Compaq Presario 2100US Laptop (1.60-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive)

by Compaq

Product Details

Product Manual [1.13mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 14 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 12 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00007M5VO
• Item model number: DB954A#ABA
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #12,391 in Computers & Accessories (See Top 100 in Computers & Accessories)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 19, 2003

Product Description

The Presario 2100US impressive "starter" notebook PC boasts all the latest technology, functionality, and performance at a hard-to-pass-up price. Enhance your mobile lifestyle with this light, lean traveling machine. Explore the Internet with the built-in 56K modem and 10/100BaseT Ethernet LAN connection. Work smarter with the preloaded software. Watch movies and play games with the integrated DVD/CDRW drive. Team with digital cameras, scanners, and photo printers via two USB ports. Marvel at the graphics created by the ATI MOBILITY RADEON. Enjoy the sound quality of CDs, Internet radio, and MP3 files afforded by the Sound Blaster Pro-compatible audio. Effortlessly adjust the volume (e.g., in web conferences) using the external volume and mute controls. Use the convenient, intuitive touch pad for pointing and scrolling your way through files and web sites.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Reasonable Configuration - A Good Value for Money !, February 27, 2003

By 

Raj Bharti "Sunny in Seattle" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Compaq Presario 2100US Laptop (1.60-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

Compaq Presario 2100US Notebook PC is not top of the line notebook but it's not bad at all. For the price it's a very good value for money (Mail-in Rebate + Free external floppy drive from HPShopping.com after mail-in rebate). I did comparison-shopping between multiple Compaq Presario's and Toshiba Satellite's and went with this one because of the following:

PROS:
1. Reasonable Configuration
1.1) Intel Celeron (1.6 GHz) is not a bad processor. In today's race for 2.4+ Pentium P4s you have to pay at least two hundred bucks more just to acquire a better processor. In my opinion, it's not worth the price unless your needs are business-critical.
1.2) 256MB DDR SDRAM is good enough to start with; 512 would be better. Anyway, it's expandable to 1 GB, so when the memory prices drop, upgrade it!
1.3) A 14.1-in XGA TFT display screen is not too small when compared with 15"
1.4) 30GB enhanced-IDE hard disk drive, a DVD+CD-RW combo drive. Video Graphics Card and sound-quality are OK
1.5) An integrated 56K modem and 10/100 Ethernet network card etc.

2. Good Looks
- I like it's light-gray looks

CONS
1. Touch pad mouse is not friendly at all. Other brands offer better precision.
2. Pre-installed CD burner software cannot burn Data CD's - it presents options for music CD's etc. I still need to install some other software's and play with them to burn Data CD's
3. Some people may find cooling-fan and hard-disk a little noisy & annoying - Being a computer professional I'm OK with those
4. Tons of useless software is preinstalled for you that you may not use in your life. Many software's will ask you to buy their full versions for enhanced-features.

Many people buy bigger & better machines that they don't really need. If 2100US fits your requirements then it's a good buy for its competitive price!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Low-price Solution, April 10, 2003

By 

Eric Nelson "alipius" (RACINE, WI USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Compaq Presario 2100US Laptop (1.60-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

This notebook computer is certainly a great way to go for anyone looking for a low-cost, home laptop.

The processor is certainly fast enough to accomplish most anything typical home users are planning on doing. As long as you are not planning on running several RAM eating programs (e.g., Adobe Illustrator and Freehand) simultaneously you will never really occur to you to call your computer is "slow." I am running a full Microsoft Office Suite and programs like Adobe Photoshop (also Elements) and have not run into any significant memory or speed issues.

The computer runs a little slow at start up, but otherwise it moves right along. I would recommend not installing every little program that you can on this (or any machine) since doing so will chip away at your memory and create a slower and less stable system over time.

The touch pad isn't the greatest I've used, but there is a nicely placed mouse port so I can use my favorite mouse most of the time anyway.

Compared to other notebooks, the keyboard is certainly up to par, though not as nice as some desktop keyboards (which you could also easly plug into the notebook).

I'm not sure why the other review was unable to find an adequate CD burning utility. It has Roxio which is fine for music, data, or CD-RW burning.

The screen plays DVDs very nicely, while the computer has several DVD player pre-installed to choose from.

I am very happy with this machine. It's certainly not as powerful as comparably-priced desktop machines, but I'll the slight differences in performance to have the portablity. (The battery has about 3.5 hours of life when fully charged.)

Like any computer, getting rid of the pre-loaded promotional software (AOL et al) is annoying. But the money Compaq gets from these placements means I was able to secure a great quality notebook for [a great price]. It's a great way to go.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Extremely Unreliable and undurable product, May 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Compaq Presario 2100US Laptop (1.60-GHz Celeron, 256 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive) (Personal Computers)

Although on paper, this computer seems to be a powerful computer with a great deal of features, in practice, the gains of these features are destroyed when you consider the computer's unreliability. In the first 4 months that I owned this machine, the sound card speaker outlet became loose internally and ceased to function. The CD-RW drive refuses to fixate any CDs, despite the fact that I have used multiple pieces of software. I have attempted to update the firmwire on this drive, but it does not solve the problem. The battery also failed, and ran for only 20 minutes. I brought my computer in for repairs, but after waiting 3 days, I was told that the sound card problem could not be fixed, and I would have to pay to replace the entire motherboard. They insunuated that I had caused the breakage, alluding to an abstract concept they invented called "physical damage". The only physical damage that occured was due to the poor and unacceptable design of the sound card outlet. Regarding my CDRW drive, they told me it was working perfectly. At the time, I assumed that meant they fixed it for me, however, it still refuses to write. I'm very upset that they lied to me regarding the CDRW drive. The did however, replace the battery. In the end, I ended up spending 60 dollars on a USB sound card that is also unreliable. Instead of having a convinent and easy to use laptop, I've ended up with a laptop that requires 3 wires at all time to keep it running, and is useless at burning CDs. I'm very dissapointed at the Customer Service Centre. It has been of almost no use to me, and has not taken responsibility for the shortcomings of this computer.

I urge anyone considering this product to look to another brand that does not use cheap low-quality parts and cuts corners with its customer service department. I will never buy another compaq.