We have detected that javascript is currently disabled. To get the fullest experience from our site we suggest enabling javascript. If you have any issues using our site please contact us.
"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 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....
"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!"
"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."
"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."
36,421 stores
1,204,129 reviews
5735 shoppers online now
Rating
Visa / Mastercard
Discover
COD
Wire Transfer
Online Ordering Tracking
Require User Registration
posted Apr-14-2003 
posted Sep-13-2002 
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"I had great luck with both pc\u0027s i have purchesed from compaq","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/75129#comment75129","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"mkatan","rating":"5"}, "single");){kind=link}
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"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\u0027t get it to work at all.<br>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....<br><br>Compaqs rule if you can tame them...","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/51655#comment51655","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"angelazura","rating":"5"}, "single");){kind=link}
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"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. <br>It is expandable with what ever parts name I want to use and they gave me more options than any one else.<br>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.<br>That means if I kick it down the stairs two years from now they will fix it.<br>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.<br>We shall see. So far they are the best in sales and in price. PLEASE WISH ME LUCK!","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/82777#comment82777","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"Amovie","rating":"5"}, "single");){kind=link}
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"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.","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/47214#comment47214","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"Oscar1613","rating":"5"}, "single");){kind=link}
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"I had great luck with both pc\u0027s i have purchesed from compaq","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/107691#comment107691","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"tenn41","rating":"5"}, "single");){kind=link}
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"i bought a 19 inch monitor and i am very pleased","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/40699#comment40699","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"aarons67684","rating":"4"}, "single");){kind=link}
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"Let me start off saying that I don\u0027t particuarly like any of the name brand systems. I do have to clear some things up.<br><br>-BillF, this is for you.<br><br>\u00227\/25\/01 4:21 PM<br>When I purchased my computer they charged sales tax even though they were out of state.\u0022<br><br>It doesn\u0027t 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.<br><br>\u0022At a later date I downloaded an update for my dvd player. This download crashed the dvd player and caused it to no longer work.\u0022<br><br>I\u0027ll 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\u0027s your own fault. <br><br>\u0022After 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.\u0022<br><br>Did you actually PAY for an extended warranty? No, I didn\u0027t think so. If you had then you can complain about having to wait in line to talk to people, but since you didn\u0027t you really have no reason to whine about them not having as many support reps as they should. Reps don\u0027t work for free, do you? Restore, by definition, means \u0022To bring back to an original condition\u0022. I really doubt your data was on there when you bought it. I recommend a Websters dictionary.<br><br>\u0022Without a working dvd\/cd I couldn\u0027t even start to rebuild my files and drivers but their spam on the desk top sure survived.\u0022<br><br>Oh, so it was a hardware problem then. That means the update you downloaded really wasn\u0027t the problem and the drive probably wasn\u0027t working before. So, instead of saying that the drive was broken you decided to blame the problem on an update. I would bet that\u0027s 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.<br><br>\u0022Compaq 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.\u0022<br><br>You already pointed out that the drive still didn\u0027t work AFTER you restored the system so it was a hardware issue. You obviously don\u0027t know what a virus is so I\u0027ll let you look that up in your new dictionary.<br><br>\u0022Go to another company. There are better, cheaper and more reliable companies out there.\u0022<br><br>Better: Of course, but more expensive too. A custom machine is the best.<br>Cheaper: Not much, emachines, gateway and the like, but they are really horrible.<br>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\u0027t get trapped by the dell myth)<br><br>-delgarx, one quick thing for you.<br><br>How about you install MacOS on it. It doesn\u0027t 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\u0027t 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 \u0022Rockwell HCF\u0022 and the first link took me to a download site for a compatible driver for your modem.<br><br>-ranjit, this is for you<br><br>\u00226\/26\/01 3:29 AM<br>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!\u0022<br><br>Um, very few do. It\u0027s an ATX power supply. That means you press and hold the power button until it turns off. That\u0027s the standard for laptops.<br><br>\u0022it hangs every 3-4 hours!\u0022<br><br>Amazing, it\u0027s 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.<br><br>\u0022no wonder compaq has provided a recovery cd along with the machine.\u0022<br><br>Please don\u0027t tell me you actually RESTORED the system whenever it locked. That would just be too funny. <br><br>\u0022i do not know whether \u0027windows me\u0027 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!\u0022<br><br>20 seconds on the Compaq website took me to a microsoft site that recommended downloading the same windows update I talked about above.<br><br>This was meant as a lesson to all and not personal attacks.","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/42640#comment42640","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"greatgerm","rating":"3"}, "single");){kind=link}
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"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\u0027ve ever dealt with. I\u0027ve 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\u0027t 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, \u0022Why are you out of stock? Is this just a generally defective product that everyone is replacing?\u0022 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\u0027m still waiting for my computer that I\u0027ve 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.","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/107943#comment107943","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"hugehead83","rating":"2"}, "single");){kind=link}
![Share](javascript:share_rating({"review_body":"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.","link":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/Compaq\/comment\/40633#comment40633","store_thumb":"http:\/\/www.resellerratings.com\/store\/thumbnail\/Compaq.jpg","store_name":"Compaq","username":"fwroberts","rating":"2"}, "single");){kind=link}
"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."