# Laptop Computer Advice



## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Compaq-CQ57-229WM/16662274

Is this a good buy, choice, etc.?

Basically, I'm looking for a laptop to do the following:

Access a wireless connection
Surf the net
Check emails
Create simple Word documents
Take an online training course
Watch movies on DVD or downloaded
Facebook (chat, simple games, etc.)


Will this do the trick?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

It looks like a terrific machine for the money. I suspect you'll be happy with that machine for years.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

I kinda thought that, too. Has some semi-mixed reviews here and there, but for the money...

Will it handle everything I listed?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

whodunit said:


> Will it handle everything I listed?


Easily.


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## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Personally I'll stick with dell or toshiba. More costly upfront but you'll get at least twice the years out of it. The last compaq I had melted itself. I hit shutdown, it started to go through everything so assuming it would continue as every computer has 100s of times I closed it and went to bed. I woke up to the smell of burnt plastic and hot metal. When I hit the power button it squished down inside because the bottom was melted. I pulled the power cable and the battery which was warped. Not entirely sure what happened but I'm guessing it got stuck in the shutdown process with the fans off but still running enough to steadily overheat and no safety features kicked in. That computer was toast. I've had desktops by the same company which were just plain weird. Hardware errors were common and we had one computer that would periodically delete everything including the os and drivers and none of the techs could find a virus or anything. They just kept loading a new os when it happened. We used to have to replace a computer every year in my mom's office when using hp/compaq or gateway. HP and Compaq (hp bought out compaq awhile back) are 2 brands I will not touch with a 10' pole. My mom is still running a 10 year old dell as her main office computer and I finally ordered her a new one because it was getting too outdated for her programs but it still runs fine within the capacity of it's memory and processor. We have yet to kill a dell and my husband and I have 3 dell laptops. I did kill a few toshiba laptops but last I heard they'd improved on them greatly and gotten rid of the problem mine had so some people have said toshiba now rivals dell.


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## Guest (Aug 3, 2011)

I was buying a new laptop recently . I know someone who has a computer repair business & also sells computers . This person now lives 200 miles from me & was not trying to sell me a computer . He told me he works on many computers sold by Wal-Mart & the quality of components installed in computers built for Wal-Mart are inferior & suggested I buy my computer somewhere else .


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

I've had good luck buying used IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads (three so far) from eBay. They seem to be built to last. Getting one for under $200 when they originally cost as much as a couple thousand dollars works for me. By looking at the specs for the R51, R52, R61, etc. models, you can see how much memory can be installed. The only things I look for is the Nividia video card (they aren't reliable ... get a machine with the intel video card), does it have a touch pad (some of the R61s don't), and do they come with built in wireless.

Make sure the used machine has a COA on the bottom. There's been a couple of decent machines for a little over a $100. If you're willing buy a machine that boots to BIOS but doesn't have a hard drive you can buy those all day long and save even more.

I've had good luck carrying the laptops around loose in the truck. I've used them on construction sites. They get dusty. They still work. I don't baby them. If it breaks beyond my ability to fix it, it's no great loss. So far all I've replaced is a key pad that died. It wasn't difficult.

The ultrabay on the side is handy because it takes any number of devices.

Just like cars, I've stopped buying new computers. The last new computer I bought was at least 15 years ago. All I want is something that works and that I can work on when needed. For most people, unless you're using a machine for intensive calculations such as GIS applications or something like video processing, or gaming, a new machine isn't necessay.


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## Darren (May 10, 2002)

Deleted


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

I just bought a Dell Insprion on Craigslist for $275. It's in really good shape and hardly used. I'm not sure it has all I want, but I'll deal with it for the price. He did give me several CDs but I don't think they came with the original since this has Windows 7 Premium Home edition and none of the disks had that one them. He didn't seem to know alot about computers either and appeared to mainly be a gamer-type. He just got an i-Pad, so he parted with this one. He and his wife had another laptop and two desk tops just in their livingroom. I'll play around with it but so far I am happy with the purchase. Hope it doesn't become a nightmare, but I can deal with a few issues as long as what I have to put into doesn't equal what a new one would cost. One issue right now is it keeps asking for the product code when I open Excel (he never used Excel). It also said I have 22 more uses of it. Is this an introductory version?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Without a model number it's hard to tell if you got a good deal or not.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

It's a 1545.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

The 1545 included a wide range is single & dual core processors. Right click on your My Computer icon ans select Properties. It should have a processor description there.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Pentium (R) Dual-Core CPU T4300 @ 2.10 GHz 2.10 GHz

Installed memory (RAM) 3.00 GB

System type: 64-bit Operating System


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

whodunit said:


> Pentium (R) Dual-Core CPU T4300 @ 2.10 GHz 2.10 GHz
> 
> Installed memory (RAM) 3.00 GB
> 
> System type: 64-bit Operating System


You did well. You'll be happy with that machine for a long time to come.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

so far so good...just cleaning things up a bit...not sure how some of this stuff works...anything I should work on or be aware of?


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

whodunit said:


> One issue right now is it keeps asking for the product code when I open Excel (he never used Excel). It also said I have 22 more uses of it. Is this an introductory version?


 Yes it is, you'll either need to buy a copy or stop using it when the trial runs out.

Sounds like a decent deal


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Well, I got some needless programs uninstalled and deleted some empty files, etc. It still starts up a bit slowly (maybe just under 2 minutes), but seeemd to handle several browser tabs open all at once. The battery only lasted less than 2 hours. I was using the DVD player; does that use battery power more quickly?


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## bignugly (Jul 13, 2011)

HP bought Compact a few years ago so product might be better and offer good online customer service. I would not buy Dell because they have had poor customer service and according to financial reports are cutting back on customer support. From what I see, everything you need is there to do what you want.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

bignugly said:


> HP bought Compact a few years ago so product might be better and offer good online customer service.


But now a person has to Re-think about getting into a H-P As yesterday they said they a spinning off its PC business. SO who knows who may pick it up now.
I liked Dell, when I had one, as they treated me so nicely over the phone when I had a major problem. Talked me through the tests, most I had already done, then a few more, and game up to the conclusion that I had to do a Hard Re-format. Told me just what to do.
And even CALLED backed hours latter to see if I got the Dell back up and running. GREAT customer service. Even if it was from WHo Knows Where.
Now though Dell moved the call centers back to the USA, instead of from say India. But now I have a computer that customer service for years now has been at the top of the list in service. WAY on Top too. No other PC maker is even close.
And that is Apple.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

arabian knight said:


> But now a person has to Re-think about getting into a H-P As yesterday they said they a spinning off its PC business. SO who knows who may pick it up now.
> I liked Dell, when I had one, as they treated me so nicely over the phone when I had a major problem. Talked me through the tests, most I had already done, then a few more, and game up to the conclusion that I had to do a Hard Re-format. Told me just what to do.
> And even CALLED backed hours latter to see if I got the Dell back up and running. GREAT customer service. Even if it was from WHo Knows Where.
> Now though Dell moved the call centers back to the USA, instead of from say India. But now I have a computer that customer service for years now has been at the top of the list in service. WAY on Top too. No other PC maker is even close.
> And that is Apple.


Speaking for myself, I don't care about brand or customer service. I buy my computers based on features and price.

I doubt I'll ever leave Windows workstations because of compatibility reasons. But if I did I would probably go to a Linux workstation before Apple.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Okay, I have my first issue. The other day my computer wouldn't start and went into "Startup Repair". It spun and spun but all it ever told me was that it was attempting to fix the problem. I let it go over 10 minutes, but it just kept going. I went ahead and re-started and it started fine that time.

Today, it wouldn't start and went into repair mode. I restarted and it gave me the option of going into repair mode or starting normally. I chose normally and it went into repair mode anyway. I restarted again and it started fine.

Any ideas?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

It doesn't sound good, but it could be as simple as a conflict with an automatic update. I would try reverting to a previous restore point.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

I did that the other night when it happened. The only thing I noticed after was that I had quite a few Windows updates.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

whodunit said:


> I did that the other night when it happened. The only thing I noticed after was that I had quite a few Windows updates.


Try watching it for awhile. You may need to resort to a system restore, but I don't want to recommend that unless it becomes necessary.

What concerning me is that your system is acting like it's missing some components that it needs at boot-up, and I'm wondering what's happening to them. Let's take a look at your hard drive. Go to:

All Programs-->Accessories

In the Accessories folder, right-click on Command Prompt and select Run As Administrator. At the prompt enter the chkdsk command like this.

C:\Windows\System32>chkdsk

Press Enter. See if you have any errors reported.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Well, I ran a defrag and disk clean-up, followed by a virus scan which showed 4 Trojan problems having something to do with Mozilla. Got rid of those.

I then used some disk scan program that supposedly found and corrected 1200 or so errors.

I then re-started and got it showed 70 Windows updates needed which was the same number as the last time I shut it down several days ago.

It finished and then restarted and I got the Startup Repair thing again.  But this time I was patient and let it run maybe 10-15 minutes and it finally stopped and said it fixed the issues. It restarted with no problems.

I also did what you said above and it showed no errors reported.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

whodunit said:


> I also did what you said above and it showed no errors reported.


Since you just did the repair thing, let's see how it goes. Maybe that got it.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Let's hope...thanks again!


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

Well, I shut down my computer last night and again it showed that I had 70 Windows updates. Is there something I need to turn off? Why aren't these taking affect when I shut down?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

You should probably still do your updates. You don't want security holes.

What I would do is apply a few at a time, waiting a day or so between applying more updates. That way if the problem reappears you'll have an idea which ones are suspect.


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## SneakyChicken (Apr 22, 2011)

I've found for the first month or so there will be a lot of updates. It seems like there is the trial versions of the word processor and similar installed. I would suggest Open Office. It is a free download and will do word processor docs, spreadsheets, and powerpoint. As for antivirus if you need a new one I've had excellent luck with Avast. Completely free and no problems in 6 years.


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## whodunit (Mar 29, 2004)

I did some Googling and found the update issue appears to be common to Windows 7. The update apparently don't always load, so they try again when you shut down. One suggestion is to do it manually, but don't know if I want to do that 70 times.


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