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- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
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10 out of 13 people found this review helpful
1.0 stars
"Looks nice... but is a ticking time bomb of tech support woes"
Pros: Attractive, nice keyboard, cheap
Cons: Breaks down in all the wrong ways, Compaq's tech support is akin to slamming head in door, battery life is so-so
Summary: The thing with these reviews is that people rarely come back after a year of using the product to share their success or horror stories.
At first sight this computer is an easy buy. Cheaply priced, attractive, full of features. Comprable models from Dell cost anywhere from 400- 600 more. What you dont see hidden under the Ipod inspired plastic shell is a ticking timebomb of tech-support woes.
Compaq manages to bring this computer to the general public at such cheap prices by cutting corners on components. I have had the big brother of this laptop for a little over a year and it has already broken down on three different occasions. The harddrive connector is prone to failure (which causes to computer to shut down and can only be fixed by shaking the computerlike an etch-a-sketch to get it to reconnect), and if it happens enough your drive will lock up because it thinks it is being tampered with.
The powersupply / charging connector on the computer is prone to shorting out. This causes the entire unit to get REALLY REALLY REALLY hot during charging, and if the computer is on it wont even charge because it cant draw enough power....
Anyone who has had to deal with HP/Compaq's tech support can attest to how painful the experience. Seriously, some African tribes have "right of passage" ceremonies that are easier than getting Compaq to look at your computer. Getting my computer repaired the first time took 2 weeks on the phone with various tech support people (who strangely dont have supervisors that you can talk to). By the time they decided that my computer's problems were not my fault it took 6 weeks to repair the problem. I build websites for a living... imagine how much fun it was to go without a computer for 2 months total.
Seriously people, if you have the money to spend on a laptop then you obviously need something that is going to be reliable and trustworthy. Take the extra couple hundred dollars and invest in something like a fujitsu or IBM. At the very least settle for a Dell or a Toshiba. But under no circumstance shoud you ever own a Compaq or an HP. Their drive to stay at the head of the market has forced them to cut corners and outsource in all the fields that count. Its your money, spend it like it means something.
- 10 replies to this review
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The Compaq V5210 is a junk heap. My screen went out one day before my warranty expired, and I am still fighting with HP to get it repaired. They are unresponsive, and difficult to deal with. I have owned 5 compaq products over the years, but after this experience, I will never give them my business again. I have been sorely disappointed in their customer service.
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I had the power adapter fail.
10 minutes with tech support, got a new adapter the next day. -
I had this laptop for 1 week before I returned it. I had a legal XP Pro upgrade so I bought it with XP Home. It couldn't be upgraded. The restore disks would not restore it to a workable condition. I had to reformat it with a XP Home CD and build it completely from a bare disk and even that was not successful on the first try. Tech support was useless and told me it couldn't be upgraded unless I paid them another $59 in order to talk to the people who had the magic decoder ring for upgrading. We have eight computers but I'll never get another one from HP/Compaq.
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I had plenty of (negative) experience with HP customer service when I owned an HP printer.
This user's thoughtful review convinced me not to buy this product (Presario V5000z). Back to square one!!
Thanks!!!! -
OK, Compaq doesn't have the best rep as far as tech support goes, but recommending Fujitsu? That's going too far!
Toshiba's quality is a bit dubious since the changes they made on the manufacturing/testing side of things (remember the M50? Sometimes it got so hot it would suddenly reboot. I had to remove a load of bundled progams from a friend's Toshiba because it was taking ages [I mean AGES] to start up. He reported it to Toshiba and they said he'd be waiting about 6 weeks for it and it's cost him ?800 because it was outside warranty - jokers!).
IBM are now manufactured by Lenovo (I work for IBM and I can safely say you'd be wasting your money. They were ery good, but now I'm not sure they justify the asking price).
Dell have been in the techie news recently for exploding batteries. I think that's a REAL problem, right there.
However that's not the point really, is it? I think, unfortunately, that tech support really isn't what it used to be. Generally speaking, if you're not capable of supporting your own HW and SW then you'll be in real trouble when something goes wrong.
Also, you've got to treat each laptop on a model by model basis - you can't go making judgements on one model just because you've used a different model from the same manufacturer. It's like saying a Vauxhall Astra is a bad car, because you once owned an Opel Vectra. -
I have a compaq presario that I have had for less than two years. I have had problems every step of the way from installing the telephone and cable to running/saving files to powerpoint. When I call the tech support they seem to give me the brush off. My computer came with so many junk programs that it seemed to slow my computer down. I have had to purchase one extension for warranty services to get my computer running after I tried to delete some of them. That did me no good because tech support never fixed the problem. Now I'm looking for a lap top to work around the problems with my computer. I'm glad for this user's opinion being so honest. Now I know that it wasn't all me.
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The problem he describes here.. to anyone that knows anything about computers.. is completely USER ERROR. And then he further exascerbated his problems by PURPOSEFULLY SHAKING HIS LAPTOP -- AND ROUTINELY. This is akin to kicking your car on the bumper because you forgot to fill up the gas tank.
First, it probably had nothing to do with the connector. Second, if it did, shaking it didnt help. What would have helped was if you took it to someone or DID THE SIMPLE TASK YOURSELF to open the drive bay and make sure its on there firmly.
It is not uncommon for connectors or screws to be loose on laptops when stores get them in. Shipping, automated manufactoring lines, sloppy or tired assembly line workers... the reasons are endless.
This review is completely erronus and wrong and this is NOT the kind of guy you want to be listening to for advice on anything computer related. Or probably anything else for that matter. -
I don't doubt the poster's experience (nor frustration), but it is such at odds with mine I thought I would post to give some balance. I have purchased three of the "blow out price" Pressarios in the past year - two R4000's and one V5000 model. The keyboard and hard drive on 0ne of the R4000's was having problems - I called HP tech support, was quickly talking to someone (who spoke english well enough) and by the next day HP had delivered a box to my door to put the laptop in. I dropped the computer in the box off in the nearest FedEx box, and three days after that the laptop was back on our porch, repaired. I was blown away at how quick and painless the repair was.
I can't explain the difference between the mine and the original poster's repair experience with HP, but for my part I was more than satisified. The two R4000's survived a year at college with my daughters, and that is pretty rough service - resulting in one broken keyboard (which upon investigation is cheaply built). I do agree that there is a sense of "you get what you pay for" in terms of quality - these budget Presario's are not built for rough service, for sure. But on the whole, given what I paid, I have no regrets. -
I always research laptops and get obsesive and you guys more than any have the same thing... once you find a cool or slim looking laptop or any gadget for that matter its hard to let go. But thanks to him he made me back out of buying the thing on eBay. After loooking into the other reviews from multiple website I made up my deccision even thow you think you shouldn't take these comments from a 11 year-old-boy I think it would be helpful to know that apple and other brands that he states above or better. Even thow I havn't bought one yet he and other peaople helped me narrow my deccision down and now from expierence dont by acceseries before the product... it might just turn into a disaster. If you need help finding somthing for a great price e mail me at gamerallday@gmail.com Please do not contact me for any buisness reasons
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Quoting reviewer's words, " I have had the big brother of this laptop for a little over a year and it has already broken down on three different occasions. ", he/she continues about his/her woes about this older laptop. The review does not pertain to the v5000z as it was released around Nov 2005.
