$399 laptop Compaq

[freshspace]

Originally posted by: msi1337
freshspace, I tried to send you a PM, but it was blocked

to answer your questions

yes, staples will take coupons from comptetitors.

like office max, office depot.

I have found that it is pretty hard for them to honor this policy. Especially after the purchase has already been made.

also, the standard warranty is 1 year through Compaq/HP

MSI1337,

Thank you for the information. Maybe, I can do a return/repurchase with the coupon. Will they do this for me? Also, is the $100 warranty worth it?

 

[msi1337]

the hard part is getting staples to honor their own coupon matching policy. If you find a nice manager, you may get lucky... but for the most part they are going to give you excuses... like its a printed coupon, the item was already on sale, etc.

and as for the warranty.. all warranties are piece of mind. If you feel safer at night knowing you have a 2 year warranty, more power to you. Personally, I know how to fix these pretty easily, so I did not get it. Also, I won this laptop in a contest so I didn't have the option.

 

[msi1337]

Originally posted by: msi1337
for those wanting to use Windows XP on this notebook

check out this link

I havent tested it yet, but will update later with results

I have confirmed that these drivers work great!

you will only be missing one item, which is a driver for the Quick Launch buttons. You can get the update for that here:

link to Quick Launch SoftPaq sp35353

I now have Windows XP professional running 100% on this notebook.

 

[jrichrds]

Originally posted by: msi1337

Originally posted by: msi1337
for those wanting to use Windows XP on this notebook

check out this link

I havent tested it yet, but will update later with results

I have confirmed that these drivers work great!

you will only be missing one item, which is a driver for the Quick Launch buttons. You can get the update for that here:

link to Quick Launch SoftPaq sp35353

I now have Windows XP professional running 100% on this notebook.

the only issue is that the wifi light stays amber. It still turns on and off with switch, but the light doesnt change to blue. Seems pretty minor to me!

Do you know what the Quick Launch driver actually does? Is it for the Fn-F1, Fn-F2 keys, etc. keys or something else? Because many of those Fn keys work without the driver.

As for the WiFi light staying amber, there is a fix for that in the HP forums that you linked to when I was browsing around earlier today. Involves a registry edit...I'll have to try to find it again.

 

[msi1337]

to fix amber wifi light

You need to add these two parameters to the Registry under
HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class\{ID}\xxxx

do a search for Atheros in HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Class

"gpioPinFunc0"="3"
"gpioFunc0ActHi"="0"

Restart your notebook, + Blue lights!

credit and more explanation

 

[Jawadali]

Wow, thanks for all of the help in getting XP to work on this laptop, msi1337. I had just about made up my mind to return it when I get home this weekend, but now I'm having second thoughts.

I still think that I'll be looking for a Dell Vostro deal for better XP support (I hope another deal like the $599 with the 8600m GT comes around soon).

I did not know about or get get the FAR printer, nor did I get the OfficeMax $100 off coupon (did not want to try this since it is hit or miss with printed coupons, especially since there is no OfficeMax in the local area), so I paid the full $399. I would have definitely kept it if I had gotten either the printer or the $100 off or the $40 off via online pre-purchase like a few folks here did.

As a side note, has anyone measured the actual battery life in any way (I know it's rated at 2.5 hours)? I was wondering how much battery life it would get in a low-power mode. I always thought that the Core 2 series CPUs had the Athlon X2s/Turion X2s beat in this category, but I could be wrong.

 

[2Xtreme21]

Originally posted by: Jawadali
Wow, thanks for all of the help in getting XP to work on this laptop, msi1337. I had just about made up my mind to return it when I get home this weekend, but now I'm having second thoughts.

I still think that I'll be looking for a Dell Vostro deal for better XP support (I hope another deal like the $599 with the 8600m GT comes around soon).

I did not know about or get get the FAR printer, nor did I get the OfficeMax $100 off coupon (did not want to try this since it is hit or miss with printed coupons, especially since there is no OfficeMax in the local area), so I paid the full $399. I would have definitely kept it if I had gotten either the printer or the $100 off or the $40 off via online pre-purchase like a few folks here did.

As a side note, has anyone measured the actual battery life in any way (I know it's rated at 2.5 hours)? I was wondering how much battery life it would get in a low-power mode. I always thought that the Core 2 series CPUs had the Athlon X2s/Turion X2s beat in this category, but I could be wrong.

I tested it today when I got home from work. I had it on and basically doing web surfing and I got about 2.5 hours continuous work until I got the low battery warning. I'm REALLY impressed with this laptop.

I just wish I coulda gotten the $100 coupon, but I didn't realize it existed.

 

[beat mania]

Here's my battery test result using Battery Eater, which does some calculation and so some 3D display to drain the battery.

Text

I think my battery's a dud, doesn't seem to charge to full capacity. Gonna give HP a call tomorrow and see if I can get another battery.

 

[Karaktu]

Now sold out online.

 

[Jawadali]

Originally posted by: beat mania
Here's my battery test result using Battery Eater, which does some calculation and so some 3D display to drain the battery.

Text

I think my battery's a dud, doesn't seem to charge to full capacity. Gonna give HP a call tomorrow and see if I can get another battery.

(You might already know this, but) I've heard you may have to give a new battery a few charge/discharge cycles before it reaches the maximum capacity.

If you have gone through a few cycles before posting that result, then yeah, something is wrong somewhere (unless the 3D graphics portion of the test takes up significantly more battery life than basic web surfing/office tasks).

 

[msi1337]

for anyone who missed out.. I am selling the same model here**SOLD**

 

[Karaktu]

Originally posted by: msi1337
for anyone who missed out.. I am selling the same model here

Like I said, sold out online.

 

[gigahertz20]

It's funny how there are like now several dozen auctions on e-bay for this laptop, I'm going to watch a few and see what they go for.

 

[beat mania]

I think Staples is going to get a lot of returns on these Damn ebayers.

 

[magomago]

still researching after so much time =-=

 

[htne]

I like mine. It came in yesterday, and I installed the 2 gig memory stick, blew off Vista, and installed XP. No problems, looks nice, works fine. Very nice notebook for $399 plus sales tax ($32) plus 2 gig ($32, NewEgg) for a grand total of $464.

 

[tealk]

About a month ago, BestBuy had these for $383.99. Don't know why I'm saying it. Just thought I would

 

[Chadder007]

Wow, I expected a Sempron, 512mb RAM and Vista Basic for that price...

 

[SteveBonds]

Anyone seen this deal available online?

 

[bryanW1995]

Originally posted by: Dazed and Confused
Personally, all Presario's scare the shit out of me. Pre-Sari-O , almost sounds like they're appologizing in advance like they are really saying " Pre sorry, yo. " Spooky how that phrase and that Compaq model line sound so much alike.

If you get any Compaq/HP laptop make danged sure you stay on top of the latest BIOS as they seem to have a lot of issues with the shipping BIOS revision causing serious problems with thier laptops lately.

I don't know about "lately", but I have a presario R4000 that's never had any bios updates and runs great.


btw, I didn't jump on this deal b/c I just got a dell, but I also have only 1gb on mine. I just ordered 2x2 gb from newegg for $66 AR if anyone is interested:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820227251

 

[gigahertz20]

After several days using this laptop I have to say I'm impressed with it, no blue screens or any other major errors. I have all my software installed and everything works great, Vista is not bad at all.

No slow downs at all with just the 1Gb of memory, I installed all my apps:

Nero 8 Ultra Edition
Acronis True Image V11
Adobe Master Collection
Firefox 3 Beta 5
Office 2007 Enterprise
VLC Media Player
Pidgin for chat
DVDFab verson 5
Winrar
Tuneup Utilities 2008
PerfectDisk 2008

Also, I thought I would share this little Vista tip with you guys. Most of you already know how to disable UAC and the other annoying features, but if you want to change how Vista defaults to sleep when you click shut down on the start menu (Which makes you have to click on the arrow and scroll down the cascading menu to shutdown)

To change it:

1. Click on Start, and then click on Control Panel.
2. Click on "System and Maintenance".
3. Click on "Power Options".
4. Select your power management plan and then click on "Change Plan Settings".
5. Click on "Change advanced power settings".
6. In the Power Options dialog that appears, expand "Power Buttons and Lid", and then expand "Start menu power button".
7. Click on "Setting" and then choose the function you want the button to perform - "Sleep", "Hibernate", or "Shut down".
8. Click on OK.



Or you could just create a shut down icon on your desktop to click:

Right click an open space on the desktop

open ''new'' and click ''shortcut''

in the open space type this

C:\windows\system32\shutdown.exe -f -s -t 00 (or copy paste it)

(Note the spaces before the dashes and the t 00

After you're finished you can change the icon picture by right clicking on it and going to properties then click "Change Icon" and set it to a shutdown button.

 

[gigahertz20]

PM I received, want to post it so it could possibly help others with the same questions.

So, let me ask you. I'm about to open up my Compaq box today? Why'd you do a fesh install of Vista if it comes with Vista. Did you have a premium you wanted to get on there? What are like the top 5 things I should do (not having even seen a Vista box before? Uinstall the bloatware? Is disabling start ups and stuff the same...?

-Marmasatt

I did a fresh install, because whenever you purchase a new PC it usually comes with all kinds of bloatware like tons of trial ware and other crap. It takes alot of time to reinstall everything, because you have to hunt around for drivers and all kinds of other software.

You'll be fine if you just uninstall any software you don't need and clean it up. I just did a clean install because I had the time and know how.

Also, after you go through your laptop and uninstall and disable what you want, I would make sure to run the free program called "PC Decrapifier" which will find any other pre-installed junk on your computer and delete it. Go here to download it, http://www.pcdecrapifier.com/.

Also, don't worry about messing up your computer. Almost all new laptops that ship now have an image saved on them in a separate partion on the hard drive. The image is a copy of the entire hard drive, they use this image at the factory to flash the hard drive with all your software and settings that come pre-installed. If your installation ever becomes completely corrupt, just install the image that first came with the laptop, you do this by pushing F11 when you first boot up this laptop.

 

[jrichrds]

For those wiping the C: drive and doing a fresh install:

1. Create your recovery discs first. Even with the recovery partition present, the F11 recovery option won't work without the HP/Compaq preinstalled Vista partition. Or, you can figure out what software the F11 option is loading from the C: drive and simply save that folder and copy it over after your fresh install to preserve F11 functionality.

2. If you're installing a fresh copy of Vista, save the C:\swsetup\drivers folder. It has all the Vista drivers that this laptop uses. Most of them are available through the HP website, but some aren't.

The latest Synaptics touchpad driver is available at synaptics.com
The latest Conexant HD SmartAudio and Modem drivers for Vista are available through Windows Update (newer than what HP provides)
You can get newer, better performing nVidia Geforce graphics drivers at laptopvideo2go.com.

 

[msmy300z]

Has anyone converted this computer to XP and still have an unknown device in the device manager? I have installed all of the XP drivers (as far as I know) and cannot figure out what is missing. The missing device falls under the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System when sorted as by connection. Any help would be very appreciated.

As a side note. Be sure to check the processor speed. Mine was locked at 1900 mhz so I installed the AMD processor update from their website and now it scales with load like it is supposed to.
Thanks for any help!

 

[FM2n]

Originally posted by: msmy300z
Has anyone converted this computer to XP and still have an unknown device in the device manager? I have installed all of the XP drivers (as far as I know) and cannot figure out what is missing. The missing device falls under the Microsoft ACPI-Compliant System when sorted as by connection. Any help would be very appreciated.

After installing everything according to the instructions listed here, I believe if the final driver is the Compaq Softpaq found on page 6 of this thread.

Or try http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfr...roduct=3694906&lang=en
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