windows (thank god for safe mode to retrieve my files).
Took it to PC World 3 times to get fixed.
Begrudgingly paid £229.
First time I got it fixed the same fault came back again a WEEK later (plus for some odd reason they replaced the hard drive when all that needed replacing was the graphics chip/motherboard).
Second time I got it fixed the fault came back 3 weeks later plus they'd removed an extension bay cover and not put it back.
Third time they said they couldn't get the parts to fix it (WTF?????!!! they did the previous two times), so I got a refund of the £229 and went an bought an Asus X59GL which is SOOOOOOOOOOO much better than that piece of junk Advent.
So basically it seems this laptop definately has that common fault yet PC World never recalled it (probably so they can fleece your money to get it repaired).
Oh yeah the battery had to be replaced 3 months after I bought it.
Customer service at PC World also leaves a lot to be desired e.g. only having one member of staff to man both desks.
I did note that others there weren't exactly happy at the treatment they were getting from the staff either.
In closing two things are clear.
1. DO NOT BUY AN ADVENT 5401!
2. DO NOT BY ANYTHING FROM PC WORLD!
written by on 01/12/2009
Can't believe so many people have had the same fault.
My screen now has vertical lines it happened the day before the warranty ran out, hurrah. but I was 2 days late getting it to P.C.World and they did not want to know.
The system fan is always on and the fan speed control buton does not do anything
If the above issues were resolved it would be a good system
but have to give it a 1 as it has Pi%%ed me off very much
I recomended it to a friend his PSU went and had to get another
(That was before my troubles )
written by on 23/09/2009
i bought the advent 5401 last july and after 13 months the motherboard went due to the graphics card overheating the pc and ruining the motherboard i would not recommened this laptop to anyone as there was obviously a fault with it to start with pc world deny they ve never heard there is a fault with it
Written on: 09/10/2009
Been checking for all sorts of reasons why my year old Advent has been running running hot and very slow particularly when playing WOW which of course is highly graphical. Its not the fan not working properly - in fact the fan works fine - just running high all the time. Its not the built in redundancy that once suspects all manufacturers build into their laptops after 12 months... though I'm sure that theres an element of that. Its the graphics card. So I'm guessing sooner or later the mother board is going to go belly up and if I complain to PC world they'll tell me - 'thats technology for you'. Whatever happened to 'Fit for purpose?'
written by on 22/09/2009
i bought an advent 5401 laptop 13 months ago and have just found out the mother board has burnt out due to a dodgy graphics card been to pc world and they said lap tops can go wrong and were completly unhelpful i paid nearly 500 pound for it and am angry that they seem to think its ok to last for only 13 months i will never buy from pc world again and they should accept responsability why when you buy it they dont tell you this make and model only last 13 months is well out of order and they dont seem to care that people shell out this money for something thats so useless
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Guest's Comment
Written on: 25/07/2011
i have the same problem..how did u fix it anyway