Any ideas/useful approaches re warranties/computers ?

[Wakeupalready]

Hi,

I have a DS with dysgraphia - a writing disability. He cannot function at school without the use of his laptop, can't do assessments, can't take notes - totally dependant on it. Requirement from special education teachers, OT and the school itself. He is in Year 10 with lots of work this semester.

A new one from Acer was purchased this year, and we are 7 months into the warranty with an extra extended two years.
He has done nothing nefarious to it, and takes very good care of it, as he has done his previous one which lasted 4 years.
It has "the black screen of death" to quote tech forums and while it's running shows nothing on the screen . Speaking to the retailer this morning - it will need to be sent away for a minimum of two weeks, to at most 6 weeks. I have asked if they can just replace it due to the circumstances but got told at this stage of the warranty they send them away. The manager is not there today, but will be tomorrow and hopefully my message is passed on.

We have no other computer he can use, nor does the school ( asked on Friday ),can't afford to buy a new one and he cannot be without one for that length of time - he may as well not go to school at all.

How can I/can I insist they just replace the thing rather than cart it off for some fundamentally unspecified time - leaving my disabled child without the means to participate in his education?

I'm after the best possible language to use tomorrow when I speak to the retail manager, computer supplier as I'm wondering if this could be considered discrimination in anyway ( probably kidding myself there), but there may be an argument out there that I have not thought of.

Any help greatly appreciated.
Thanks.

Weve had this issue at work where some clever person changed my order of next business day on site support and fix to normal warranty to save a few quid.

Unfortunately we found the only option was to just buy a new laptop as they wouldnt budge or let us upgrade the warranty.

My suggestion is to take it to a local compuer shop and see if they can diagnose it so you have more ammo for arguing with the retailer

I did a bit of googling and it seems this may be fixable yourself or more likely at a local repair shop. Thr main thing to check is to see if it works with an external monitor, if it does then there are actions which may resolve the issue.

The other point ive sern is that it can be due to the ram coming unseated in some models and following the instructions to reseat it can resolve r it

@IWouldPreferNotTo

Thank you for responding. We've tried the online forum steps to attempt to fix it to no avail. It seems to be something to do with the DIOS?BIOS software upgrade that freezes if the computer is switched off during the process, and as it runs in the background with no notification of it - how someone is supposed to know that I can't figure.
The bit that's getting me is that the warranty specifies replace or repair and the company are saying as it's just 8 months into the warranty, the want to repair - leaving my son essentially up the creek without a paddle.
I like the idea of checking out a local repairer to see if their time frame is sorter, and going about it that way. So thanks for that.

Bios flashing can be a bit tricky which is why it can be nice to get a professional to do it. Acer dont want to replace as they know its fixable which is why they opt for repair.

Thank you again.
I know they are taking the easy option and it is fixable, and if my son wasn't so completely dependent on the damn thing I think I'd be fine with it. They just will not speed up the process and a possible 6 week wait won't work in our situation. No teacher can read his writing, and he takes forever to write just one sentence when taking notes. He's been using assisted tech since Year 4. The school can't allocate him a scribe for all his classes so he's panicking.
I'm collecting up local repairers names to ring as soon as they open ( Australia) as we think we'll pay for a rush job rather than follow the leisurely repair times of Acer.
Though I will call the manager at the retailer to see if he has any alternatives first, and vaguely suggesting that insisting on policy might be considered ableist/discriminatory in the circumstances. Though I doubt I'll have any success with that argument.