compaq notebooks?

[jjoel]

whats the overall rating on compaq laptops? i saw one on their site with an amd 1500 xp+ for about $1000. i was wondering if compaq's are the "packard bell" of notebooks.

[jjoel]

and is their a way to upgrade a notebooks usb ports from 1.1 to 2.0?

and how long does a typical battery last for a compaq notebook?
and how much does a second battery cost?

LOL thanks. i'm thinking about putting my truck up for a notebook for college. i like the idea of running with athlong power and ddr ram.

[gopi_vs]

Compaq notebooks are Compaq notebooks. HP has taken over Compaq but they are not HP notebooks. Compaq division is still alive delivering compaq products.

You can look for a PCMCIA USB 2.0 card. You can then have both the USB versions on ur notebook. The battery would typically last for atleast 3-4 hrs. A second battery should cost u around 150 US dollars.

[jjoel]

are the notebooks usually pretty good quality for a cheaper brand? i've heard some good things about it but would like an over all rating.

[hiredgoonz]

I've had pretty good luck with my Compaq laptops. On my second one now, sold the first, but as far as I know, it still works. My dad has had good luck with his. We got our current ones around the same time, almost two years ago and they still (shouldn't say this) work fine...

The one thing about them I have noticed is that with the bargain level laptops, they'll only have one PCMCIA slot which can be a pain and I had some issues upgrading mine from Win ME to Win 2K because there were no modem drivers, but under XP all is well.

A friend of mine had trouble with his after he spilled coffee into it. He sent it back to Compaq for repair, but it was never really the same. Eventually, the backlight went out and I don't know what he did with it after that.

But overall, I would recommend them, just don't give them coffee

[Carolyna]

Whee...working in a college bookshop computer repair, I have a thought or two on this. First, unless you plan to service your own computer, you might want to check with the college you want to attend and see which systems they recommend. For example, my college claims to support Macs, but there are no tech people on staff who know much about them. Second, your college might be able to get you the computer you want at education pricing AND cover it with their own warrenty which means you won't have to pay for computer help on campus. I've had no problems with any of the compaqs that have come in to be serviced, they seem as good as any other computer as long as you take care of them.

~Caroline