Is HP any good? Where can I go to find out?

Well, I have sworn off ALL HP products (except higher-end laser printers). No plotters, no desktops, definately no servers, and most-likely never any laptops.

Of course, I've no experience with their laptops, but all the other products mentioned above have burned me and/or my office more than once (then try their tech support... *shudder*).

I would even recommend Compaq or Gateway over them. Dells are nice, IBM's are spotty. It depends what you want to spend and how much you know.

-myrkat

Aren't HP and Compaq the same company?

Yes HP and Compaq have merged and are the same company.

I have 2 HP desktops (well....one's my mom but i use it more then her) and hardware wise they've never given me a problem. I've only had to deal with their support once (before i was computer savy) and from what i remember the guy was really nice, although looking back on it i don't think he had a clue what he was talking about. My only REAL beef with HP is how when my mom got her 2.4Ghz desktop, which is mine now , It didn't come with an XP cd...rather one of those crappy "recovery partitions" that takes up i think like 5 gigs. And worse yet THAT's where all of your drivers are. So naturally when i claimed the computer i deleted that partition and loaded XP Pro on it, but finding the proper drivers (esp sound and keyboard drivers) on their website is a nightmare. So i would recomend if you do get a HP desktop, call and MAKE them send you a driver/OS cd.

Yes, but some of their product lines have not merged / replaced one another... so the Compaq (which are ODM'd by compal and others) are still decent, while the HP's are not (actually, I've heard "ok" and bad for hp notebooks).

-myrkat

Forgot to mention that a friend of mine has an HP notebook and just recantly the backlight went and it's been in their shop for a while now. It was a refurbished if that makes any difference, even though it really shouldn't.

Compaq

Just bought 2 of these for my kidz. Great 'puter for the money. $950 bux ea.
at Sams club.

Model 2178CL


AMD Athlon 2400+ 1.8GHz
512 MB DDR SDRAM
40 GB
64 mb video
DVD/CD-RW
15.0 XGA TFT
1024x768 resolution


......Overall very pleased.
A lot of computer for a reasonable price. The seem to be able to run everything that has been put in them with no hitches. My son like to play the Grand Theft Auto Vice city and it seems to run that just fine. I did notice the fans runs a lot when he plays that game.

For me I will get the 17 inch Sager. Waiting to see if they will upgrade the screen resolution by Sept.

I did notice one quirk with the systems (both) the setup will not support the switch user feature of XP. You have to log off and then log on with the new user. If you switch users the systems crash and revert to a 4 bit video mode fixable only by restoring to an earlier date. This happend on both systems. Some web searching showed others had the same problem. Minor complaint once you remember just not to switch user. Very nice display, system runs cool for all but the intesive games my son likes to play. I wish I had one of these when I was 13!


__________________
Ray from Kingwood, Texas

I had posted the above earlier. Since then I have dl's a patch from Compaq tech support ( new ATI drivers ) that completely cleared up the problem. We are still very pleased with these 2 laptops and have not regretted this purchase one bit. My 13 year old does play games on his....I know they play that Grand theft Auto one a lot....boring to me but they seem to like it.

At any rate........one fine computer for the money, great screen, batteries last the 2 hour trip out to the farm in the van (keeps the kids busy and occupied)

Very pleased overall with this purchase.

I have sworn off all HP products because of the horrible software they come with. Their digital camera software sucks, and is a pain to remove, and the 2 HP printers we have at work never do their job and the software is extremely intrusive. WHenever anyone prints or faxes something on them a window pops up on your screen, and there is no way to get rid of it except to uninstall the printer.Also, paper jams/no paper messages. Its great fun. I dont imagine their laptops are much better, and they are still losing money ;-)

Excellent post / mini-review, Ray! I also am very satisfied with my wife's Compaq Presario 1905 (?) laptop. She's thrilled with it, does everything she needs and as a result has become much more computer-literate (she is a brilliant woman, so that's really no surprise).

It's a solid machine, and for the money (about $1500 at BestBuy back in Nov 02 or so) it's a great deal. Not a power-house like I'd need, but definately no slouch.

-myrkat

Computer Shopper did a review of HP/Compaq, Dell, Gateway and Toshiba's tech support in this months issue. HP/Compaq got a score of 24 out of 25 and was only second to Gateway with a 25/25. Maybe they have changed things for the better there, but all the calls they made to them were answered from India though.

One of my biggest problems with them is also the software, I hate their system restore dics. Why they can't just give out a real copy of windows and a driver cd I don't know. I guess since they market to computer newbies and having to reinstall the OS from scratch would not be possible for some.

I don't care what country the tech support is from (though, it would be nice for US companies to add to the US economy/jobmarket - that's another debate). I just want the Tech support to NOT just read the half-assed knowledgebase that I can get online.

Give me to someone who actually KNOWS what the product and it's quirks are! Or better yet, open up the FULL, REAL knowledgebase (complete with operator comments, etc) to the web - that'll cut down on your telephone bills HP!

I can deal with out-of-country help, I can deal with accents (advantage of native-born americans to understand bastardized pronunciation), but I cannot nor will not deal with ignorant low-on-the-totem-poll "techs"

Perhaps HP/Compaq is turning around (maybe it's the compaq influence, maybe it's the TON of lost customers not coming back) who knows. They blew it for me many times over, so my business goes elsewhere. NOT to HP.

Compaq... as I've stated, I am happy with their product, though I never used their tech support.

Funny thing with that Compaq laptop purchase (my wife's machine) was there was a coupon for an 802.11b PCMCIA card and Base Station for $109 or something. That check was never cashed, not was anything ever responded to. Heh, no prob. 'cause I went to linksys 802.11g setup... but to take a form, coupon and CHECK from a customer and just "lose" it or whatever is shoddy.

Maybe they couldn't afford to do that offer after all and just shredded everything, I don't know...

-myrkat

We used to have one of those Cannon printers/copier/scanners/fax machines and it was the biggest piece of $%!^ ever. It went through ink cartriges about once every 10 color prints, we sent it in 3 times for repairs (each time they said it was fixed, which it wasn't). Since then we got an HP multi function printer and it's been great. Ink last forever and the print quality is amazing in comparison. Since then i have sworn of all CANNON products.

Hi Bob,
You might like to try www.x1000forums.com for info on the x1000 from HP, but before you do check out one of my previous posts here. It may change your mind.

Dell also have a forum which you might find of interest.

Hope this helps.

If I wasn't getting a Sager, I'd go for a Toshiba. They seem to be the next lower spectrum under desktop replacement. To me, they're still powerful, but they aren't quite desktop replacement.

PC Magazine's 2003 Service and Reliability Survey

Great resource:

http://common.ziffdavisinternet.com/...veyResults.pdf

I suppose they couldn't put the Sager's on the list because they don't have a triple hot banana rating.