Refurbed 5151 Makes Our Day
Written: Sep 24 '99
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Product Rating:
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Pros: lots of features for excellent price
Cons: normal difficulties of Windows OS and inadequate documentation
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| jr_mooneyham's Full Review: Compaq Presario 5100 |
I made the purchase online for an associate, at Compaq Works, Compaq's refurbished outlet. Prior to
purchase I made a list of what the buyer wanted, and then shopped
online, comparing about twenty different new and refurbed PCs from lots
of different sources, divided among three categories: basic PC specs,
exact specs desired or better, and something in-between these two
extremes.
From all the contenders, the Presario 5151 stood out from the crowd, in
a mix of price and features. It was also in the top range of systems
(exact specs desired or better), with plenty of RAM and disk space, all
the I/O ports wanted, ZIP drive, and more.
More detailed specs: AMD K6-2 350 MHz, 96 MB RAM (upgradable to 384), 8
GB HD, v.90 56k modem, 32x CD ROM, 100 MB ZIP, Ethernet, AGP graphics,
one open PCI slot, one open ISA, almost every imaginable I/O port (more
different ports than I've seen on any computer except for those with
video editing I/O), Windows98, MS Works, photo editor, video phone and
video mail software, fax, a game, anti-virus, MS Encarta and Bookshelf,
MS Money, Quicken, keyboard, mouse, and more.
Before shipping and sales tax: $599
Add in shipping and estimated Tennessee sales tax: $98
Add in a CTX PL7A 17 inch monitor ($200, bought elsewhere at a physical
outlet)
Total: About $900
Should I mention this $900 system has a practical mouse (unlike a new
$1200 iMac), and a decent keyboard (again, unlike an iMac), plus TWO
built-in re-writable media drives (unlike the iMac's ZERO such drives), a 2
GB bigger hard drive, THREE TIMES the RAM, and a 17 inch monitor
compared to the iMac's 15 incher, to boot? OUCH! might say many Mac
users, feeling an awful pinch where their wallet resides....
And to add insult to injury...
So far the 56k modem seems to work better than either the 56k modems on
our NEC laptop or iMac (but only time will tell if this perception
proves accurate).
It was considerably easier to log onto the net with this refurbished
Compaq than a new iMac. I didn't have to do special tweaks to the TCP/IP
software or to adjust memory settings to get the browser to open, as I
did on the iMac. And remember I'm pretty much a Mac expert but total PC
novice!
The monitor also seems to display better with the Compaq for some reason
than it did with our NEC laptop (to which the display was connected for
a few weeks).
So far as speed...the Presario seems definitely faster than the NEC, and
maybe about the same speed as the iMac. So I'm baffled as to how many
Mac sites can justify helping push Apple's hype about the iMac CPU being
significantly faster than the PCs out there. Remember this is an older,
used PC, not even one of the faster new ones!
If there's one spot the new iMac outperforms this old PC, it's in boot
up time. The Compaq seems to require nearly as long to boot as our Mac
Performa 6400, while the iMac boots considerably faster.
The worst problem we've had with the Compaq so far turned out to be due
to inexperience with PCs (and this model in particular); the Presario
wouldn't boot once when a floppy disk was left inserted in the drive,
since no OS was on the floppy. The floppy has a door on it that was
closed and so I thought no floppy was in there-- I did check and remove
any disks from the CD drive and ZIP when the problem arose, but didn't
push the eject button on the floppy. Again, the floppy drive appeared
empty from the closed outer door.
Luckily my brother Scotty showed up at that precise instant, saw the
error message onscreen, ejected the floppy, and the thing
immediately would boot again.
The second worst problem was an annoying and somewhat mysterious "Q"
that would appear on the desktop, wanting to install updates of some
kind. After pursuing the matter via clicks and user manual references we
realized it was some sort of downloadable updates from Compaq itself
that were being made available to us. So we clicked "install" to have it
go ahead. One hour later it still showed the same animation of paper
flying between folders and asking us to wait until it was done, and I
figured something definitely was wrong. I'd been wondering all along if
the online update used some 800 number or whatever to do its online
thing, since the docs mentioned nothing about it requiring the user to
log onto a service of any kind for it to work--it was all supposed to be
automatic.
I'd stalled picking up a phone attached to the line to detect any modems
working because I didn't want to possibly interrupt any transfer. But an
hour should have been more than enough time for a reasonable update via
56 k modem. So I picked up. Dial tone, no modem traffic.
It was difficult to get out of the loop the updater was stuck in,
waiting for a connection. There were no quit or abort buttons handy, so
I just had to try things until I got it to stop (no notes of the trial
and error process here folks, sorry).
After I finally interrupted the loop, I restarted the PC, then logged
onto AOL, and then started the updater-- which then worked much more as
expected, downloading and installing something within only a minute or
so. So the updater requires you to be logged onto an ISP after all. I
wish the manual had made this clear-- but instead it seems to strongly
suggest no ISP log on is necessary. Oh well.
The third worst problem was the lack of a hard copy invoice or receipt
from Compaq for the machine. As of the day I originally logged these notes, the
Presario arrived eight days ago, and we have gotten no such paperwork.
This may not seem like such a big deal until you note that buyers only
have ten days to return such refurbs, and the original receipt must be
sent in with it. Yikes! UPDATE: The late receipt may have been due to Compaq being unable to immediately charge our credit card because we were over the credit limit without realizing it. We were unaware of this problem until some weeks after we had taken physical delivery of the PC. Apparently Compaq went ahead and shipped us the PC and just kept trying to charge our card until the charge was finally accepted weeks later. This unexpected delay in charging our card and getting the receipt may have made any refund or return more complicated, had such a thing proved necessary.
Other caveats about buying from Compaq Works (a refurb outlet online)
include:
A: 12 day delivery time (in our case); the site gave varying times on
different pages, such as 7-10 business days for shipping, or 10-15
working days to process an order(?)). In contrast, ordering from other sources often gives delivery times of under a week-- sometimes well under.
B: Compaq reserves the right to refuse to refund or exchange (so credit
card refund battles look possible in some cases)
C: 15% restock fees if you return something with anything missing or
judged amiss concerning the packaging and contents (so essentially
Compaq can charge you 15% if it wants to; plus, it can be pretty tough
even for careful experts to put such a package back together again in
its totality for a 'perfect' return).
D: The buyer could get little or no idea of delivery dates or shipping or
tax costs until after they had already ordered the machine on the site. In
contrast, it's possible to get better information upfront from some other vendors.
E: Note that unlike the refurbed Sony we got from ADW months back, the
Compaq 5151 showed definite signs of having been used for at least a
couple months by someone before us. The OS and apps on the hard drive
had apparently been re-installed by Compaq to act as new, but the
voltage setting switch on the back had been significantly chewed up by a
screwdriver, and quite a bit of dust could be seen on the cooling fan
blades, peering in from the back via flashlight. I haven't opened the
case since there's been no need, and besides I might void the 90 day
warranty by doing so (I'd need to check the fine print; Compaq has also
applied a sealing tape to show if the case is opened). Of course, this
is nitpicking of sorts; you shouldn't realistically expect refurbed PCs
to look perfect cosmetically speaking. All I'm doing here is relating my
observations of two random samples of refurbed PCs from two different
vendors and manufacturers.
F: On the very day I ordered, Compaq had announced it was laying off
8000 employees. GULP!
The fourth worst problem with the Compaq so far? No speakers came
bundled with the unit. Of course I was aware of this when I ordered, and
considered it a minor matter since I was sure I could personally find
speakers for a song if I tried. And for my personal use I'm not sure I
would have ever installed speakers on the unit, since I'm not that much
into noise while I work, and the Presario's modem has its own speaker
for log on verification/troubleshooting. But the Compaq owner likes
noise, so they had to buy some speakers later to go with it. They bought
a pair of Labtec LCS-1016 speakers at Wal-Mart for (I'm guessing)
somewhere around $25-$50, unlike the careful shopping around I would
have done myself. No speakers came with the Sony we bought from ADW
months before either, but my brother Scotty had no problem scrounging some up from
old electronics junk laying around his house I believe.
So far the refurbed Compaq seems to be working well for us. Actually
giving us much fewer problems than the new iMac before it. And yes, I'm
being fair here because like the iMac the Compaq too has had a printer
and scanner and quite a few new apps installed on it since its arrival.
If it hasn't yet matched the iMac in accumulated installations to damage
its stability, it must be getting close.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 599
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD K-2
Processor speed: 301-400
RAM: 96
Internal Storage: Zip Drive
Hard Drive (GB): 7-9
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Epinions.com ID:
jr_mooneyham
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Member: James Mooneyham
Location: Newport, TN
Reviews written: 6
Trusted by: 5 members
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