Hardware Review: Acer Aspire 5610z

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 03/19/07 at 05:03:30 am

I picked up a new Acer Aspire 5610z Notebook about a month ago now. When I purchased it I briefly posted my initial thoughts of the laptop, however I noticed an extreme lack of real reviews about this notebook around the internet. I thought I would jot down a few more notes about the computer to maybe be of some use to potential buyers.

First off, the 5610 is a great notebook for the price; I got mine for about $750.00 US at a local retailer. I’m the last person you would see buying a major piece of hardware at a retail store but for the specs this thing has I really couldn’t pass


up the good price. The configuration I purchased has the 1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo processor, 1 GB DDR2 memory, 120 GB HDD, DVDRW, and 15.4 Widescreen Acer CrystalBrite™ display with the Intel GMA 950 integrated graphics. It has built in 802.11g, Bluetooth, modem, media card reader, and a slick rotatable webcam at the top of the screen. The notebook was preloaded with Microsoft Windows Vista – Home Premium.

I wanted to get what really bothers me about this laptop out of the way first. It’s cheap, and I’m not talking the price… The quality of the plastic on the 5610 is disappointingly cheap quality, and the key word there is plastic, unlike many modern ultra-portables there is no fancy aluminum or titanium to be found on this rig, its 100% plastic.

The plastic isn’t very well put together either, on my 5610 I was sad to find slight warping from the right to left side of the mouse pad area, It goes up at a slant… it’s not oblivious but now that I know where it is I can see it a mile away. Also, the plastic on the left side of the notebook doesn’t line up perfectly, again this is barely noticeable from any normal angle of viewing, but I expected better. The clips for the LCD on this notebook are very strong and secure, too strong in fact. The clips actually pull the center of the screen down and the rest of the notebook, namely the edges are not securely fastened, again causing a slight warping when the notebook is closed. When open, very little if any warping in the plastic is to be seen, but it still concerns me.

While we’re on the subject of cheap build quality, I’ve had the laptop for about 4 weeks now and the paint around the edges of the keyboard trim is starting to ware and chip, again barely noticeable, but it’s only been 3 weeks. I was tempted to RMA the laptop due to these little cosmetic issues, but because none of this affects the runability of the laptop in any way, I know Acer won’t be able to do much for me. Also, the weeks to months of wait time for the RMA wouldn’t be worth it.

The laptop is light, very light in fact at about 6.5 pounds. I know that wouldn’t be considered ‘Ultra-Portable’ by any means with the 4 > Lbs laptops running around out there. However for a person like me who lugged around an older Dell Inspiron 5100 desktop replacement that was nearly 10 pounds, the 5610 is a lifesaver on the back. It really doesn’t feel like 6lbs, it’s light.

The performance of the 5610 is impressive, even with the not-so-great Intel GMA 950; it runs Vista’s Aero glass without a hitch. Because Aero looks so nice, I have all of the bells and whistles turned on with it, I can’t help myself. Unfortunately due to the little time I have and the fact that I use this laptop primarily for business purposes, I have had a chance to run any games on it. I do know that Vista is an extremely demanding operating system, and it eats up a good amount of the memory on its own, so my guess is that this thing won’t do great if you’re looking to play modern or graphically intense games on it. But for all of the apps I’ve ran on it, I haven’t noticed any performance issues at all.

Getting back to the hardware itself, namely the LCD display on the laptop, I must say it really is stunning. I knew that Acer made great displays and the 5610 is no exception. The 5610 features Acer’s CrystalBrite™ technology, which in other words is the really glossy type of screen that’s also seen on some of the Sony and Toshiba notebooks. The glossy finish of the screen, combined with the solid resolution really puts on a show with the crisp visuals. It would appear that the glossy screen would scratch easily, but surprisingly I haven’t had any issues as of yet.

The built in webcam is really neat, I’m not sure how often I will actually use it but I guess it could be nice to have. The laptop also has everything else you would expect built into it, as I mentioned before it has a nice media card reader on the side which will be useful for getting stuff off my camera, it has a modem I will never use, 4 USB ports, S-video, VGA, PCMCIA, LAN, and ports for audio, WLAN and Bluetooth switches on the front. It doesn’t have legacy ports such as LPT1, a lot of the rear of the notebook is used for venting and such with the sides being used for a majority of the ports, the DVDRW takes up most of the right.

Initially I thought the slight warping issue the laptop had was due to some heat related problem, and that’s why I didn’t notice it when I purchased it. However the laptop shows no signs of getting significantly hot, let alone even real warm. The notebook’s slightly slanted design and thick rubber feet allow it to be slightly raised in the back, when combined with the amount of venting the 5610 has, I can’t see any heat issues happening with normal use.

Moving back to the part I should have started this review with, the packing, documentation and bundled software… The notebook came well packed, as expected. It came with a couple books including a traveler’s warranty, just in case you want to send it in when away from the home I guess. The laptop actually had a surprisingly low amount of bundled vendor junk. I think there was only a trial of Norton’s Internet Security and some AOL thing. It also comes with an Acer utility for managing wireless, video, and backup. Most of it I ditched right away, except for the backup utility which came in useful. Like most modern computers the laptop didn’t come with any operating system or even restore disks of any sort. However, the backup utility that comes on the Acer allows you to very easily create factory restoration DVDs.


There you have it, a full review on the Acer Aspire 5610z Notebook Computer, with 4075 configuration. The performance, and feature packed sleekness of the 5610 make it a great notebook for development and business use. It’s definitely a great laptop for the price, despite some surprisingly poor build quality issues I would say it’s still worth looking into. I personally take very good care of my equipment so I don’t expect any problems to come from its minor imperfections, but if you’re looking for a more solid desktop replacement that you can slam around and accidentally drop onto something, the 5610 isn’t the laptop you’re looking for.

118 Comments »

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  1. I myself just bought the Acer Aspire 5610Z for my business (First notebook purchase). So far im quite happy with the notebook. I already upgraded the ram to 2 gigs. Like you said, I did notice the plastic is very thin and flexable. But for what im going to use it for, its perfect.

    Very good review.

    Comment by Shawn — April 14, 2007 #

  2. I purchased the Acer Aspire 5610z from wally world. I have loaded games such as need for speed carbon, c&c generals and a few others. Its not impressive gaming performance by any means but it is tolerable. If you are a gamer I recommend sticking to a desktop pc. have a nice day.

    Comment by Andy — June 2, 2007 #

  3. Yeah, I have a dedicated gaming rig that I use at home. As I mentioned in the Review I use this exclusively for business. I’ve gotten used to it’s little quirks, I’m overall happy with it.

    Comment by Mark Langenfeld — June 2, 2007 #

  4. i need all acer aspire5610z driver

    Comment by lxb5644 — June 10, 2007 #

  5. i wish i had seen this site sooner. i have purchased two of the acer 5610z laptops. the number lock locked down on the first one. since i am a new user, first computer- i thought it was something i did wrong so stupidly bought another. the orbi-cam doesn’t work, on either. i reinstalled several times. it works for a few minutes, them error mess. says no camera detected. uninstall and reinstall. same thing. pci flash driver defective? i can’t even find out what that is. i’ve been all over microsoft and acer websites w/no luck. i know its just a matter of time. why? i really wanted this particular model, love the screen, love the design. love the price, altho its cost me twice, can’t find original receipt so no hope of getting warrenty service + prob take forever and it is probably stuff i did wrong, real question is, can i fix the stuck numbers lock myself, does anyone know how. thx feel better now. lena

    Comment by lena c baum — June 12, 2007 #

  6. You can’t get the Num Lock to turn off? On the notebook you have to press and hold the ‘Fn’ key and then press the key that says ‘Num Lock’ to turn it on and off.

    I haven’t had any issues with the OrbiCam yet, then again I’ve only used it a few times since I’ve had the notebook.

    Comment by Mark Langenfeld — June 13, 2007 #

  7. I have purchased a Acer Aspire 5610z.The price I feel was competertive and the laptop look good and works well.I use my computer for work and use the web cam great machine. However I do not play games so am unable comment on it as a game machine. Well done acer!! and a great review by Mark.

    Comment by Rob Woolliscroft — June 17, 2007 #

  8. I just purchased this model from CompUsa for $399 AR. It was a close out deal. In fact they had sold out and this was the store display. They even sold me the system for the $399 without me having to mail in a rebate. I will get it tomorrow after they prep the system. My only negative thought is that it come w/ Vista Basic and 512 of ram. I did buy the warranty protection from CompUsa. I really dont like the idea of mailing it away for service and to go without for several weeks.

    Comment by Jeremy S — June 21, 2007 #

  9. It doesn’t sound like the same configuration. The 5610Z with the 4075 configuration has 1GB of ram and Vista Home Premium installed..

    Comment by Mark Langenfeld — June 22, 2007 #

  10. I just bought the 5610z from Walmart for just under $700 and extended the manufacturer warranty for 3 years for $69. Am deciding between this and an HP DV6325US from Office Depot for $700 after mail-in rebate.
    any ideas?
    thanks,
    rj

    Comment by Rachel Joselson — June 28, 2007 #

  11. I have a 5610Z that i got from Best Buy, I love it except the card reader will not work, it says it needs drivers and ACer has yet to help me out, Besides that I would have to say tht it handles my games and appz very well.

    Comment by Sean Rosenfeld — June 29, 2007 #

  12. just took mines out of the box, ebay unit cost me $497.

    Comment by Bob Shipman Jr — July 3, 2007 #

  13. i need acer aspire 5610z modem driver

    Comment by qaisar — July 19, 2007 #

  14. post me link or driver for acer aspire 5610z modem

    Comment by qaisar — July 19, 2007 #

  15. post me on qaisarkhalil@hotmail.com

    Comment by qaisar — July 19, 2007 #

  16. I just got the 5610z with the 2 gigs of ram and the 160gd drive from wally world…($698) I like the laptop so far, my drives came split into 2 80gig partitions, which I don’t like. Also no true recover dvd for vista and drivers is not so great either. Guess I will be trying to figure out how to create it with the built in version.

    Comment by Jeff — July 19, 2007 #

  17. i have got a problem with my web cam (orbicam )error is appcrash,Problem signature:
    Problem Event Name: APPCRASH
    Application Name: Acer OrbiCam.exe
    Application Version: 1.0.0.13
    Application Timestamp: 4599d570
    Fault Module Name: Acer OrbiCam.exe
    Fault Module Version: 1.0.0.13
    Fault Module Timestamp: 4599d570
    Exception Code: c0000005
    Exception Offset: 0000241c
    OS Version: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
    Locale ID: 1033
    Additional Information 1: 53f1
    Additional Information 2: 8c9a7099739e72b202d81fbbfedf4d62
    Additional Information 3: 8567
    Additional Information 4: 74ee16ca54817395e7d34e8ca1e6c8ee

    Comment by flavian rodrigues — July 23, 2007 #

  18. I would forward that information onto Acer’s Support.

    Comment by Markus Langenfeld — July 25, 2007 #

  19. Good day!i bought my acer aspire 5610z a month ago and i have a question about bluetooth device.it hasn’t got bluetooth module though, where can i buy bluetooth module?thx

    Comment by Robert — July 29, 2007 #

  20. MY ORBICAM KEEPS STATING IT HAS PROBLEMS BOOTING FOr USE.I HAVE TRIED EVERYTHING TO CORRECT THE PROBLEM. iT KEEPS SAYING WAIT WHILE IT CHECKS FOR A SOLUTION BUT CAN NEVER FIND ONE. HAS ANYONE ELSE HAD A PROBLEM? Please Help. Cannot figure this out.

    Comment by Jon — August 4, 2007 #

  21. I ought mine 2 weeks ago and so far very happy I don’t play games on it…
    I do have a question though. I read that it has a built in web cam??? Am i missing something?? I don’t see it? Please can someone explain?
    Thanks
    Val

    Comment by Val — August 5, 2007 #

  22. It has a built-in Webcam on some configurations. Not every 5610 or 5610Z will have webcam.

    Comment by Markus Langenfeld — August 5, 2007 #

  23. what about my problem??help plzz

    Comment by Robert — August 5, 2007 #

  24. I’m assuming you can buy the bluetooth module directly from Acer at http://www.acer.com

    Comment by Markus Langenfeld — August 5, 2007 #

  25. I had problems with my orbicam as well but once you remove your pictures from the picture folder and place the into a seperate folder, it works again! Crazy but it’s true.

    Comment by lucia — August 6, 2007 #

  26. i have problem with the orbicam application. the webcam works in msn and yahoo messenger but the main application doesn’t. i downloaded a driver which is not compatible with my notebook and it made things worse. so i uninstalled it. and when i uninstalled it, the program was all removed (the orbicam application) but the webcam works still in msn and yahoo messenger. what should i do to get the application back? thanks in advance!

    Comment by Claire — August 8, 2007 #

  27. hi, I had a problem with my orbicam. After I installed it from driver cd and has detected the camera and is functioning, after clicking the DONE button the camera is not Automatically opens. I go to desktop icon and click the orbicam it is said that it is not working properly or not connected. I tried everything checking it on my system hardware but it was’nt there particularly in the Imaging Devices. I’ve only got USB Video device hardware in the Imaging Devices but not seen any of installed ORBICAM. Is that on the driver? My cam? But it is working when i use the USB Imaging Device. Do I have to uninstall this so that the ORBICAM will function?

    Comment by mike — August 9, 2007 #

  28. I have the Acer Aspire 5610z. I have had nothing but problems with the webcam. I was happy to have the cam due to being away from family.

    However, its only worked a few times and all I get is error reports. I wish I would have found this out before day 15 when I could have returned this.

    The people at acer were not helpful at all! They just keep suggesting I backup the entire laptop and reload as if it were the first day I bought it.

    BTDT it doesnt help! Not sure what to do now..any suggestions?

    Comment by Angelina — August 9, 2007 #

  29. I bought my 5610 Acer last month at compusa for $750 on their deal. I was researching it for a while before and new there was nothing better on the market for the price. It came with 2gb memory (the cheapest laptop to do so and a board that supports 4Gb memory so you can upgrade in the future (the 2bg dimms are too expensive now).
    It is Plastic after owning a Sony before i can see build quality issues. The price hpwever means a yearly upgrade is possible unlike other machines. I have had no problems with the camera and found the Acer installed software easy to use. I found this out after is stupidly erased the quick launch keys from the start up applications.
    My only issue is getting my Bluetooth turned on.
    I am trying to fix that today.
    For drivers go to http://drivers.softpedia.com/get/Other-DRIVERS-TOOLS/Others/Acer-Aspire-5610-Bluetooth-Driver-5011500.shtml

    Comment by Bruce — August 10, 2007 #

  30. correction.
    I bought my laptop at best buy. It was cheaper than compusa. running around the stores they all look the same these days.

    Comment by Bruce — August 10, 2007 #

  31. Hi,

    Got the 5610 as well for work. Usually use PS2 for games but do you know what games it could play (RPG) ? I know the graphic card is a bit of a problem…
    Thanks for your help

    Comment by Stephan — August 17, 2007 #

  32. The problem isn’t really the hardware it’s the OS. Windows Vista is extremely demanding to where playing games on the 5610 would be hard to do, if you were running XP I would say the notebook would be able to run WoW or Battlefield fairly easily.

    Comment by Markus Langenfeld — August 17, 2007 #

  33. please check the full acer notebook drivers and applications…i hope this will help all acer notebook users to their problems…enjoy!ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/

    Comment by froilan — August 18, 2007 #

  34. i just bought my acer aspire 5610z a few months ago and found out that this notebook works perfectly aside from the webcam issue. what i did to resolved the problem was: uninstall the driver and software which is pre-installed to your notebook, then install the acer orbicam bison driver ver. 6.96.0.12a then install the acer orbicam application (bison) 5610. you can download these software in ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/ my webcam work perfectly even using other chatting application like paltalk. Please note: Do not download and install acer orbicam (logitech) driver and application. this is only for XP users thanks.

    Comment by froilan — August 18, 2007 #

  35. I bought one of these off ebay a while ago. It is a good pc, but yes, the plastic casing seems shotty at best. When I lift the notebook up I can feel it flex under its own weight, which as mentioned, is not much weight at all.

    The performance has been acceptable for a laptop. I am a PC gamer and if your looking for a gaming notebook, go elsewhere. I can play my Final Fantasy XI game on the laptop without too much trouble, but this is not really a resource intesive game. If I play Warcraft 3, it will play for a while typically but eventually the intel memory share will cause the system to crash and auto reboot. This happens literally every time, sometimes in 20 minutes, sometimes faster.

    I have loaded a bundle of other software on the computer and it has run fine. Things like photoshop and MSoffice ‘07.

    One thing I really dislike about the software is the wireless networking. It can be tedious and aggrevating. It often needs resetting and rebooting. I really don’t like acer’s additional software for the wi-fi connect. It takes a REALLY long time compared to other laptops, and can be very frustrating. Other than that the card reader on the PC came inoperable, but I really never use it so it hasn’t been a problem for me. Over all I would give this machine a 7 out of 10. It is very good for the money but casing is cheaply made and some aggrevating software bugs.

    Comment by Trevor — August 20, 2007 #

  36. I bought my acer aspire 5610z about a month ago, I’m happy pretty happy with its performance. However, the plastic on the left side, above the speaker isn’t flush like it is on the right side. Also, i keep the laptop on a desk, and still have problems with it getting rather hot overnight, especially when the lid is closed. Anyone else have similar problems, or suggestions to keep it cool?

    Comment by Toby — August 23, 2007 #

  37. Hey guys,

    I bought My 5610z a few weeks back at WalMart for $698 and also bought the upgrade protection from WM for $69 bucks. I am a DJ and needed a new Notebook for the Clubs and Weddings as I am 100% Digital mp3’s. I loved it so much after a few days, for the price I went back and bought a second one for personal use. Mine is dual core intel processor 1.73 ghz, 533mhz 160gb C/D drives and 2 GB DDR2. No problems with anything yet, and I have used the webcam on both computers. No issues. The only thing I can even think of that was a small dissapointment is the internal speakers. Not great quality, however for what I do, I use an external Controller with 2 soundcards already aboard. The 2gb DDR2 is GREAT.

    Comment by Fox — August 27, 2007 #

  38. i bought my laptop 5610z for $698 last week (Sept 2007).
    The internal microphone was really poor when recording my voice. Also noone could hear me when doing webcam on MSN. I took the machine back to store to get it replaced with another 5610z.
    Had the same problem with the second machine.
    I can record on the internal mic but when you play it back there is a lot of hiss and background noice and your voice is really low and noone can hear me on MSN still. I’ve tinkered with all the volume controls (line-in etc.) but no success. Acer support have been no help at all.
    Has anybody else experienced this internal mic problem ?
    I’ve now had the machine 3 days and the speakers have now stopped working too !
    This notebook has been a nightmare.

    Comment by mike — September 14, 2007 #

  39. Hi, my gateway desktop has recently been fried, and im in the market to buy a laptop. Is there anything else (for the price) better than this laptop. The one im looking at is the one from walmart with dual core intel processor 1.73 ghz, 533mhz 160gb C/D drives and 2 GB DDR2. Im not paying for it, so the price is important, but I want a decent computer and im tired of being gipped. I mainly use my computers for downloading videos and music to put on my ipod via limewire. Is this system good for that use? Thanks

    Comment by Charles — September 15, 2007 #

  40. i bought mine a month ago and this past weekend my media reader thing stopped working. it plays absolutely no discs. this is sad since i bought it basically to be my entertainment system while at university.
    quite disappointing. even more so disappointing is the fact that acer and the place i bought it from dont seem to care.

    Comment by alison — September 20, 2007 #

  41. i have the 5610z. love it. need drivers try downloads.com and look for them. good luck

    Comment by noah — September 22, 2007 #

  42. Hi.. i have my ACER 5610 for almost half year already and so far so good no problem at all.. but i’m just wondering if it can upgrade to 4GB cuz .. i upgrade it with 2GB at 667… and i load a lot of softwares on it.. but it still run fast but i just wonder if it can handle 4GB of Ram at 667… thanks…

    Comment by Johnny Tran — September 23, 2007 #

  43. The moving all the pictures to a new file trick, worked for me as well. The web now works fine.

    Comment by Dave Mitchell — September 27, 2007 #

  44. I bought this as my first notebook to replace my desktop and to be able to take my computer with me on business trips. I love it. I have not had any warping issues, no issues that have to do with the Acer part of it at all. My only issues have been the Vista. I play World of Warcraft and Everquest on it and don’t have any issues at all, super smooth and low load times. I will be upgrading the ram as soon as I can but that is just because I enjoy having plenty of ram to run my games. I would definitely buy it again without hesitation.

    Oh and one of my favortie things about it…

    It didn’t come with all the extra crap you get with HP and Compaq and such. There is no preloaded AOL and other stuff to bog it down.

    Comment by Julie Ridley — October 7, 2007 #

  45. Got it yesterday in Walmart for 698$ and very happy with it… no issues with camera or mic, i’ve been using Skype an everybody saw/heard me just fine… 2GB of RAM rock!
    Great value for this price

    Comment by Alex G — October 8, 2007 #

  46. I seen that they had doubled the RAM since I bought the notebook. Makes it an even better deal.

    Comment by Markus Langenfeld — October 10, 2007 #

  47. Bought the Acer Dell went bad for me about 1 1/2 after I bought it. I needed a eplacement asap so I bought this Acer 5610 downloaded the new windows vista now the webcam doesn’t work. I downloaded some drivers the webcam comes up but I can’t seem to get a picture…Please Help

    Comment by Janice — October 12, 2007 #

  48. am trying to locate my obi webcam so that I can place a short cut on the screen but I couldn’t find it. and also trying to find the driver for the PCI flash memory (acer aspire 5610z)

    pls help me

    Comment by zheboo — October 15, 2007 #

  49. i bought my acer a few months ago refurbished, and it still works like a dream. the plastic doesn’t bother me because i use it at my house only. if you plan to use it elsewhere (work and such) then i would suggest possibly looking at a better built laptop such as an apple or something with a hard plastic coating. Or,if you can, just take all the boards and circuits and transfer them into a different framing, because let’s be honest, the specs are pretty good and you shouldn’t be needing another computer for quite a while.

    all in all, this is a very good notebook and i am pleased to be an owner.

    Comment by Gabe — October 16, 2007 #

  50. got mine at offic max for $599, only 1 gig ram (2 512mbs), and Vista needs 1.5, but OfficeDepot this week has a 2 gig module for $79.99, ther than that it is great value for the low bucks,,,looked around for a bit and no other laptop had a webcam , 160 gig HD at his price

    Comment by phil — October 22, 2007 #

  51. Hi Pals. Regarding this Acer Aspire 5610, i just got mine 2 months ago and it has started giving me headaches already. I am already regreting why i bought it.
    After i purchased mine, it didnt show any sign of problem not until one night after using it and shuting down as usual, the next morning, i tried to put it on and it went hanging up.
    I restarted it and it didnt come up again. I wonder what was happening not until i discovered that it wont come up anymore.
    Then one afternoon after about a week or so of the temporary crashing, i just put it on and there it was loading as if it has never experienced any problems before. It only worked for about 7 minutes and it went hanging again and didnt come up for another three days. Then luckily for me, i plan to format the whole C Drive by pressing ALT F10 to reset the whole system… It worked quiet ok for some hours then all of a sudden, it went completely dead uptill now.
    Please, if there is anybody with a reliable solution out there should please help me out. my email address is slownflown@yahoo.com.

    Best Regards to all.

    Comment by slownflown — October 30, 2007 #

  52. i bought my acer this summer, my first laptop purchase. i am pretty pleased with it, except for a few things. the mouse left and right buttons are kinda cheap. they tend to stick a bit, but i mostly use the tap feature on the mouse pad itself. the speakers could be better. i have to use an exterior speaker to watch movies on trips. or use headphones. it’s a bit heavy for toting around all the time, but i guess i can build up my muscles this way. but the main problem i’m having is internet connection. i have trouble connecting even in my own home with my dsl modem. i see there is a place for some sort of pc card. can i use this for a booster for stronger internet connection capability? if someone knows a good one to use, please let me know. i find sometimes if you ask other users, you get a more qualified answer than checking with the manufacturer. it would be really nice to be able to use the internet on my laptop anywhere in my own home wirelessly. thanks.

    Comment by lori — October 30, 2007 #

  53. Please, anyone with urgent solution should give me a quick reply via my email slownflown@yahoo.com

    Comment by slownflown — October 30, 2007 #

  54. Sounds like a software problem to me slownflown, your description of the problem is vague at best.

    Try a forum, or call Acer, stop spamming my blog.

    Comment by Markus Langenfeld — October 30, 2007 #

  55. Thanks a lot Markus, i am also thinking it is a software problem. I have tried everything i know. I contacted acer and they said that it should be a problem from the mainboard. I really dont believe them. If it is a mainboard problem, then why does the laptop come on at time and freez up again???? or why does the batter charge and discharge? I am surprised and confused at thesame time. I think i really need some urgent help here. I am thinking of installing a windows Xp when next it comes up. do you think that it is best solution for the problem???? Thanks for you time Markus, i really appreciate it. And sorry for spamming your blog.
    Regards.

    Comment by slownflown — October 31, 2007 #

  56. I have a similar problem with my internal mic on my new Acer 5010
    My internal mic is nogood.I used an external mic and I had to enable micorphone boost but when i take out my ext mic I get very loud feedback so I have to leave n my ext mic all the time.Is the amy way I can disable the internl mic??????

    Comment by Sean Hogan — November 1, 2007 #

  57. yeah, I also had the feedback issues with the internal mic. Works fine with an external, but the internal one is pretty much useless.
    As others have also mentioned, the on-board graphics are pretty lousy for gaming.
    Apart from that it seems to me to be a good buy for the money.

    Comment by Stu — November 7, 2007 #

  58. I recently bought an ACER ASPIRE 5610Z from Hawaii but the orbicam does not work. It keeps giving a message that A PROBLEM HAS CAUSED THE PROGRAMME TO STOP WORKING.
    Kindly help to resolve the poroblem

    Charles

    Comment by Charles M — November 8, 2007 #

  59. I have a suggestion for all of those who are unhappy with their acer products… next time don’t buy acer buy Apple! lol!

    Comment by NappyK — November 9, 2007 #

  60. [...] wrote a review about my Acer Aspire 5610Z Notebook a few months ago when I purchased it. To be honest, since I’ve had the laptop I really haven’t [...]

    Pingback by It was an executive decision. » Markus Langenfeld — November 11, 2007 #

  61. ok, so that person was right! all you have to do for the orbicam problem is move all the pictures to a different folder! it really works! i’ve been having problems for months and it finally works now that i moved everything to a different folder!

    Comment by Danielle — November 12, 2007 #

  62. My Screen is flickering on and off, not the backlight but the colors, there is also a green line that appears rarely, i haven’t dropped it ever. My mouse pad buttons have rubbed off the black painted plastic. bluetooth never worked im very disappointed with this laptop only had it 1-2 months

    Comment by dezrik — November 15, 2007 #

  63. im running an Acer Aspire 5610z. ive had no problems what so ever with software at the moment. MY Hd did stop responding and i sent it back, within 4 days i had it back with a new HD. Am running Windows XP not vista and ive had NO PROBLEMS what so ever since. never had problems with cam or mic or nothing. no plastic problems, and ive had my laptop for 4-5 months now.

    ALL DRIVERS FOR ASPIRE LAPTOP CAN BE FOUND HERE
    http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/downloads.html

    Cheers, Jamie

    Comment by Jamie — November 26, 2007 #

  64. I hv 5610z with vista os. the processing speed of laptop is very slow. I think it is because of 512 mb ram. I want to switch over to win xp. Is it posiible to install xp with xp recovery cd? From where i can find/download xp recovery cd for this model? can any one help me?

    RA

    Comment by ra — December 2, 2007 #

  65. thanks for the FTP site.. I been downloading all the drivers for Acer 5610z.

    Comment by james_din20 — December 5, 2007 #

  66. I bought an Acer Aspire 5610Z and I have a few questions. In the manual it states that it is upgradable to 4 GB of memory using two 2GB SoDIMM’s. I have purchased two 2GB SoDIMM in memory but I am not sure if it is compatible. Also, I wanted to buy a hard disk drive that is not Toshiba or Hitachi. A Seagate or Fujitsu would be good. I do not want a hard drive larger than 100GB. I went to best buy and asked about this. They said they only had one hard drive that was compatible. It is an IDE (or enhanced IDE …not sure) and it is 120GB. I read on the bottom of my computer “MFG Date: 0702.”
    I was not sure if this meant 2007 February or July 2002. Anyway, I wanted to confirm that this model is only compatible with IDE(and/or Enhanced IDE) or if it supports ATA(or Serial ATA).
    Acer’s website is no help. Sometimes (off and on) they do not list the Aspire 5610Z.
    I have found an ‘older’ hard drive that is a Toshiba 100GB 16mb cache ATA-100. Comments, answers, please? Weep.

    Comment by Andrew Snail — December 9, 2007 #

  67. I found what could be an answer to some of my questions…but….

    http://www.computerhope.com/help/ide.htm

    “Each of the below standards are compatible with each other, which means a new ATA drive can be used in a computer using an older ATA specification.”

    “ATA is short for AT Attachment interface and also more commonly known as IDE or ATA-1.”

    Acer: http://www.acerpanam.com/synapse/forms/portal20.cfm?recordid=522&formid=3404&website=AcerPanAm.com/us&siteid=7293&words=all&keywords=&areaid=7

    ” Specifications
    Product
    Aspire 5610Z
    Hard Disk Drive

    up to 160GB” up to 160GB is ALL THEY SAY?! When purchasing electronic components certainty is essential. They could afford to be redundant and say “2.5 inch by X”, IDE or ATA 1, up to X GB capacity, up to X mb cache.
    SPELL IT OUT FOR ME, ACER, please!

    Comment by Andrew Snail — December 9, 2007 #

  68. The hard drive in the 5610Z is SATA, not EIDE.

    Comment by Markus Langenfeld — December 9, 2007 #

  69. I bought my 5610Z in August. It worked fine for a while (although I hate Vista), but then the scroll button between the left and right mouse buttons stopped working. Now, instead of scrolling up or down, it left clicks. I can’t figuure out a way to fix it or find any information on it. Can anyone help?

    Comment by Emilee — December 11, 2007 #

  70. i bought one at the beginning of the summer hols.

    vista was crap on it and it kept bluescreening i took it back and they gave me a new one. i am an avid gamer and was disapointed with its performance i am looking to upgrade the ram,
    any one know what the maximum ram capacity is??????????

    Comment by Adam Todd — December 11, 2007 #

  71. I bought 5610Z with 2GB RAM
    Its a beautiful machine i terms of price and speed both.

    Comment by Nasir — December 16, 2007 #

  72. I bought my acer at walmart for 700 plus tax. Beat any desktops for the same price. Even though the plastic is cheap, if you dont through it around like a football then it should work like a dream. My acer has 160 gb hdd and the 2bg ddr2 ram. i can finally play the lord of the rings the battle for middle earth 2! i think i will put a new processor in it cuz i want to play high end games. what dumb is i tried to play the lord of the rings and it would bluescreen after about 5 ceconds of the splash screen. i uninstalled it and on a rainy day ii reinstall and turned down the desktop display to original from aero. it played and i was happy! i saved the low settings as a game theme. then i turned it off and later i played it again but then when i shutdown the game i noticed that i forgot to put it on my game theme! Why did this happen? Plus the orbicam is a piece of crap. i uninstalled the software and i am looking for the driver software. where can i get it. does anyone no where i can download the empowering technology stuff cuz my sister uninstalled it?

    emzfrend@aol.com
    580-306-8956 sms me this info or email it!

    Comment by Blake — December 18, 2007 #

  73. plus ea games and acer said my video card didnt support the game. the it play it. dumb. but a good value. Does any one no how to repartition the hard drive cuz i dont need to have half of it wasted!?? i have 1600 gb hdd but i added the partion together and each is 56.7 gb ( something like that) DO THE MATH, THAT DOESNT ADD UP TO 160!!!!

    emzfrend@aol.com
    580-306-8956 sms me with info or email ihave unlimited texting

    Comment by Blake — December 18, 2007 #

  74. Hey, i got a virus so i re installed everything…where can i get the drivers and programs that came with the computer

    Comment by Jackson Hoskins — December 23, 2007 #

  75. i have also noticed the thin plastic, what i found dissapointing after just a few weeks my buttons on my mouse broke other then that the only problems i have are with vista

    Comment by yup_i_got_one — December 25, 2007 #

  76. Same as yup_i_got_one. i upgraded to 2 GB ram and have a 250 Sata HD in it now. but only down side was VISTA. now running Windows XP Pro SP3 and is running like a dream :) shame about graphics though.

    but if not running games on it. VERY clear pic for what it is :) but defo advice upgrading to 2 GB ram if your keeping vista on it.

    Comment by Jamie — December 27, 2007 #

  77. i need the modem driver for acer aspire 5610z …plsssss

    Comment by anca — December 27, 2007 #

  78. Hi. i bought my acer 5610z but i really find it hard to use the bluetooth. the light never turns on. when i move the switch left indicates “No bluetooth device” when right “no 3G device”. is it a problem with the notebook? if anyone can help please let me know.
    thanx in advance nick

    Comment by Nick — December 29, 2007 #

  79. just to inform i am using windows xp sp2

    Comment by Nick — December 29, 2007 #

  80. all drivers can be found here
    http://support.acer-euro.com/drivers/notebook/as_5610.html

    Comment by Nick — December 29, 2007 #

  81. I purchased my acer 5610Z off ebay for $399 and have been happy as far as all my business needs however, for some reason the disk drive only recognizes DVD’s not CD’s of any kind therefore, its a pain loading new programs. The second problem is 8 out of 10 games I load dont work. The computer says sorry however, this applications has been terminated. I would rather not have to buy a new graphics card (i dont know the first thing about them. My current card I think is the intel 945 chipset (or somthing like that) I would hate to buy a new card and then still have the games not work.
    I loaded elder scrolls oblivion and set it to the very lowest graphics settings however, it still crashed. I wonder if my pentium 4 duel core 1.7ghz processer is also cause of the problem. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

    Comment by Corey Giza — December 30, 2007 #

  82. my previous laptop was a dell inspiron 9100 and it was great for gaming. I really dont know much about computers and I dont what my question is even possible. Since my graphics card from my dell is supeior to the one in my acer, can I switch the components out or do I need a graphics card specifically designed for the acer. In other words are graphics cards universal or are they specific to the brand of computer?

    Comment by Corey Giza — December 30, 2007 #

  83. Nick,

    Sounds like you have discovered the same issue as a lot of the rest of us regarding bluetooth within the 5610z…. there isn’t any!!!

    Bugs the hell out of me that they put in a dummy switch that sits at the front as a constant reminder that your laptop does not have internal bluetooth. Grrrrrrr.

    But also, when using an external usb bluetooth device, that same bluetooth button has no functionality… it’s a complete waste of time.

    Appart from that, I’ve had the laptop for 8months now and i think that it’s a fantastic buy. Plenty of juice to run vista and xp and win98 simultaneously (via virtual pc). If you so desire.

    And as for the orbi cam problem (Blake) i too, accidentally uninstalled the drivers for it and after hours of looking on the web for replacements (without success) i could only reinstate the webcam using a System Restore.

    questions…
    1) does anyone have any alternative software that they can run the internal webcam on (i’m not talking msn etc) as the software that came with the laptop is v basic?

    2) anyone managed to copy the vista and acer installation software that comes pre-installed on the laptop in a hidden disk partition, instead of a (more useful) set of installation (or recovery) disks?

    cheers

    Comment by roo — January 2, 2008 #

  84. For those of you with webcam issues,,I had probelems also not working etc,,,then I stumbled on this “fix”after days of troubleshooting.If you have ANY pictures in the default Pictures folder,,,remove them and put them in another newly created folder.Then try an open Orbicam application. It worked for me,,
    good luck

    Comment by toons — January 3, 2008 #

  85. Nick,

    Regarding your question about copying the hidden partition — I have that as part of an Acronis “TrueImage” disk-image set. But I’m curious about why you consider the recover disks to be “more useful” than the partition. Seems to me the “hit F11″ way of recovering (takes 15 minutes) is much handier than fumbling with DVDs or (gasp) CDs…

    Lorenzo

    Comment by Lorenzo W. — January 3, 2008 #

  86. I never thought I would purchase laptop from Discount retailer but this Acer 5610z was a nice buy
    700.00 2gig ram 160gig hard drive from Walmart.Purchased it about 3 months ago ,very pleased after tweaking the system a little.Used the Acer erecovery management software a couple times to reset to factory settings was easy.Not a top shelf system but it handles apps just fine while listening to music working with pictures..etc.Finally got the orbicam to work properly by REMOVING pictures from default picture folder and putting them in a newly named folder(why this works I will never understand).Only minor glitch Im having now is about 1 minutes after complete boot up,the screen will flicker about 4-5 seconds,it didn’t do that when I first purchased it,,minor annoyance ,It could probably be corrected with a reset to factory settings but Im wondering if there might be a quicker fix.Any Ideas?

    Comment by toons — January 3, 2008 #

  87. Just read this post finally. Now that I own it whats your return policy? ;)

    Comment by Mom — January 4, 2008 #

  88. I bought this model factory referb for £290 and it seems great value no warped case issues at all seems well built to me.I added bluetooth internally i purchesed from …

    http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Acer-Bluetooth-2-0-Module-for-Notebook-5610-5630-5633_W0QQitemZ180202905812QQihZ008QQcategoryZ44999QQcmdZViewItem

    works a treat uses the front switch a blue led lights to.

    Comment by julian — January 5, 2008 #

  89. does any one no where i kan get a new power cord for cheap?? i priced them and they close to 50 bucks with discounts

    Comment by Blake — January 7, 2008 #

  90. about the acer orbicam…. I had a problem with mine, but Using the Bison driver it works.

    It may be plastic and flimsy looking, but I’ve dropped mine several times…. from a few feet in the air… I may sound like a klutz or a person who isn’t careful, but It happens…. And this laptop takes the abuse…. although I’d never drop it on purpose. My paint is fading and it’s chipped and scared in places…. But It’s not the look it’s the performance right?

    Mine came with vista, but I dual boot Ubuntu Linux distro Gutsy on it with absolutely no problems.

    As far as gaming is concerned, I can’t game in Linux anyways and I’m rarely in windows…. however It does run Vista smoothly.

    I get pretty good battery time, especially on linux, but it’s no record breaker….. However, I would like to complain about the quality of the built in speakers… They’re not very loud at all.. At least mine are not.

    Over all this laptop, the first I’ve ever purchased, especially for the price, is a gem!

    Comment by Kori — January 7, 2008 #

  91. Lorenzo W

    Sorry, i probably wasn’t clear enough in my initial posting: I don’t consider recovery disks themselves to be more useful than the disk partition… just that I am well rehearsed at installing Windows (98, NT, XP) from standard I386 folders from proper installation disks (not recovery disks) but not at all familiar with using hidden partitions.

    For example, if you need to install the drivers (or software) for a single device can you do that using the disk partition F11 option?

    julian

    Thanks for the link from ebay for the internal bluetooth. Highly ambiguous question I know… but…. was fitting the internal device relatively straight forward? And, does it invalidate your warranty by you opening up your laptop?

    cheers
    roo

    Comment by roo — January 7, 2008 #

  92. [...] I want to make it clear that the build quality overall is pretty good, definitely better then my Acer was. However I did expect more from a premium line of products such as the XPS series. After doing [...]

    Pingback by Review – Dell XPS M1330 Notebook PC » Markus Langenfeld — January 10, 2008 #

  93. I’ve had no problems with my current 5610z. I had gone to Walmart for the first one, expecting to get a much lesser model. They were out of stock, so I went for the more expensive one, the 5610z. I got 2 GB ram, dual core cpu, 160 GB HDD, etc and began to install my apps. After getting everything set up (4 hours of work, mind you) the media card reader gave up on me and showed up in the device manager as not working properly. No matter what I did, this first 5610z was toast. Returned it for a new one.
    Now all is good. The only thing I had wished this laptop came with was Bluetooth. But that’s nothing more than a click away at ebay, there is a bluetooth module there that I bought which gets installed into the laptop so you don’t have to have a usb stick in the side or back. The module also made the front button and light work as promised, too!
    If you want one, either find someone who is VERY careful and used to working on delicate laptop parts, or go out and get yourself a small screwdriver kit and cross your fingers. It’s a VERY difficult job, and the entire laptop has to be dismantled. I did it myself a month after purchase and my wife thought I was crazy to risk it. So if you are one of those people who has no clue about computers don’t even attempt this modification!

    Comment by ZeusEnergy — January 17, 2008 #

  94. I would like to trade (barter) for 2 Acer 5610Z laptops, as a newspaper publisher, I’m quite certain
    that I can help your company.

    Let me know if you have a couple laying around. :)
    getpaid4fun@yahoo.com

    Comment by SW News Houston/Dallas Ft. Worth — January 18, 2008 #

  95. I’m having trouble with my orbicam and I have tried everything! the first few times it stopped working I just moved my pictures to another folder. But it doesn’t work now, I have tried to download something that would help (can’t remember what) but it didn’t..
    This comes up when I try to open my cam (it’s in norwegian) but still I hope someone can help me:

    Problemsignatur:
    Navn på problemhendelse: APPCRASH
    Programnavn: Acer OrbiCam.exe
    Programversjon: 1.0.0.13
    Tidsstempel for program: 4599d570
    Navn på feilmodul: Acer OrbiCam.exe
    Feilmodulversjon: 1.0.0.13
    Tidsstempel for feilmodul: 4599d570
    Unntakskode: c0000005
    Unntaksforskyvning: 0000a04c
    OS-versjon: 6.0.6000.2.0.0.768.3
    ID for nasjonal innstilling: 1044
    Tilleggsinformasjon 1: 12f2
    Tilleggsinformasjon 2: b787d457fa2ebf8605adb9ef6845e08d
    Tilleggsinformasjon 3: 9bbc
    Tilleggsinformasjon 4: 93b27487747af9abe5121926c121cc4d

    Comment by Kjersti — January 20, 2008 #

  96. I got an acer 5610Z from my uncle. I myself am really enjoying it I play world of warcraft on it and it did pretty good i had a problem with it restarting itself but i installed an update for the driver and now it works fine. But that’s not my question I’m trying to figure out how to work the media keypad for windows media player so far nothing has helped me or anything I’ve found maybe someone can tell me? and also i havent had a problem with the cam sept for the software wont detect it but my yahoo does? maybe try a new software from downloads.com just a resource? anyways if anyone can tell me how to work the media keypad for windows media player I’d really be greatful.

    Comment by Melissa — January 20, 2008 #

  97. ok i need all the drivers for the Aspire 5610z… i downgraded to xp and lost all the drivers… my email is zombie_guy_tza@yahoo.com

    Comment by david — February 5, 2008 #

  98. having a problem with finding a printer to work does any one have any suggestions

    Comment by Andrea — February 14, 2008 #

  99. i have a acer aspire 5610z i went to the recording devices and went to properties and under device usage i disabled the built in mic now i cant get the thing back on enable its actually saying no audio devices are installed can someone help me and tell me what to do to get it reinstalled??

    Comment by heather — February 19, 2008 #

  100. I have had an Acer Aspire 5610z from Wal-Mart for over a year now. I haven’t noticed some of the problems you all have had, but yes, the keys are plastic and I had one to keep coming off. I put it back on one day and no problem since. I have been told by Acer, for games and video viewing, I need a new video card. Mine will no longer update. My problems are a little different. It all of a sudden one day would no longer give me the option to put it into sleep or hibernate mode. Also, I didn’t remember to make a restore disc when I first got it and when I talked to Acer they do not make one for this specific computer. Now, mine gets almost completely backed up and says there was a error on the disc. I have tried this several times with new discs. Does anyone know another way to make one in case something should happen?

    Comment by Jennifer — March 3, 2008 #

  101. well… ive had mine for just about a year now… was disapointed about the bluetooth but i have a usb from iogear that has worked just fine for me… (i am in the process of downloading the afore mentioned driver though just to see if it works)

    ive had no problems from my cam, but i dont really use it… my card reader works just dandy… my mouse pad… doesnt get much use unless im on the road… i use a wireless mouse… recently got an external keyboard, but no problems from the onboard one… as for heat… didnt have a problem with that either, but did get a nifty lil stand from wal mart to elevate it… she wont play halo smoothly for me but i still have yet to bump up the ram… all in all… ill keep her for a wile…

    Comment by wheeliebob — March 17, 2008 #

  102. The problem I have with my 5610z is with the network adapter. This machine would not stay connected to the internet consistently. It is a very frustrating problem. My XP machines don’t have any issues with the internet.

    Comment by Marcus — March 18, 2008 #

  103. My main problems with this notebook 5610z (configuration 5610-2998) were with the poor build quality and being confused about various model # revisions of the 5610z series with different specs.

    Some extras that would’ve been nice (I wasn’t expecting however) was this integrated orbicam people are talking about and an ESata connection.

    I was however expecting this 5610z to have bluetooth and firewire and it had neither nor was it clear there was all these different configurations of 5610z’s when I originally was researching them.

    Documentation is very poor. To this day I have no idea what the function keys do except by trial/error. I haven’t got Svideo to work yet but after accidentally disabling the track pad with the function key I got the idea of trying other function keys to enable Svideo. (still not tested…I got to this webpage by searching google for svideo info)

    When I purchased and installed a 3rd party bluetooth module on ebay I discovered the plastic tab inside they case that keeps the keyboard connector in place was broken. I also discovered the thermal pad that cools the intel GPU was not centered and not cooling the video chip properly which was leading to frequent video glitches. I did fix the manufacturing defects when I installed the bluetooth module.

    The case is cheap plastic and the plastic button that ejects the PCMCIA card managed to break off despite the fact I’ve never even really used that port except to test a PCMCIA firewire card. (which sticks out and can’t be left in while stored in my laptop case)

    The battery life is terrible. I can’t even get through a 2 hour drive using it and that’s without using the DVD player or anything intensive. I guess I do turn the brightness up but otherwise I can’t see the display while in the car during the daytime.

    The performance is great but the vista operating system sucks.

    It took me 5 months to find an acer euro site that had XP drivers that had to be slipstreamed into a windows XP install disk before I could load XP onto this notebook. It’s a tedious exercise getting XP installed on this portable.

    It’s easier to get windows 2000, ubuntu linux and even hackintosh loaded onto it but XP doesn’t have the right drivers included and goes to a black screen during installation before you even have the chance to hit F6 to add other drivers. (that wouldn’t work anyways since there’s no floppy drive) see http://www.nliteos.com/ and ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/ to get XP on this thing.

    Installing the bluetooth is tedious as well. They’ve got access panels on the bottom for most other internal upgrades but NOT for bluetooth! Everything must be disassembled including motherboard and LCD removed to be able to plug-in the bluetooth module.

    Comment by Joe — March 19, 2008 #

  104. My main problems with this notebook 5610z (configuration 5610-2998) were with the poor build quality and being confused about various model # revisions of the 5610z series with different specs.

    Some extras that would’ve been nice (I wasn’t expecting however) was this integrated orbicam people are talking about and an ESata connection.

    I was however expecting this 5610z to have bluetooth and firewire and it had neither nor was it clear there was all these different configurations of 5610z’s when I originally was researching them.

    Documentation is very poor. To this day I have no idea what the function keys do except by trial/error. I haven’t got Svideo to work yet but after accidentally disabling the track pad with the function key I got the idea of trying other function keys to enable Svideo. (still not tested…I got to this webpage by searching google for svideo info)

    When I purchased and installed a 3rd party bluetooth module on ebay I discovered the plastic tab inside they case that keeps the keyboard connector in place was broken. I also discovered the thermal pad that cools the intel GPU was not centered and not cooling the video chip properly which was leading to frequent video glitches. I did fix the manufacturing defects when I installed the bluetooth module.

    The case is cheap plastic and the plastic button that ejects the PCMCIA card managed to break off despite the fact I’ve never even really used that port except to test a PCMCIA firewire card. (which sticks out and can’t be left in while stored in my laptop case)

    The battery life is terrible. I can’t even get through a 2 hour drive using it and that’s without using the DVD player or anything intensive. I guess I do turn the brightness up but otherwise I can’t see the display while in the car during the daytime.

    The performance is great but the vista operating system sucks.

    It took me 5 months to find an acer euro site that had XP drivers that had to be slipstreamed into a windows XP install disk before I could load XP onto this notebook. It’s a tedious exercise getting XP installed on this portable.

    It’s easier to get windows 2000, ubuntu linux and even hackintosh loaded onto it but XP doesn’t have the right drivers included and goes to a black screen during installation before you even have the chance to hit F6 to add other drivers. (that wouldn’t work anyways since there’s no floppy drive) see http://www.nliteos.com/ and ftp://ftp.work.acer-euro.com/notebook/ to get XP on this thing.

    Installing the bluetooth is tedious as well. They’ve got access panels on the bottom for most other internal upgrades but NOT for bluetooth! Everything must be disassembled including motherboard and LCD removed to be able to plug-in the bluetooth module.

    Comment by Joe — March 19, 2008 #

  105. This will be my follow up review. I put a review up a few months ago and I have a few comments I would like to add.

    I previously metioned how this notbook seemed to have cheap quality. Well that has come to show. I have been using the notebook for about 7 months now, in 7 months, the mouse button has broken, it still works but it wobbles and out of socket, and the up arrow key has stopped working all together.

    The components inside still work fine, I am an experienced user and I know how to keep things running smoothly and how to keep a system performing at its peek through software. The things I can’t fix are the things that are ticking me off.

    Having the mouse key break after 4 months and the up key break here just recently at around 7 months is unacceptable. A computer’s keys and outside should be able to be durable for at least 3 years, especially laptops which are on the move and are going to see more abuse than a desktop for that reason. Acer did nothing to prepare this machine for what, in my opinion, is a common business workload. I use this computer everyday, but I take care of it, gently handling it, and also always carrying a padded laptop backpack when I am on the move. I am a teacher and need it for my classes and keeping records. I also use it for personal use, email, web, chatting etc. To be honest I am suprised the up arrow stopped working as this is a key that doesn’t see that much attention. Not like the vowel keys or others for example. Anyway, if I could go back in time I would not buy this computer. It is just too cheaply made in the places where it should be strongest. It is falling apart in less than a year. The chips and guts and hard-drive are ok (pretty much all things not acer but intel and others)but the outside components (keys, touchpad mouse and buttons, casing) just aren’t holding up to normal use. I will not buy acer again. With a laptop these types of issues are the hardest to deal with. An outside component breaks, it isn’t like a desktop where you can switch out a keyboard or a mouse in a blink. It is a whole ordeal, which must be done by a service center. Anyway, in closing, if your looking for a laptop, get something else.

    Comment by Trevor — March 27, 2008 #

  106. this is really not fair. i bought the acer 5610z also expecting to get bluetooth, however, i have a dummy switch in front of my laptop

    i think acer should own up and compensate persons like me who buy their laptops for the displayed specs

    Comment by stephen dantes — April 21, 2008 #

  107. The Bluetooth is an optional module on the 5610z, you can have it included in the unit if you have it built through Acer. You might also be able to buy the Bluetooth module directly from Acer to install yourself.

    Comment by Markus Langenfeld — April 21, 2008 #

  108. I’ve had my acer 5610Z for roughly 6mos, 2gb ram, 160gb hd. runs great never really had any issues that i couldn’t figure out. one in particular that i’ve noticed that people had issues with in this thread is the orbicam. Here’s the deal with the orbicam. when taking pictures with the orbicam, or another camera for that matter, and storing pictures in the pictures folder, the orbicam errors and says no cam detected. don’t ask me why or how that happens, but it does. I created another pics folder, cut and pasted my pics from the default folder to the one that i created and cranked the cam right up.
    I had issues with the wireless network card for about a week until i figured it out. I still have issues using the network card on my home router from time to time, sometimes it’ll say no networks detected. i’ve figured out that for some reason i restart the router and it fixes it, prolly just the router at that point, it is a belkin…now to the bluetooth. no bluetooth installed, and this is the reason why i found this thread. I’m looking for the bluetooth device to pop into the slot on this machine. anyone found that yet by chance???

    Comment by Mike Denning — April 28, 2008 #

  109. I bought the acer aspire 5610z with all the specs and 1GB of RAM I am not pleased with the performance if acer was going to put vista onto a computer they should have installed the hardware to support it and should have made the bus speed more than 533MHz.I am going to upgrade the RAM to 2 GB DDR2.I recently put the operating system Microsoft Xp on the laptop and the speed is extrodinary but there are drivers still missing so I need a little help finding them. but maybe with the 2 GB RAM I can get good results with the operating system vista.

    Comment by Jeremiah — April 30, 2008 #

  110. I bought my Acer 5610Z 1gb Vista premium in 2007. I just upgraded to 2 BG for $$40 and got wireless broadband from sprint and I am as happy as a clam. I tweeked Vista for performance and got rid of extra software, and am pleased with its speed now. I wish it had a better video card for games, but great for working out of the house, also not so bad for a take along.
    I’m currently looking for a better battery.
    Purchase price 689
    Extra Warranty 29
    More Memory 40
    Battery 80?
    Total 838
    You just can’t beat that

    Comment by Beth — May 1, 2008 #

  111. i need a copy of the partition 2 os. i switch to xp but didn’t like it as much. lost the partition, but have a new partition now just the copy of the partition2. can anyone please help me?
    thanks

    Comment by jimmy mcclain — May 1, 2008 #

  112. I am having a problem with my mouse pad. It just stopped working. I tried to re-install the drivers but nothing happened. I went out and got a wireless mouse, its working fine, but now it will only be able to be used on my desk or table. Anyone else have this problem or know what to do to fix it.

    Thanks

    Comment by Jen — May 11, 2008 #

  113. Has anyone upgraded their hard drive on the 5610Z yet?
    If so, what interface is necessary, IDE, EIDE or SATA?

    Thanks!

    Comment by Flavio De Moraes — May 13, 2008 #

  114. I baught my acer aspire 5610z last year had it about 16 months..The left mouse button went ages ago..Its done wot it sed on the tin,its been battered and survived…I am not the most experienced computor head around but i found my way around the system…Just to many compatability problems with vista,then when you want to do a full system restore,you have to search these forums to find out what to do nightmare…Bring back xp all is forgiving…But I would have one again the spec was good at the time,bit outdated now though….

    Comment by nadgewardo — May 23, 2008 #

  115. Hello there. My mother bought that laptop, we even asked the guy from the store if it plays games and they said it’s fine. But since we installed tried to play games,it restarts itself after around 1 hour of gaming. So if you want games, DON’T buy this because it can’t even play them! Not just plays bad, it doesn’t play.And btw, [quote]The left mouse button went ages ago[/quote] mine left mouse button broke too :S I can still press it but hardly.

    Comment by orfeas — May 28, 2008 #

  116. Bought this computer last year. Had trouble watching movies without it chopping up real bad. I could have upgraded to 2 gigs of memory for around 80 bucks. Instead, I installed LinuxMINT 4.0 on half of the hard drive for free and have never had a single problem. The VISTA experience was less than phenomenal but LINUX screams on this machine.

    Comment by trav — June 6, 2008 #

  117. Hi everyone,
    I have a 5610Z, 2gb RAM and 160gb disk, now it will be exactly one year since i bought it. I’m very happy with it, always worked fine. Agree it’s not a gaming computer but anything else, it will run it with no problems. Also agree about the plastic keyboard, but up till today no problems whatsoever.
    Had the same problems with the orbicam in the beginning, but I downloaded different drivers from acer website and since that time it worked just fine. Maybe now this model is not in the market so much, but would definitely recommend it.

    Comment by orka — June 21, 2008 #

  118. Hello

    Ive had my Acer Aspire 5610Z for over a year and have noticed it now only plays auto run cd’s or dvds?

    Can someone please help me??

    I have tried the acer driver website and im still confused non of the options seem to match what i need!

    Im really really stuck please please help!! thanks

    Comment by Nicola — June 27, 2008 #

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