May I Borrow Your Sledge Hammer?
Written: Feb 26 '05
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Product Rating:
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Pros: CD-RW
Cons: CD-RW broke
The Bottom Line: I'm trading the bottom line in for a top line.
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| PPerky1954's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario 6310US (DA201A#ABA... |
I got my first computer in 1998. It was a Gateway that I had ordered over the telephone. I was happy with my Gateway computer for several years. But times change and so do computers. In November 2002 my brother surprised me with a new computer. He said that the old Gateway was out of date and the new computer had several features that my Gateway did not have.
The computer he brought me was the Compaq Presario 6310US with CD-RW. He said that the price on these computers was so good ($359 after $50 rebate) that he bought us both one.
WOW, I was so excited. We begin disassembling the Gateway computer and putting together the new Compaq Presario unit. The set up was rather easy. The Compaq processor was light in comparison to the Gateway. I had no problem picking it up and moving it (and I am a weakling).
The monitor in the picture is not the one that came with the Compaq Presario 6310US. The monitor had to be purchased separately so he had bought a Samtron flat screen monitor to go with this processor. This review discusses the processor, keyboard and mouse which came together as a package.
Specs
I have learned a LOT more about what these specs mean in the past few months. But when my brother first brought me this computer, the specs were like Greek to me. I did not know a Ghz from a MB, I thought a Ram was a male goat, and a hard drive was a long boring trip. All I knew was that it was a new computer that had some neat programs on it. But here are the specs that were plastered on the side of the processor:
AMD Athlon XP Processor - (Never again, NEVER again will I purchase anything with the word Athlon on it.)
1800+ Operating at 1.53 Ghz - (Hey, even my poor little brain processes faster than this thing, and I do not moan and groan when I am thinking! - Er, well . . . maybe sometimes.)
128 MB DDR SD Ram Memory - (128? Can we say small? I read a review by RA64 where he upgraded his MOTHER'S PC from from 256 single-channel RAM to 512 dual-channel RAM. I mean, HIS MOM! And this Compaq has 128? PATHETIC. Please see Tiny Little Brain note below.)
40 GB Ultra DMA Hard Drive - (And who decided to put the word ULTRA in this title? Ultra would be more like 160.) 40 is the smallest hard drive out there but it was enough for me because I do not have any large programs to load or run. They should, however, say 40 GB Average DMA Hard Drive - this would be more truthful. But saying 40 GB is still a bit misleading to folks like me because we do not realize that some of that 40 GB is already taken up with preloaded material.
32x10x40x Max Speed CD-RW Drive with Record Now Software - (What good is the Record Now software when you have a DEAD CD Drive!)
Integrated Prosavage DDR KM266 Graphics w 8MB shared video memory - (I'm not sure what all this blather means. The Graphics seemed average - not bad but not great.)
High Speed v.90 data/fax modem - (Lies, it is all lies. There is NOTHING high speed about the modem. It is average. Not any faster than the 1998 Gateway I had been using.)
Presario Keyboard and Mouse - (They, actually were both quite good. However, what good is a keyboard and mouse if the computer forgets they are connected. See Ghost in the Keyboard below.)
It is not mentioned with these stats but there was also a 3.5" floppy disc drive - (which decided to join the CD drive in the Computer Drive graveyard).
There were no speakers with this outfit which did not matter to me because I planned on purchasing the surround sound speaker system anyway.
My brother said that the salesman told him the Athlon processors were just as good as the Intel Pentium processors (LIE). The salesman also told him that Compaq had merged with Hewlett-Packard and these were the best processors on the market (ANOTHER LIE). He said we would be surprised at the speed of this processor (Sort of the truth - explained later in review). He also said that it came with a one-year warranty.
The First Few Months
I love my brother. He was so sweet to buy me a new toy. I started reading about the different music download sites to find the perfect one to acquire my favorite tunes and start burning CD’s. I had so much fun. What a great computer.
I gave the old Gateway computer to my son in college. I knew it was not the kind he needed for his animation, but he could write his essays and access the internet with it.
The Compaq computer came pre-loaded with the Windows XP Program. I was used to the Windows 98 program so it took me a minute to get accustomed to the new layout.
I spent many hours using the Windows Media Player. I would download songs and play them back using the Media Player. The media player had various visualizations that moved to the beat of the song that was playing. My favorite visualization was the sheep standing in the field. I would choose the ‘hippy’ mode for him (he was dressed like a hippy) and watch him head bang to the music. It was cute.
The CD-RW drive was a Samsung brand and seemed to work perfectly. The Record Now software was easy to use. I recorded several CD’s for me, my father, and my niece.
The Compaq processor seemed to load programs a bit slower than my old Gateway. So yes, the salesman did not lie, I was surprised . . . surprised that the programs were so slow to load. The computer would moan and groan and make all kinds of weird noises before the program would open.
The Compaq came with a free six-month subscription to the Norton Anti-Virus protection. I was used to the McAfee Virus Program but after reading up on Norton decided that it was just as good.
I was very careful with my new processor. I told my kids to keep their paws off of this one, no beat-building programs shall be downloaded, and if they wanted to make a CD, they are to delete their songs once the CD is burned. At least once a month I would run the Disc Clean Up program and the defragmenter program. I was going to take good care of my new baby.
Six Months Later - Task Problem
The first problem I had with this computer reared its ugly head within six months. It occurred as I was performing my monthly disc clean up task. I received the usual message of Disk cleanup is calculating how much space you will be able to free. This process may take a few minutes.
So I waited a few minutes. And a few more minutes. I watched tv for a while and came back - the message was still there. I thought DANG. . . it must have TONS of stuff needing to be cleaned out. I finally gave up and went to bed. The next morning I checked and the message was STILL there. I had to hit cancel and back out.
I tried this function several more times and it would never work. I had to manually delete old files.
Nine Months Later - D Drive Problem
The D Drive stopped working. It would open, I would put a CD into the drive, and close the drawer. I would get a message saying Please insert disk into drive D. I tried over and over, it would read NO CD. That did away with loading any new programs or burning any music CD’s.
12 Months to Current - Various Problems
►The Processor became ornery when I tried to boot it up. When I turned it on, the Compaq Logo would flash for a split second, then I would get a black screen with a flashing cursor in the upper left hand corner. It acted like it was awaiting some sort of command. If I turned the power off/back on or hit command/alt/delete, it would again flash the Compaq logo and start the waiting over again. I learned not to touch any key on the keyboard or button on the processor and it would eventually, after about 4 to 5 minutes, boot up.
►The local A drive drove AwAy. I could put a brand new floppy disk in the drive and I would get the message that the disk needed formatting. I would hit YES to format the disk and get a message that the disk could not be formatted. I tried several new disks and got the same message. So forget saving any of my work or photos, cannot even save them to move to a new computer.
►Could Knit A Sweater Between Programs. When I would click on a program to open it, there would be a long wait, then the window frame would appear, then after about a minute the program would appear in the frame. Even when I was on line, trying to read and rate reviews on Epinions was an eight hour job by itself. I would click on a review and the frame of the review would appear . . . . drumming my fingers on the desk . . . . . Finally the review itself appears.
I was thinking that the computer needed purging to speed it up. I deleted all old temp files, old email, emptied recycle bin, ran the defragmenter, all to no avail. Still slow as molasses.
►Catch-A-Call Twilight Zone. The modem liked to play tricks on me. I have dial-up AOL service. I use the Catch-A-Call to keep from missing important calls. It worked perfectly fine when I had the Gateway computer. But with this Compaq, the modem in it has some weird flaw that makes the Catch-A-Call ring. RING RING - I pick up the telephone and no one is there, only a dial tone. Grrrrrrr. I have learned the sound of the modem calling me and do not even bother picking up the phone when it calls. When the modem calls it gives two short bursts of rings, if a real person calls it rings one long tone.
I thought I outsmarted it.
But many times, when the modem would make the catch-a-call ring it would also boot me off line or freeze up and I would have to control/alt/delete to close AOL program and start over again. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
►ISP Houdini. I would be signed on line, minding my own business, reading dog food reviews, and POOF, I am suddenly looking at my computer’s desktop page. AOL just disappears. Now, I do not know if this is the computer or if it is AOL. I DO know that this NEVER happened when I had my Gateway computer. It happens constantly with the Compaq. At LEAST once every time I sign on line.
►Ghost In The Keyboard. How can you mess up a keyboard? Name it Presario. About 3 months ago the keyboard stopped working. None of the keys were being read by the processor. I thought that the keyboard had somehow gotten unplugged from the back of the unit. I crawl under my desk and check the plug. Nope, it seems to be plugged in ok. But I unplug it and replug it just to make sure. Nope. Nothing, nada, nil. Still does not work. I rebooted the computer . . . (grrrrr . . . .see ornery processor note above). Well, well, keyboard is working again. This weird phenomenon started occurring more and more frequently. By the end of January it had become a weekly occurrence. This was REALLY aggravating if I was in the middle of typing an email, or playing SLINGO and chatting with the other players, or trying to write a comment on a review, or . . . well, anyway . . . . . GRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
This has also happened twice with the mouse. The mouse would freeze up like it had been unplugged. But since it has only happened twice, I will not complain too loudly about that problem. Rebooting solved the problem with it too.
►Tiny Little Brain. I bought a ring the other day. The ring came in a cute little box not much bigger than the ring itself. One corner of that box . . . . the ring box mind you . . . . . could hold more memory in it than this Compaq Presario computer processor. TOO many times I have tried to play a game on POGO and get the message that there is not enough memory on my computer to play this game. GRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Here I go, manually cleaning out old junk again (temporary files, old email, recycle bin, a few music files) so I can play the game.
I know I could add more memory, there is a place to add memory. But, since I mainly use my computer for writing (using the word processor), keeping my household budget in the spreadsheet program, downloading songs from the web, or playing a few games on the web, I didn't think it should be necessary to add more memory. I don't have any giant programs on the computer. The computer just had a tiny little brain.
►SurReal Player - This problem was weird and will be hard for me to explain. The Real Player, QuickTime, and the Media Player all did this weird thing, so the problem had to be somewhere in the processor (I guess). Ya know when you try to watch a video, like an on line news clip or something, the computer will usually pull up one of these programs to play it. Well, for some odd reason the screen on these media programs would only show half of the video - the bottom half. The top half of the screen was squiggly lines.
So, I could see the bellies and hands of the news reporter, but not his face. I tried using all three programs to watch videos and this happened in all three. BUT, if I hit one of the drop down screens above the video (say I hit the file option above the video and opened the drop down menu), the top half of the video would appear - squiggly lines would go away. But if I closed the drop down menu, the squiggly lines on the top half returned.
So I had two options when trying to view a video clip: (1) watch the belly of the reporter and make up a head for him in my mind, or (2) watch whole video that was partially blocked by the drop down menu.
This was really annoying when I tried to watch the Tsunami videos. I saw feet running and could hear the water roaring. Grrrrrrrrrrr.
Now, let me see, the computer cannot:
1. Burn CD’s
2. Save anything to floppy disks
3. Load any new programs
4. Clean itself
5. Stay signed online for any length of time
6. Watch video clips.
SO, what are its good points?
►The Microsoft Works works (word processor, spreadsheets, etc.).
►The Calculator is very helpful.
►I could get online - for a while at least.
►I could listen to the songs that I had downloaded.
Ummm, umm, ummm, I’m thinking I’m thinking!
OH
►I could play solitaire, hearts and Free Cell (unless the keyboard froze)
► The speaker system was GREAT! OH, nevermind, I forgot, it did not come with speakers. I had to purchase those separately.
Well, that is about it. My brain hurts from trying to think of something good about this computer.
Well……
(This part is relevant I promise)
My baby son - the one I gave my old Gateway to - has a new computer. So he gave the old 1998 Gateway to my other son who had no computer. I went to his apartment to help him set up the old Gateway. When we got it set up I was saddened, yes saddened. The Gateway computer booted right up, within seconds. I clicked on a program and it opened immediately. I opened the AOL program and it came right up….no waiting for 2 minutes for a frame to appear, then another 2 minutes for the program to appear. The 7 year old Gateway computer worked better than my 2 year old Compaq. The local drives worked perfectly.
I wanted it back. I wanted my trusty old Gateway back.
SO…..
On February 4 I got my income tax check. I immediately went to Best Buy and checked out their computers. I wanted my Gateway back (I know I already said that, I am obsessed).
I told the sales clerk that when I got my new computer set up, I was going to take the Compaq out into the yard and apply a sledge hammer to it.
He laughed.
He recommended that I video tape the destruction of this Compaq Presario 6310US and post the video tape onto the internet. He was a young fella and probably was snickering inside at the thought of this old, handicapped lady with a sledge hammer whapping the dickens out of a computer processor. I'll do it by golly, I will.
I now have my Gateway 506GR Pentium 4 and I named it Mom’s Obsession.
Because of that dilapidated Compaq, I lost the book I was writing, the few photos I had on there, my spreadsheet with my monthly budget on it, all my music - everything that was on the Compaq computer because I had no way of copying them onto a floppy disk or onto a CD to put into my new computer. It was a major bummer.
So sorry about this Mark. You were sweet to buy me that Compaq computer. Your intentions were kind.
But I will neva, I mean NEVA, buy a Compaq or any computer that has the word Athlon on it.
This review is the one that I wrote for CaptainD's Challenge Yourself write-off. This was hard Captain, but I have learned a bit about computers whilst I was researching the specs on the Compaq. Learning it was one thing, remembering it? Well, I won't go there.
Thank yall for reading.
And Thank You, Thank You Caroline for helping me with the technical lingo and pointing me in the right direction to read/learn about ROMs and RAMs and SAMs etc.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 369
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
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Epinions.com ID:
PPerky1954
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Member: Patricia
Location: sometimes FL, sometimes AL
Reviews written: 54
Trusted by: 236 members
About Me:
I rather adore the fellow who was holding the camera for this shot.
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