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If you are shopping for a cheap PC, the Compaq Presario will probably do but you seriously have to consider the extended warranty. but to date, have not heard back from Compaq/HP.I subsequently bought a DELL desktop as a replacement. Otherwise, the cost/hassle of fighting over warranty or data recovery is just too great. My Compaq Presario Desktop broke down exactly one week after the first year warranty expired and since I did not buy the extended warranty (my bad but who would expect a Compaq computer to breakdown so soon.)., I was told that I have to pay 100% of the repair cost (the Customer Service team's remote diagnostics was that the motherboard that was probably faulty). I requested for an exception to the warranty coverage (1 week after 1 year, come on).
HP must own stock in disk manufacturers. And I received a new computer game this Christmas (2008) that I was impressed and thrilled worked so well. There are too many pre-installed programs on it and HP, in it's eagerness to make it user friendly, has instead made it more complicated than it needs to be. When a program crashes (which is rare) it saves the files that were affected so they can be rescued. I bought this computer for myself for Christmas, 2007.
I've never had Windows Vista crash though. I hate the backup system (part of the HP Total Care Advisor). After using Windows for 15 years, and having every version since 3.1, that has been really impressive. Spore is the game and it seemed it might tax the system, but it's worked wonderfully. And now, the back up doesn't seem to be working at all. It won't "sleep" any longer.But.overall it's been really good.
It has Windows Vista pre-installed. It does not give the user enough control over what is backed up. No problems setting up hardware or software. I've been very happy with my computer over all. So I'll be backing up on my own again.Another early issue was that the stand-by quit working within a few weeks. And yes, I made sure it was set to only back up the changes since the last backup.
I'm very computer experienced and I find all the pre-installed stuff to be messy and bothersome. Even if I knew there were just a few additional files added, in order to do a backup it would need 5-6 DVD disks.
Nice to look at. I gave up. Two or three times EVERY DAY I would get a random error appearing from the system tray, and after googling it found out it was a failure in the intergrated graphics card. It's fairly good, standard sound that most every computer produces. Too much of a hassle, so I've given up thus far.
Too many problems and horrible customer service. You can cut down a little if you turn off sidebar or Aero, but again I expect that I should be able to use all the advertised features of the PC immediately out of the box. The computer would work slowly for about another 30-60 seconds after the message would appear, and it would black screen and freeze. From the get go, as soon as I installed Vista I started getting errors that crashed my computer. As for the bad.
Although it's going to be horrible to be without a computer for a month or more, based on what others users have said.So the graphics card issue has been resolved and maybe everyone won't have memory card reader problems. Add in your web browser and media player, and you're already using all of your physical memory and additional virtual memory, which slows your computer down and doesn't work as efficiently as physical memory. I've resorted to using yet another USB cord to attach my camera. although I wouldn't say it's "high definition" as the advertisements boast. Today as I was writing this, it sounded like it went into hyperdrive for a second and I thought it was going to blow.
As other users have mentioned, the integrated graphics card isn't quiet powerful enough to run Windows Aero, which makes the detail on the screen much nicer and adds a few desirable features. you can't take it back to Best Buy without paying unless you paid extra for their warranty, and when you call HP they expect you to open the computer and detach wires unless you want to wait forever to send it back.I'll start with the good. Eventually I will try calling HP again and telling them I tried a system restore (even though I didn't) and hopefully get the card reader fixed. I noticed that someone said the computer could upgrade to 4 gigs of RAM, but I don't believe that is true. I installed a CPU/RAM monitor, and running Vista with Aero and sidebar and no other programs utilized roughly 75-80% of my RAM. Their customer service is outsourced, as most are these days. However it seems to have returned to normal, I just hope it's not a sign of ANOTHER problem I will have.Overall, I wouldn't really recommend this PC unless you're getting a great deal on it.
If you do end up buying it, be sure to get an extended warranty from either HP or your retailer. I would recommend looking at other PC manufacturers and reading reviews before buying, because for $450 you can do a lot better. Then I read online that updating the BIOS driver may help. I did so repeatedly and nothing changed. But this one applies to everyone so read carefully.
I bought this computer at Best Buy, October 2007, on sale for roughly $450 or so. So much storage for my music, pictures, etc. In all the research and phone calls and everything I've gone through with the PC, I've only ever seen 2 gig as the max. The base warranty is crappy, as others have mentioned. here we go. Not a bad computer for the money, however when having to contact HP for anything you will want to punch yourself in the head. I would've had to back up all of my pictures, music, etc.
Windows Vista Premium is nice, it does have its bugs (I'll explain later) but it's a fairly decent OS. I hadn't bought a computer in 5 years, so getting headphone and aux jacks on the front as well as a memory card reader was a nice perk, although I think that's pretty standard nowadays. All the others work fine if I borrow a friend's card to test. And there's only 2 memory slots which are both utilized with two 512mb memory sticks. It was terribly frustrating to speak to someone I could barely understand that had to repeat everything I said back to me. So now instead of buying a 1 gig memory stick to add, I have to buy 2 if I want the full 2 gigs.
I called HP about that as well, and they wanted me to do a system restore to try and fix it, which would essentially wipe out my computer. You may want to consider upgrading the graphics card if you want more flawless performance graphics-wise, and definitely upgrade if you are a gamer of any sort.Also, the 1 gig of memory may seem like a lot, but if you're a Windows XP user be warned that Vista is a MEMORY HOG. I only paid $450 and I don't feel I'm getting my money's worth. About time.The memory card reader worked great for a few months. Then the SD slot, which is the ONLY ONE I ever use, stopped working. to buy a base model computer and get a 320 gig hard drive is awesome. Unfortunately, I could not find the model number for the motherboard in any of the paperwork or in any Vista settings. Then the old memory is sitting around useless.Finally, the CPU fan was getting a little loud as of late.
The hard drive is HUGE. You can disable Aero but that seems retarded because that's one of the very few perks of Vista Premium over Vista Basic, so why give the consumers an OS the computer has trouble supporting. Finally, a good 6 months or more after I purchased the computer, Intel released an update which came through automatic update and it finally fixed the problem. I listen to a lot of music on it and with slightly upgraded speakers from my old PC that include a woofer, I get very nice sound. I made multiple calls to HP and Intel, and kept getting told that I needed to update my graphics drivers.
Since I am giving this computer to relatives that have a dinosaur of a computer, I will not use the extra 1gb memory. The kids are going to love this. Hate that they filled the two memory slots with 512 each because I wanted to upgrade it to 2gb.
Now my total is $262, a real good deal for a Pentium Dual-Core Processor that can be upgraded to 2gb. 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. I've used it for a day or two and already have Vista on two other systems, so no complaints from me.
Got this for a good price. I'm returning the memory to cut down on costs. Keep looking until you find your value for the buck.
I purchased the extra 1gb for $29 when I brought the computer for $262 4th of July weekend. What will I do with the free 512mb chip.
I'm not happy with that yet.The price was right and it worked fine right out of the box. This is my first time with Vista. I added a 21" wide screen and wireless keyboard/mouse to it and I'm happy, over all, with the set up This computer does not have slots for photo memory cards. It isn't very fast.
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