Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

Re: Next clonemaker, Compaq

Author:Tucker Goodrich
Posted:8/20/1999; 10:28:54 AM
Topic:Next clonemaker, Compaq
Msg #:9725 (In response to 9720)
Prev/Next:9724 / 9726

I've always had good luck w/ Gateway. I've also used Micron, and was not hugely impressed. I had a number of Micron machines arrive with dys/nonfunctional parts, which they've replaced promptly, but who needs the worries?

I recently bought some refurbished Gateways (they offer them themselves, with a full warranty) to use with NT. The machines were loaded w/ W98. I asked the salesperson about their suitability for NT, and he said that Gateway would not support NT on them, but it wouldn't affect the warranty on the hardware, and the software CD they sent w/ the machines would have all the NT drivers for the hardware.

Upon arrival, I attempted to install dual-monitor video cards on machines which had on-the-motherboard video cards, and had some small problems. Despite the fact that Gateway expressly said they wouldn't help on this sort of issue, the tech support person I spoke to was very helpful and did as much as he could. I shortly was able to resolve the problem with the advice I was given.

On one of the orders, they sent two monitors that I had not wanted. I called, no problem, we'll send a packing label and credit your account when they get back here.

I would certainly buy more machines from them, and in fact will do so next week.

My experiences with Compaq leave me to believe that I'll never buy anything from them, unless I get such a great deal I don't care about anything else. I've gotten refurbished machines that were not refurbished to spec, and would not work as advertised, I've had repairmen show up and lie to me about replacing parts... Ick.

Never, ever buy a pc from HP. I ordered one for a friend a few years ago, so this friend could access the internet. Win95 DUN wouldn't work. Upon calling them, I was informed that using Win95 DUN was expressly not covered under the warranty. You know, the one you can't read until you get the box home? They knew it wouldn't work, and shipped the damn thing (with a modem) anyway! I gave them another chance this year, and tried to set up NT on a box they sold w/ W98. They advertised the machine as having AGP video, but it's on-the-board video, there's no slot, so you can never upgrade. They were incredibly unhelpful in setting up NT, being unwilling to even comment on the NT hardware drivers that came with the machine, unlike Gateway.

IBM: had a thinkpad from a previous employer... IBM didn't engineer sufficient cooling, and the motherboard burned out (a number of my colleagues had this problem, and my employer's tech support people told me they were sending them back all the time) the only way to get it fixed was to mail it to them. One month later the machine comes back, with the wrong motherboard installed! It wouldn't even boot! What were they doing?

Another month later it came back fixed.

On the other hand, they have the most amazingly detailed support website, with diagrams of the machines and drivers for every conceivable circumstance.

They now support linux to some extent, and we're going to try to get some Netfinity 5500 server's up and running once we can find the linux RAID drivers IBM has apparently put on their web site. Should be interesting...

Toshiba: love the laptops, never had a problem, and I've had three through various employers. Decent support website, never had to talk to anyone. Don't know about the desktops/servers.

My 2c. Best of luck.




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