Customer Reviews

Compaq Presario F750US 15.4-inch Laptop (AMD Athlon 64 X 2 Dual Core TK-57 Processor, 1 GB RAM, 120 GB Hard Drive, Vista Premium)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Perfect for email, web browsing, basic photos, basic videos, music, and word processing. Probably not powerful enough for high end graphics, video editing, or gaming. But, plenty capabale for everyday computing. I've used it to edit and create a home video DVD and it worked very well. What else can I say? For under $500 (home deopot) this is a great value. The screen looks great and feature set is the best I've seen for the price.

Update (7/21/08): I've had this for about six months now... no problems. It's still a nice computer for the money. I made a great 1 hour DVD for my daughter's one year birthday using a ton of high quality pics, videos, and songs and it handled it like a champ. Granted, a really high-end computer might have done it quicker, this guy came through and got it done. I'd still recommend it.

Pros: Price to performance ratio, weight, screen, performance (Windows XP or Vista with 2gb+ RAM)

Cons: My only complaints about this product are pretty petty but nonetheless they are:
1.) No ExpressCard ability. I realize HP has to make cuts somewhere to allow for such a low price, but I really would like to have seen this added. Definitely not a deal breaker tho.
2.) MS Vista and HP installed bloatware. Without first uninstalling the bloatware and tweaking Vista, the laptop runs kinda pokey. However after the tweaks mentioned below, the laptop runs Vista pretty well, which is a feat in itself, no matter how good the hardware is. 3.) No official XP downgrade support via HP. I had to franken-force install the audio and modem drivers. Audio works but has quirks (ie-Volume does not mute when headset plugged in.You have to mute, THEN plug headset in which will then disengage the external speakers and allow the headphones to work) also the mic doesn't work. Again, neither bother me too much.

Other Thoughts: This is an AWESOME laptop for the money! Once I uninstalled the HP bloatware, Vista performance improved dramatically. I then disabled search indexing(right click on drive, select properties and uncheck "index this drive for faster searching"; then disabled SuperFetch(Start, type in services.msc and press Enter, Scroll down to SuperFetch and select Disable); and finally disabled all the eye candy via Advance Settings and Performance settings. With the exception of network performance, these simple settings gave Vista about 85% of the peppy'ness of XP. I even went back to full eye candy(re-enabled Aero) and honestly don't see too much of a performance hit1 This hardware setup is amazing for the money! I did, however, setup a Windows XP partition with gparted and am now dual-booting so I have the best of both worlds.See the following for XP downgrade info:
http://forums12.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?admit=109447627+1204180955784+28353475&threadId=1191678

I have upgraded to 2GB RAM since I originally wrote this review. I also re-enabled SuperFetch and added a 2GB SanDisk Ultra II SD card to enable ReadyBoost. Vista runs so much better now! It's actually usable even with all eye candy enabled. I rarely even go into XP anymore. This laptop really gives my desktop a run for its money! Excellent buy!

I bought this to use at out church for use with Power Point mostly. I was really afraid of using Vista but found that it was very easy to switch form XP to Vista and now I actually like Vista better. I was very pleasantly pleased with the performance of this computer for the price (under $500 at Office Depot after rebates). I did however find it a little slow so I invested in 2GB of RAM and that really makes a difference. I recommmend doing that if you buy this computer but for the money, it is a great buy. I recommend this to anyone that dosn't need it for high end gaming or anything like that.

For under $500 (Staples) this is an amazing laptop.I dreaded the thought of VISTA and have been surprised how easy the change from using XP has been. I have mostly older peripheral devices and with the exception of a scanner all drivers needed were easy to find and install. VISTA open programs quickly and shuts them down even faster. My first boot took less than a half hour...not too bad IMHO. DVD software is weak but I had other burning software to use that I like better. A pleasant surprise is the light weight 5.7 lbs. Battery life is average, at times a little slow due to 1GB memory. Another GB will really help. I recommend this for basic computing not heavy duty gaming or graphic processing. I even had a favorite Win95 program install without a hitch. Enjoy it!

I actually looked for a laptop running a AMD CPU. I was really trying to support AMD rather then Intel. I am quite happy with the F750us. Except for the fact that Compaq/HP put so much preview software and load their own diagnostic and redundent help tools that the OS already has.But, I guess some rookie computer user's will find it useful? I find battery life pretty decent at about 3 to 3 1/4 hours with wifi on. I find Vista Premium the right version for this laptop.I also find that when adding RAM to 2GB it makes the computer perform much better!This is by far a good buy for the money! After you get rid of the bloatware!

Purchased a HP/Compaq F750US just before Circut City announced they were filing chapter 11. Oops.

My last Compaq Presario had done a full 4 years before a hd failure lead me back to the store. I figured I'd try another one. Big Mistake.

I don't know where they outsourced their quality control to, but it sure must've saved them a LOT of money. It ran ok for the first month or so, then it started making noises in the fan, getting loud enough I thought it was about to throw a rod or something (old VW reference). The fan noise would get louder and softer at various times, all accompanied by hot laps. trying to use "wind in a can" to clean it out had no effect. Calls to HP brought no help or suggestions, aside from sending it in and paying more than I paid for it to have it fixed.

After a couple months of this fan noise, the wi-fi goes out. Fortune was with me though, as I had a wi-fi modem floating around. That worked for a while, until I notice that the internal wireless was working again after waking it up one morning. Ooooooookaaaaaaayyyy. Wi-fi internet is intermittant from then on.

Next issue, about a week or so after it's warrenty ran out, was it started to power on, then quit and shut down after a second or so. Then it would try again after a few seconds. Looping...

Investigation found that a few other HP/Compaq models had actually been recalled due to the wireless/power-on looping issue, but this model isn't one of them. Perhaps if there's a class action suit starting, I'll be able to get something out of them then.

Until then, I'd suggest staying away from any HP/Compaq products. Their quality has just taken too big a hit lately. Then their customer service quality declined to match.

This is a great machine when it is working properly. Several times when I turn it on, the battery will power on and the ventilator will hum, but the screen will not turn on to Windows. On occasion, I've had to wait two hours for the battery to power down so I can try again to turn it on. I have to keep its battery level low so when I turn it off, I won't have to wait long to get my computer up. Sometimes it takes several tries on an empty battery freshly plugged in for the computer to finally boot up properly. When it works correctly, the computer is perfect. I love its ample memory and am impressed with how many applications it can manage at a time.

This is an OK notebook for the price, but mine developed an annoying buzzing noise after a week of light use (maybe a problem with the CPU fan). The noise now exists whenever it is turned on an is loud enough to get "shush" glances from people in the library. COMPAQ support was initially evasive and in denial, but eventually agreed to accept for repair. Otherwise, has been a good performer - I got rid of Norton and other bloatware. Excellent screen, OK battery life. Hopefully noise problem will be repaired.

ive had this laptop for about 3 years i think, maybe a little less. it works great, although vista is a slight downside. ive never had a problem with it. the battery life is about an hour and a half until it needs to shut down. id recommend it for just home usage, since its hard drive its only 120 gb, its not a great computer for someone who is downloading a lot of video and music. - - 5 star review because its reliable and it is what it says.

I purchased this product refurbished, and it's been great. For the price, it was an amazing buy, for the price of a new one, I would say it depends on what you're looking for in a laptop. The only complaint I've had so far, and I can't really call it such, because I knew this when I purchased it, is that I wish it had a little more RAM. The 1GB is plenty for most applications, but for gaming and such, you're going to want to upgrade. If you have the opportunity to purchase this laptop refurbished, I say go for it. It's well worth the cost.