Compaq Laptops -- good or bad?

I found what appears to be a good deal on a compaq laptop. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with them -- good or bad -- before I buy one. i.e. -- customer service, reliability, functionality, etc.

thx!

I haven't had a lot of contact with Compaq Laptops but the few I've worked on seemed to be good machines. Just a little skimpy on capability, on the Presarios.

A friend in the service has a Compaq he takes with him and it's been trouble free for over a year.

If you've not made up your mind yet, Dell also makes a good laptop, although a bit more expensive. The only machines I'd stay clear of are the Gateways.

I used to own a Compaq Presario desktop that was VERY limited in its upgrade options--sound and video were on the motherboard and memory was limited to 80MB. At the time, Compaq's philosophy seemed to be that only business users needed decent computers. Most of the company's home models in the late 1990s were not upgradable.

I'm still living of the memory of when Compaq computers were crap. The cheap stuff that you buy at Walmart with all proprietary internals (not upgradable). But to tell the truth, I have not looked into them in quite awhile. I do know that their iPaq PDA's are the best out there right now.

Originally posted by yakky doodle
I found what appears to be a good deal on a compaq laptop. I'm curious if anyone has any experience with them -- good or bad -- before I buy one. i.e. -- customer service, reliability, functionality, etc.

thx!

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No experience with Compaq laptops, but I find their desktops to be junk.

Toshiba has some good laptop deals right now. Check it out: www.shoptoshiba.com

I guess the laptops are fine since most people don't upgrade them. As for Compaq's desktop, they are great if you don’t plan to upgrade. If you plan to upgrade, however, stay away from them because their hardware is proprietary. I have a Compaq Presario and even down to the memory I have to get from Compaq (for a higher than average price of course).

Since their merger with HP, I don't know if they change their philosophy towards proprietary hardware.

Dell's laptops are great and the IBM ThinkPad (the one I have... company's) is OK if you have the docking station.

<-- owned two presario compaq laptops in the past. Ran into all kinds of problems. Got Dell laptop, works great for a long while and sold it to a friend of mine. I will probably get me another Dell laptop.

Just my opinion, I wouldn't own a Compaq unless somebody GAVE it to me. The look cheap, feel cheap and run cheap. The people I do know that have Compaq laptops ran into nothing but problems, and they were major problems. One man is a pastor, who was so mad he boxed it up and shipped it back to the company with a note saying this would make great target practice. As a matter of fact, I don't think I have ever seen him as mad as he was that day. After a few weeks, he got a new one in the mail. Then, they fixed his and returned that to him too. I don't think either one of them are working now!

I agree with Sleuth, Toshiba's laptops are nice. My husband owns one and is pretty happy with it. I'll give you the same advice I gave him. Make sure you know what you are buying, actually see one, touch it and feel it. The keyboards can be very different on a laptop. My husband needed a rugged keyboard with large keys on it. This is something you do not get to do when you buy something online. Plus, you get a feel of the casing as well as the opportunity to surf the laptop a little bit. Then, if you find one you like after seeing it, you can price shop online. We have laptops at work for the employee’s, but most of them don’t like the keyboard setup and therefore, refuse to use them.

Owned a Compaq laptop for less than three days. Took it back and traded for a Toshiba. No problems except memory was hard to find at a decent price. BTW, if you're looking to upgrade or add memory check out www.crucial.com, great prices and good quality.