I had great luck with both pc's i have purchesed from compaq

Worked with HP/Compaq sales as well as Dell and two other small time companies. Compaq apparently is trying its hardest to make a come back. I have ordered a 8000T Presario 3 gig and special ordered it. They gave me a nice discount to boot. It comes with a thirty day money back Guarantee if I am not satisfied.  
It is expandable with what ever parts name I want to use and they gave me more options than any one else.  
At the most I would have saved $300 by building it myself and would not have had the 3 year parts and labor warrantee which includes an accident coverage.  
That means if I kick it down the stairs two years from now they will fix it.  
Of course after all these other bad reviews I do not want to seem stupid buying from Compaq yet I trust my reasearch and I will take it strait to an expert to see if it is the trash so many say it will be.  
We shall see. So far they are the best in sales and in price. PLEASE WISH ME LUCK!

I had great luck with both pc's i have purchesed from compaq

I bought a used Compaq Presario 5050 because the original owner hated it and had nicknamed it HAL because it did strange things on its own...I bought it for $1000.00 with all peripherals including extra software and stuff not original with this Compaq, and then sold it almost right away because I needed money. The person who bought it from me had it kicked, stuff has been spilt on it, the original floppy drive and hard drive were toast....Then just recently August 2002 I bought it back from him for $50.00 because he couldn't get it to work at all.  
I spent some time cleaning its guts out...Put little 3GB and 6GB Western Digital hard drives in, replaced the 64MB of fried memory with 168Mb SDRAM, put in a YamahaXG Digital sound card, and a NVidia TNT-2 PCI video card...This system now performs like a beast...outperforms my AMDK6/2-500Mhz system handsdown...Next I am going to get a 733Mhz upgrade processor package and really see what this system can do...and maybe up the memory to 256MB and get a PCI GeForce card....  
 
Compaqs rule if you can tame them...

Ordered a Presario 2800T with a P4-m 1.4GHz on June 25th. It said there was a delay on the SXGA+ screens so my laptop wouldnt be delivered untill July 19th, however it shipped Friday, June 28th and was upgraded to priority overnight delivery so it was actually delivered on Monday, July 1st. Not only that, but they also upgraded the P4-m 1.4 to a P4-m 1.6 for free.

I recently ordered a Presario 8000z with an Athalon 2000+ processor through Circuit City. (The main advantage of going through a retailer is being able to custom order the machine, and finance it for a year, interest free. Just be very specific what you want - the sales people are often very unhelpful and misinformed.) So far, I've been very impressed: the computer arrived when promised, and seems to have no problems. I use it primarily for Photoshop and video editing. In terms of price and performance, the Compaq was very competitive. Gateway, Dell, Micron, etc. charged 2-3 hundred dollars more for a similar computer. The downside: supposedly one of the worst customer service departments in the industry. My previous experience with Compaq's service has been limited - My last machine, purchased four years ago, worked perfectly right out of the box. Hence, my willingness to take another chance.

i bought a 19 inch monitor and i am very pleased

Let me start off saying that I don't particuarly like any of the name brand systems. I do have to clear some things up.  
 
-BillF, this is for you.  
 
"7/25/01 4:21 PM  
When I purchased my computer they charged sales tax even though they were out of state."  
 
It doesn't matter if they are in a different state, the law requires them to charge local sales tax to you if they have a reseller in your state.  
 
"At a later date I downloaded an update for my dvd player. This download crashed the dvd player and caused it to no longer work."  
 
I'll let you in on a secret... That update would have to be supplied by the manufacturer of the drive and really has nothing to do with Compaq. It is on you to make sure that updates are compatible with your computer. Unless somebody from Compaq specifially told you to install that update it's your own fault.  
 
"After many tries with support (just to get a response) they told me to run a restore program but failed to mention that it reformats your harddrive without warning you."  
 
Did you actually PAY for an extended warranty? No, I didn't think so. If you had then you can complain about having to wait in line to talk to people, but since you didn't you really have no reason to whine about them not having as many support reps as they should. Reps don't work for free, do you? Restore, by definition, means "To bring back to an original condition". I really doubt your data was on there when you bought it. I recommend a Websters dictionary.  
 
"Without a working dvd/cd I couldn't even start to rebuild my files and drivers but their spam on the desk top sure survived."  
 
Oh, so it was a hardware problem then. That means the update you downloaded really wasn't the problem and the drive probably wasn't working before. So, instead of saying that the drive was broken you decided to blame the problem on an update. I would bet that's why the support rep told you to restore the system. Now, if you would have told the rep the truth you would probably have a shiny brand new drive in your system and your data would be intact. A life lesson for you.  
 
"Compaq updates equals virus. The only difference between the compaq update and a computer virus, that I see, is at least the person who wrote the virus was competent."  
 
You already pointed out that the drive still didn't work AFTER you restored the system so it was a hardware issue. You obviously don't know what a virus is so I'll let you look that up in your new dictionary.  
 
"Go to another company. There are better, cheaper and more reliable companies out there."  
 
Better: Of course, but more expensive too. A custom machine is the best.  
Cheaper: Not much, emachines, gateway and the like, but they are really horrible.  
More reliable: Actually, Compaq does a decent job for an OEM. They are using ASUS boards and decent parts. More than I can say for all the other OEMs (Don't get trapped by the dell myth)  
 
-delgarx, one quick thing for you.  
 
How about you install MacOS on it. It doesn't support it, the manufacturer never said it supported it and you will have to buy new hardware to make it work. Also, when it doesn't work then blame the manufacturer since the machine should be compatible and come with the drivers for any operating system made. The manual specifically says that the restore data is on a partition of the hard drive and warns that changing partition information voids the warranty (no, Compaq is only one of MANY manufacturers that do the same thing). BTW, I did a quick google search for "Rockwell HCF" and the first link took me to a download site for a compatible driver for your modem.  
 
-ranjit, this is for you  
 
"6/26/01 3:29 AM  
i purchased a Compaq Presario 1200 notebook a few months back. the first thing i noticed was that this piece of hardware had no manual reset button. and this machine is junk!"  
 
Um, very few do. It's an ATX power supply. That means you press and hold the power button until it turns off. That's the standard for laptops.  
 
"it hangs every 3-4 hours!"  
 
Amazing, it's called a memory leak in windows ME and if you bothered to actually go to the windows update site you could have had that fixed the day you bought the machine.  
 
"no wonder compaq has provided a recovery cd along with the machine."  
 
Please don't tell me you actually RESTORED the system whenever it locked. That would just be too funny.  
 
"i do not know whether 'windows me' is to be blamed or compaq. the worst problem that i am facing currently is an auto boot. here i am browsing one of my favourite pages and poof! the comp just reboots itself!"  
 
20 seconds on the Compaq website took me to a microsoft site that recommended downloading the same windows update I talked about above.  
 
This was meant as a lesson to all and not personal attacks.

I ordered from Compaq (against all instincts of bad reviews and having owned 5 trouble-free Dells)because the had the best prices on custom laptops on the Internet by at least a few hundred dollars. From my experience so far, their tech support is the best I've ever dealt with. I've never waited longer than 5 minutes to talk to a technician. Their computers are another story. The first time I turned mine on, I had a lock-on pixel in the lower left corner of the screen. The odds of that happening are 1 in a billion, or about 1 in ever 1000 laptops (so they tell me), so i figured I wouldn't worry about it. Three weeks after I get my laptop, the harddrive crashes. You can imagine how raged I was. It was the Toshiba 80GB. Again, their tech support was really helpful and supposedly were having a replacement HDD overnighted to me ASAP. The expected delivery date rolled around, and no sign. I called tech support again, and I was told they were out of stock and they were expecting a new shipment in within 5 days. I asked, "Why are you out of stock? Is this just a generally defective product that everyone is replacing?" No direct answer of course. If they were not defective, they would have plenty right? So the second expected delivery date rolls around... no sign. I called again and was told they were on back-order and it would be another week. So, I'm still waiting for my computer that I've had for a little over a month, and it has worked for less time than it has worked. Bottom line: If they took attention away from perfecting their tech-support, which is fine, to building more reliable PCs, they would corner the market.

I bought a new computer from Compaq. It was the best price that I could find on the net for the specific machine type I wanted. There customer service could be better to work with. Their technical assistance could have more knowledge (seemed to be high school kids with no expeirence I was talking to). But bottom line is I have my computer and it is working okay.

I ran the utility to create "recovery discs" on my new laptop. It aborted. I registered and emailed tech support for a set of discs. I waited. I emailed again. I waited. Over 3 months, including two emails to the office of the CEO, Mark Hurd, this produced...NO EFFECTIVE COMPAQ SUPPORT!  
 
My laptop is useless without recovery discs and I can't get normal support, escalated support, or support from the office of the CEO.  
 
Will I ever recommend or buy Compaq or HP again? Not in THIS lifetime.

My Presario Laptop has been a piece of work and their (Indian, unintelligable) customer service is horrible! No wonder it was so cheap and made in China. It has had constant issues with parts falling off all together. Now the CD drive won't work anymore (the face fell off) and the power adapter has failed. The battery was known to cause fires but they wouldn't replace mine. It's the last one I will buy, I would look at a Toshiba or another brand first. Thanks

Last year I ordered a Compaq 2190US Laptop. Almost every component other than the CPU and RAM has broken. The power jack, PCMIA Card Slot, and DVD Drive (currently talking to COMPAQ Support on that issue) has not worked.  
I sent my computer in for the power plug. They were supposed to come and pick it up the next day. No one came. I called back and 15 minutes of elevator music later they were trying to blame the fault on FEDEX. I later called FEDEX and they said they never got a pickup order. The next day rolled around. Still no pickup. YET AGAIN I am on the phone talking to another tech support specialist. This time they finally call up FEDEX while i'm jammin to 'the best of kenny g'.  
Then my Hard Drive broke. I went through all of their troubleshooting stuff then they finally figured out that the disk is actually broken. They tell me that some other person is supposed to call me within 48 hours. 2 days later and no call. I called back and they said they would callback in 24 hours. Getting really annoyed, I asked for this number to call directly. Being it their superior's number, they claimed that they did not have the extension. So 24 hours later, STILL NO CALL!! I called them back and they told me they would put in a "high priority" call. 3 hours later I finally got that call. He quickly handled my HD issues and had one sent out using the slowest shipping available from fedex. I also asked if the tech support people that I talked to had his number, obviously he said yes. So now that brings me into this mess with getting a new DVD drive... I would tell you but i'm running out of space, only 5000 characters to use.

I have always been a compaq person and love their tech support when it comes to sending replacement parts and software. However I have found that their service has been degrading over the past couple years. My recent computer was received as a gift from a family member who saw a good deal on a CTO S4000V from compaq and got it since I am at college and constantly needing computer upgrades.  
 
When I got the computer it worked fine until a few weeks later when it started experiencing the windows xp slow boot that a lot of people are familar with. However when I called compaq I had the worse time getting assistance (since the time my laptop was damaged by their shipping) since I am in Canada and it was purchased in the USA.  
 
After a few days of calling and being transferred between call centers They agreed that the only thing that could be advised was a recovery and they said for some reason my hard drive was not the one it was ordered with. I told them about how i got the computer and the details of it and that no restore cds were in the packaging. The sales rep agreed that since its under warranty that she can send it for me.  
 
I received the CDS but the hard drive mever came. I guess it was advertised with a 80 gig hd but for some reason this had a 40gig.  
I thought it might be just slow courierat first, but when the restore cds failed to eliminate the slow boot I called the service center to get some more advice.  
I was informed that :  
 
1-the hard drive was not being send because it was not supposed to be covered by a warranty since the computer was purchased by someone and then given to me as a gift.  
 
2-That they could not give me additional support because of the voided warranty.  
 
I think we got into an argument about whether a warranty if on the machine or the person since the computer was intended for me, not the buyer.  
 
Anyways It turned out that the hard drive was bad and western digital replaced it for me, however that did not end the slow boot. The recovery cds were supposedly the reason for the slow boot, because a store technician installed a bare copy of xp and it ran except for the drivers for all the other parts.  
 
But the matter lies in a faulty computer that cant be serviced anymore, with a slow boot problem (5 minutes on the windows is loading blue screen) thats driving me up a wall. and a company that puts a warranty on a person not the machine

I purchsed a Presario 8000T, custom desktop, for approx. $2000. Right out of the box, it would not boot up. Spent approx. 5 hours with Tech Support before they decided it should come back for repair. Promised 9 day turnaround. Day 11 and they have apparently lost my computer. E-mailed a tracking number with FedEx that does not exist. Tech Support does not know where it is. "Thinks" it may be at another warehouse sitting. Apologizes and tells me to wait another week to see if it turns up.