compaq presario pc

1. Posted: Jul 11 2008

   Got this for a good price. Hate that they filled the two memory slots with 512 each because I wanted to upgrade it to 2gb. I purchased the extra 1gb for $29 when I brought the computer for $262 4th of July weekend. Since I am giving this computer to relatives that have a dinosaur of a computer, I will not use the extra 1gb memory. What will I do with the free 512mb chip? I'm returning the memory to cut down on costs. Now my total is $262, a real good deal for a Pentium Dual-Core Processor that can be upgraded to 2gb. I've used it for a day or two and already have Vista on two other systems, so no complaints from me. The kids are going to love this. If you get it low buy but if it's over $319+ put a little more and get a system with more memory and a little faster processor. Keep looking until you find your value for the buck.

2. Posted: Apr 6 2008

   This computer does not have slots for photo memory cards. It isn't very fast. This is my first time with Vista. I'm not happy with that yet. The price was right and it worked fine right out of the box. I added a 21" wide screen and wireless keyboard/mouse to it and I'm happy, over all, with the set up

3. ( 2 of 2 found this review helpful ) Posted: Feb 28 2008

   Very disappointing. On starting up the PC for the first time, I got an error message "CPU Fan Failure .... system will shut down to prevent damage". After spending over an hour on the phone trouble shooting it with HP's tech support, I had to ship it back for service. Two or three weeks later, it came back. TheY replaced the motherboard and cpu fan. Tried starting it up again. This time, nothing whatosever appeared on the monitor. Spent another 1 or 2 hours on the phone with HP's support people. Finally, it turned out to be a cable inside the PC that was not seated properly. I had to unplug the cable and plug it back in for it to work. Note, this is a cable INSIDE the PC that had to be reconnected. Now it worked, or so it seemed. I tried to add some memory to it (this is only 2 months after first starting up the PC). In the process of adding more memory, I discovered that one of the memory banks was not working. Once again, spent an hour or two on the phone with HP support for them to confirm that one of the memory banks was not working. Just to be clear, that meant that the PC was running on 512MB of RAM instead of 1GB. I called their support people again trying to get my money back or a replacement PC. They told me only a "Case Manager" could do that for me. They promised a case mananger would call me in the next two days. One week later, no phone call. I called again, this time left my cell phone number. Once again was promised a phone call the next day. Nothing. I called again and finally got myself through to a case manager. He told me I should ship the PC back again for repair. I told him the last time I did that it came back defective and I didn't want to go through the hassle of shipping it again. He told me I have to ship it back twice before they'd ship me a replacement PC. I told him that was unacceptable but no budging on their part. The best they could do for me was to send a technician out to my house to fix it instead of me shipping it back. Even that was limited because the case manager told me that the technician would only replace the motherboard, not do any more troubleshooting. I preferred the technician over shipping it back. So we scheduled a technician and they FedEx'd a new motherboard to me for him to install. He came yesterday, spent an hour working on the PC only to find out that lo and behold, the motherboard they sent was missing a plate on the bottom that attaches it to the inside of the PC. So he put in an order for yet another motherboard to be sent to me. That's where things stand today. I can't wait to see what happens next. My fundamental message to HP is: If your Support processes are supposed to keep customers returning to you, you might want to reconsider them. Do you really think I'm ever going to buy another one of your products if you expect that I should have to go through the trouble of shipping something back to you TWICE before you finally give me what I paid for? I know once a blue moon a PC will be shipped with issues. I would have been content if after the first time I shipped it back, and it came back with more problems, you offered to replace it then (or give me my money back). But to insist that I should send it back twice before you replace it with a new machine shows an unbelievable lack of customer understanding. Would you do that? I doubt it. It seems to me your Support policies have been developed from an internal HP perspective as oppsed to a customer perspective. But then again, maybe the object of your policies is not to retain customers, in which case you've certainly succeeded. What's really ironic about this whole experience is that you have probably spent 3 or 4 times the cost of a replacement PC by now with all the hours spent on the phone

See all reviews...