Customer Reviews

Compaq Presario 2701US Laptop (1-GHz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, 30 GB hard drive)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Contrary to one of the previous reviews, this laptop DOES come with both an image restore cd AND an application/drivers cd as well. I'm using it as I type this review! I have also replaced the XP Home edition with XP Pro. No problems with the Home Edition of XP but I need Pro for business purposes. THIS IS A GREAT LAPTOP! I used to own an IBM Thinkpad which I adored because of it's reliability and sleek performance. (May it rest it peace...) The Presario 2701 smokes it speed wise and has proven to be very reliable in the field. The PIII Chip performs expectedly fast and the 512 MB of RAM gives it plenty of room to work with. The Toshiba CD-R has buffer underrun protection which came as a wonderful surprise. No more burning CD Coasters! Most laptops I checked out didn't have this benefit. The dual-optical bays allow for a DVD-ROM drive so I never have to switch CDs! I get looks of amazement when people see CD trays pop from both sides of the laptop. The big screen is a godsend and is crystal clear at 1400x1050, especially when using XP's Cleartype technology. The Radeon Mobility card is great with 3-D applications and games. Its run every 3-d application and game I've thrown at it. (i.e. Bryce, Max Payne, etc...) Lastly, the speakers are the best I've ever heard. [...] The richness and full bass that emitted from the JBL speakers blew away the rest. I really think this laptop is a terrific powerhouse of functions and should provide more than enough for both the Power User and computer enthusiast.

Like the many reviews before mine, I bought a 2701 loaded - 15 months ago... LOVED IT - BUT!!!!!..... in month 13 the "solder joints" that hold the CPU heatsink in place actually melted and so I called Compaq (now HP) and for $22 they sent me 4 screws to replace the soldered ones.... I don't know if anyone has torn one of these apart before, but it is not a 15 minute project... So, after reviewing the motherboard layout, I decided to let DEC, err Compaq, err, HP put their precious $22 screws in... Well, since I am 2 months out of warranty, NO ONE at Compaq or HP would even discuss this option with me - I had to go to "retail" i.e. Radio Shack (puleeeze) or CompUSA or Best Buy (choke) .. So since CompUSA has the only "tech dept." - went there... $330 later I had a new CPU fan/cooler and the 4 screws installed.. Fine... on with life... But no, the Tech there, shorted out my DC adapter or fried something on the Motherboard, for now it only runs in Batt. And of course, there are no battery chargers for these puppies... So I call the CompUSA back - Tech says "it worked fine when it left..." Sure, it works fine on Battery, but forget AC... So I call their HQ in Dallas - they kick it up to a unit manager - and they'd "get back to me"... Never happened... Meanwhie I have 40GB of data hanging out there... and no one is taking responsibilty.. My fuse shortens... I go into CompUSA - speak with the "manager".. He too promises a call back - NADA... So then I go back to CPQ/HP and have a chat with them - Finally get a sympathetic ear in Seattle - run the SN# and then she kicks me over to the "CPO" (custom products div?) and they blow a fuse because the gal prior was not even supposed to "speak with me" unless I was under warranty... Great Customer Service huh?

I've been in the Computer world for over 18 years - Worked for both DEC and Compaq... and have NEVER seen such a messed up orginization, let alone a @#$% product that melts down after 12 months... Don't believe me, look on all the tech boards or search Google under heat or fan troubles for the 2700 Presario - there are 100's of complaints, yet NO ONE will stand up to the plate...

Yes, the 2701 gives you much bang for the buck - but if you can't get anyone to work on it and/or it costs you more than it's worth, Whats the point???? Go buy a high-end Toshiba or IBM.... I spent the extra $280 for a 2.4 Ghz Toshiba - and it screams - and so far, so good...

By the way, "everyone's" answer to this is "buy the extended warranty" - fine, lesson learned, shame on me... $880 bucks for 1 year extended warranty...????? And they wonder why they are losing marketshare to Dell (hate Dell product, but their Customer Service is the aces) - So maybe CPQ/HP will wake up some day and take notice of those kicking their butts before they file BK or get bought up by IBM or Dell... (I'm 3 for 3 on mergers)

Needless to say, HP/CPQ will not be getting any more of my biz... Same for CompUSA.

Any specfic questions - write me at bjk@kal-tex.com

The best notebook I have ever owned. The bright 15" screen, built-in JBL speakers, dual optical bays that house DVD and CDRW, and the overall speed make this a multi-media powerhouse. As a newly introduced product, I thought it's priced very well. Have to qualify that the 5 stars rating comes from "first drive" impression. Too early to form judgement on reliability and service.

I wrote a review on here about 9 month ago - and have received over 50+ mails with the same complaint - melted standoffs.. and HP/CPQ is STILL denying any knowledge of this problem!!! (This was independantly verified from an email from HP C/S received 3 days ago from another guy having a meltdown with his 2710 and HP service (or lack of))... - Even though "the fix" and remedy is posted all over CPQ's own tech web site as well as HP's!! -- You doubt me? Call them up, and they'll give you the replacement part # for the needed standoff screws for this "unknown problem".... Sigh...

Anyway, it has been suggested to me, since I seem to be the unofficial point guard for this one - that we file a class-action lawsuit of sorts - I'm not big on this - and really don't have the time - But I am so pissed off at CPQ/HP and their plain ignorance and constant denial of "any problems" that I do think it's time we do something about this collectively.

So, if anyone else is interested in filing, write me at:

CLASSACTION@KAL-TEX.COM

Tell me your woes, what part of the country you're in (or abroad... as one chap from the UK has emailed me) - and we'll see what kind of headcount we'll get, and if it's worth going after?

I know personally that I am out the cost of the 2701 unit ($1900) + the bogus repair ($400) and the cost to replace - $1750 -- So, if we get enough folks together - I think that'll catch their attention.

GOOD LUCK!

Brent

I had some problems installing win2k server on this, but it may very well be because both w2k server cd's that I have are scratched. I wiped XPhome off and put on XPpro just fine. Compaq has [bad] customer service and finding drivers for certain devices if you want to deviate from XP may be troubling -- they only have some on their site.

I wish it could play CDs even when its not booted up (pretty common feature now).

Other than that, it's nice to have the dual optical drives rather than the combo drives that everyone has -- that way you can burn straight from one to the other and cut out a lot of time. Graphics are solid for it's price -- I'll have to upgrade in 9-12 months though. It can handle most any 3d games that are out right now if I take off the vSync option and optimize the card for performance over graphics in the control panel.

Good price. Looks nice (graphically and physically). Runs quiet. Very stable (I leave it on for weeks sometimes). Comes with an extra battery and swappable drive capability (swap a HD, floppy, extra battery or whatever). Great battery life! Woops my friends HP.

P.S. Be wary of any laptops with "good" native resolutions. This is 1400x1050...anything higher on a 15" laptop is almost unusable.

Excellent screen and incredible speakers. Performance is ok. A bit heavy but is worth it. Lots of nice features. Better looking than Dell or Acer, but not as nice as Vaio's. Mouse pad sometimes behaves erratically. Great price! Installing RedHat 7.2 as a dual boot system (shared with XP) is a piece of cake.

I've had the Presario for a week or so, and so far I have been really impressed. My initial concerns about possibly inferior Compaq quality (judging by my experience with their desktops) have been proven unfounded: this is a nicely crafted piece of machinery, good design, great ergonomics, solid, sturdy, ports nicely located, drive bays function well. You get everything you could possibly want in the way of connections and options - double USB, Firewire, PS/2, built-in modem and NIC, docking option, and with the two optical drives plus the drive bay battery you're really set to configure yourself for anything.

This is *not* a Vaio killer - it has the heft of an old fashion laptop, but with that comes a sense that it'll last through a few hundred flights and being thrown around the office. If you don't mind the schlep you are rewarded with an incredible screen (with XP's Cleartype on it is simply astounding - I prefer it over my desktop's 15" KDS RAD5 LCD screen), excellent performance (the PIII and 512Mb RAM makes most everything I've thrown at it hum along happily: Photoshop, Premiere, Quark Express, software development tools, VPN internet connections - so far not a single crash). I'll let others rave or rant about XP, but contrary to other reviewers here I've had no problems what so ever with the configuration shipped - it works out of the box, no problems. My other choice would have been a Dell Inspiron, but having compared the two, I'm confident I made the right choice.

Compaq 2701 does not work at the moment, because of some problems with Windows XP. It never happened neither to my previous Compaq Presario 1694 nor to the desktops I used. In addition, no restore cd, nor an application/drivers cd were included, so I can not do anything myself with this problem.

I bought this laptop about 10 months ago because I required a computer, but being on the move, also needed portability. The 2701US was the absolute best then, and 10 months later, not much has changed. Many newer laptops have faster processors, going as high as 2GHz, however not many of them have 512 MB RAM. It also used SDRAM, so you are getting high speed RAM as well. The 15.1" active-matrix display provides crystal clear display, with a wider viewing angle than most I've seen. The feature that impressed me the most was the dual CD drives. Most laptops with CD-RW and DVD drives have either a combo drive, or you have the swap the CD-RW and DVD drives in and out of the same bay. This laptop actually has 2 separate drives, a DVD-ROM on the left side, and a CD-RW on the right side. The CD-RW bay also doubles up as a hot-swappable 3.5" floppy drive. The dual drives make for great convenience when trying to copy a CD. The DVD player is also a great feature. There is nothing better than sitting on a long flight watching a DVD movie on your laptop. It also passed a way a lot of waiting time in airports. The only problem with traveling with the laptop is that the dual drives make for a laptop a little heavier than most. If you can get past this single inconvienence, you will see that the features it has makes it worth the extra weight. If you are looking for a gaming machine, this is not for you. I am an avid video game player, and although this machine exceeded my expectations as far as compatibility goes, an 8MB video card can only get you so far. Although this was able to smoothly handle most games that required a video card double that size, a lot of newer games require 32MB and beyond, and this absolutely cannot handle that. It was able to handle a game as powerful as Ghost Recon and NHL 2002, however for some reason it was unable to handle games like Rollercoaster Tycoon and The Game of Life. For normal application use, such as office programs, the internet, DVD movies, and even photo editing software, this ran perfectly. I also use Macromedia Flash to make movies, and this had no problem handling that. The battery life was outstanding on this computer, and it even came with a back-up that fits in the CD-RW bay. Overall, the computer was pretty reliable. The only crashes I had were when I tried to do things on it that a laptop has no business doing. The boot up time was average speed for a laptop. Now that I have settled down, I have sold my 2701US and bought a destop that is twice as powerful for 3/4 the price, but is not becuase I was dissatisfied with my 2701US. It just that laptops are made for a specific purpose, and if you try to pretend this is a desktop and use it accordingly, you will be bitterly disappointed. If you want a great Laptop computer, look no further. The 2701US is a great buy.

I bought a Compaq 2700 series computer about a month go, and I've been extremely pleased with it. It is a real powerhouse rivaling my desktop XP1800+ system. The screen, keyboard and sound are excellent. The system has excellent build quality. During the last month, I've been running the system hard night and day. I've run some programs that had the CPU running 100% for 8 hours at a stretch. It has been absolutely solid. I've never had a hang or crash -- it's performance is flawless. I highly recommend this system to anyone looking for a powerful system and willing to carry an 8-pound notebook.