Tag: Acer

Holiday PC sales slide for first time in 5 years – Technology on NBCNews.com

~ Pharmer

Holiday PC sales slide for first time in 5 years – Technology on NBCNews.com.

It’s because they don’t work, and people have to build their own!

Your friendly Pharmer has gotten notice that the Acer computer, which hasn’t been usable since it was purchased last November 1, has been shipped from its second trip to the repair shop.   Meanwhile, this little comment  is being plopped onto the website from the wonderful PC that Pharmer assembled at home.

Getting to the meat of the top linked article:  tablets are selling like hotcakes, but the expected bounce in PC sales that usually comes with the introduction of a new operating system did NOT happen.  Windows 8 failed to inspire.  This might be due to the extra cost of  big touch screens, which are needed to bring out the features of the new Microsoft OS.  Perhaps the tablets are getting powerful enough, more reliable, and more compatible with printers, so that people don’t see so much need for a PC.

Or maybe………….. the desktops and laptops that people are assembling at home are not being  included in the count.

 

Acer Made Her Do It !!!

~ Pharmer ~ 5 Comments

Pharm readers might have been wondering about the decline in posts Down on the Pharm. The computer hard drive had been trying to die for months, and it finally did. Before it died, your friendly Pharmer (on Nov 1, 2012)  purchased an Acer prebuilt computer from New Egg. It appeared to be a good buy, with plenty of speed for office use, and lots of memory. However………. Pharmer’s luck with computers ran out. In short, it appears from all the time spent with tech help, and the need to send it in for “repairs”, that the existing operating system,  (and 2 sets of recovery disks) for this computer, were not configured correctly to work  with the hardware. The Acer was unusable from day 1, and had to be sent out for “repair” for the second time on Dec 29, 2012. This second failure was the final impetus to drive the Pharmer to build her own rig. After some quick business, buying the individual components from Tiger Direct, (not a kit),  it’s up and running,  before the ACER came back from the shop. You can see Pharmer’s first build below.  She has entered new phase of life: Geek-O-Pause!

superfast...... it SCREAMS!!!.... could probably be considered a budget gamer.
Pharmer’s First Build
Acer AM3450-UR30P (PT.SHDP2.001) Desktop PC AMD Quad-Core Processor FX-4100(3.6GHz) 6GB DDR3 1TB HDD Capacity ATI Radeon HD 4250 Windows 7 Home Premium 64-Bit
Acer’s Epic Fail

By the way…… Learn which ACER computer NOT to buy. It’s now out of stock at New Egg, but if you’re thinking about getting one of these elsewhere, build your own!

Later there will be some updates and a full description of what went into build number one, which appears to be running Windows 7 Home Premium very well on that solid state drive.