Compaq Athlon laptop $699.99 AR Circuit City or Best Buy

[Kaido]

I just drove down to Best Buy with my brother (like 20 minutes away, the closest one was sold out) to get him one of these. $650 after rebates is a killer deal. He wanted one for college...all he pretty much uses is Microsoft Office, iTunes, and WinDVD. I'm setting it up for him right now...watching Shrek on DVD on the TV with it...s-video to rca video through the VCR, and a mini-jack to rca audio to my Logitech z-640s...the picture quality is great and the sound is fine

There was a guy at the store looking at the same one...he said that this model had problems with wireless PCMCIA cards and also occassionally reading burned CDs...I don't know if there's any truth to that but it's something to think about. I like it...it's a nice laptop for only $650.

 

[Sonarcade]

thanks a bunch for the heads up. just got this an hour ago and they have about 10 more at Atwater Village in So-Cal. I was told by one very rude and lazy CSR that they were out and the person didn't give me his name from the getgo or after I asked. Other than that fuming experience, all went well and this thing is a piece of work although I haven't gotten around to really testing it intensely. But according to the battery meter, it has 53% battery power(2:21 min) left out of the box, which means that it's roughly 4:40 min. on batteries right? If so, it beats my Dell Inspiron 600m which merely gives me 3 hours. I might have to trade my 600m with my dad's Compaq...

 

[Coraanu]

Originally posted by: Sonarcade
thanks a bunch for the heads up. just got this an hour ago and they have about 10 more at Atwater Village in So-Cal. I was told by one very rude and lazy CSR that they were out and the person didn't give me his name from the getgo or after I asked. Other than that fuming experience, all went well and this thing is a piece of work although I haven't gotten around to really testing it intensely. But according to the battery meter, it has 53% battery power(2:21 min) left out of the box, which means that it's roughly 4:40 min. on batteries right? If so, it beats my Dell Inspiron 600m which merely gives me 3 hours. I might have to trade my 600m with my dad's Compaq...

The battery meter constantly changes depending on what you're doing and how hard the PC is working.

 

[Sonarcade]

I also got suckered into buying a 3 year warranty from Best Buy after being told that Compaq only provides 90 days for parts and 1 year labor. I could deal with 1 year for both but maybe some other Compaq users can shed some light on whether I should keep the extended warranty or not($250).

 

[uwannawhat]

Originally posted by: Sonarcade
II should keep the extended warranty or not($250).

I wouldn't buy another one & here's why.

I bought a laptop from BB & purchased the 3 yr. extended warranty. When I actually did need warranty work done (the AC Adapter died) I had to return my whole laptop to them then they said it had to be sent to Colorado then to Texas if Colorado couldn't do the work.

I knew it was only the AC cord & the tech even agreed but this is standard policy. Also they can not guarantee that your hard drive would be intact after the warranty work. EVEN for an AC Cord!

So I backed up my data & wiped my hard drive clean then let them have it....& have it .........& have it..................................................................................


It took almost two months to get my laptop back. And guess what, they replaced the AC Power Cord & that's it!

So I would not go for another. Now on the other hand I've heard of people that drop things & have had the item's replaced with an even better product than the original so it can be beneficial.

I on the other hand will take my chances.

Also, although they do not make a commission on sales they do get bonus or special incentives for selling the most extended warranties, that's why they push them so much!

Best of luck to you on your decison. Only you know what's right.

 

[Dyre]

Employees don't get anything for selling more PSPs
They don't even track per-employee performance at all. Performance is tracked per department and per store vs other BB's. And the story about shipping all over the country sounds fishy. Each region has a service center- ours is less than 2 hours away. Replacment PSP parts can now be order right in the store now as well.
EDIT: Good luck finding these in stock as well.
So-Cal is sold out, and it wont be availbe again until after the sale is over. I've got one in my store, but its an open box return (seriously who the f*** can't afford a $600 notebook??????) and would only apply for a single $100 manufactures rebate.

 

[Devistater]

I suggest paying the $100 to compaq for the 3 year warranty (standard I belive is 1 year). Compaq has INCREDIBLE service. They mail you the box to send it back to them by air. Then you put it in the box and use the prepaid air mail label. Generally you get your laptop back within 1 week of sending it in to compaq for service and pay NOTHING and NO SHIPPING. I bought a compaq laptop at radio shack and extended the warranty to 3 years. You just call up compaq and say you want to do it, they ask the serial number and they put it into thier comptuers as extended. Last time I called it was something under $100 to get 3 years.

 

[Sonarcade]

thanks uwannawhat and devistater. I think I'll get a refund on the best buy warranty after all, especially after getting false info to get it in the 1st place, who knows what else they might try to pull on me.

 

[Sphyrna]

Just got back from picking this up. I was tempted to get it a couple weeks ago when it was $849. I noticed that CompUSA has it for $1149 - $200 instant savigns which brings it to $949. BB has it for $1049 - $400 MIR. I had them price match to Comp so I should get it for $949 - $400 MIR = $549!! w00t

 

[Dyre]

You won't get $300 of the rebates.

Price adjusted items void BB rebates. Read the fine print.

 

[Sphyrna]

I saw that on the rebate form so I called the rebate center. I gave the rep the offer numbers for both rebates and she said they would honor the rebates. I'm going to call again tomorrow and ask again, this time noting who I spoke to. This way I have some ammunition if they don't honor the rebates.

 

[acebake]

A few things:

-I work for Circuit City. We do get individually tracked for selling protection plans, and it is one of the largest points to cover in our monthly reviews. Technically, I can lose my job if I go a certain period of time without having a certain percentage.

-Even though there is no card included, aren't the mini-pci cards available for the 2100 series? I thought I read that somewhere.

 

[tcsenter]

On the Best Buy deal, there are three BB locations in Grand Rapids, Michigan reporting this item in stock. Probably the only three in the country.

Oddly, for the Circuit City deal, there are several CC locations in Michigan reporting this item in stock, too (Flint, Pontiac, Troy, Auburn Hills, Roseville, Harper Woods, and Spring Meadows).

C'mon Michigan Rebate Heads, pick up the slack!

 

[Yo2]

Originally posted by: jrichrds
This looks to have only one PC card slot. If you have a USB 2.0 card and wireless card, you could only use one at a time and would have to continually swap them. Of course, if you don't have any USB 2.0 devices or don't use a wireless network, this isn't much of a factor.

1 - It has two slots

2 - even with only one slot you could use a usb 2.0 card and a usb wireless adapter

 

[Yo2]

Originally posted by: Devistater
I suggest paying the $100 to compaq for the 3 year warranty (standard I belive is 1 year). Compaq has INCREDIBLE service. They mail you the box to send it back to them by air. Then you put it in the box and use the prepaid air mail label. Generally you get your laptop back within 1 week of sending it in to compaq for service and pay NOTHING and NO SHIPPING. I bought a compaq laptop at radio shack and extended the warranty to 3 years. You just call up compaq and say you want to do it, they ask the serial number and they put it into thier comptuers as extended. Last time I called it was something under $100 to get 3 years.

Excellent advice

You may even be able to PM the warranty with BB's which (AFAIK) includes batteries

 

[morbie]

I bought this for store pickup from the best buy web site but I didn't see anything about the 50 buck printer MIR, where was that information at?

 

[allisolm]

I bought this for store pickup from the best buy web site but I didn't see anything about the 50 buck printer MIR, where was that information at?

Page 19 of their ad. Go here and click on "weekly ad" at page bottom. Go to "computers and peripherals" then down to "Compaq Mobile AMD Athlon? XP-M Processor 2800+** Notebook - 2199US With DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive and Lexmark X2250 All-In-One Printer"

 

[allisolm]

If you bought the 2199US from BB or CC you can get an external floppy from HP free after rebate (I think you have to pay shipping.)

See details here.

 

[dwopks]

I finally got a PCMCIA Firewire card to work. Of course, as suspected, it had to be a Compaq branded card to get my WD 120GB external hard drive recognized Specifically, it was a Compaq 2-port PCMCIA Cardbus, Model CPQFWCB which was $49.99 at Microcenter - not on sale. I had tried a SIIG 2-port Firewire card and it would not recognize the hard drive at all. The SIIG card was $39.99. Guess it's going back. Now I suspect that any non-Compaq USB 2.0 PCMCIA cards might not fully work either - but won't know for sure until I can try it or someone else can and posts their experiences with other PCMCIA cards here. Doggone proprietary Compaq policy POS #@Q!#@^%$ !

So far the notebook has proven to be pretty good - but I have had the same problem as others with the scroll bar. I also purchased the Microsoft 802.11g card for $19.99 after MIR from Circuit City, but haven't tried it out yet - since there is only one PCMCIA slot (ugh), I assume I have to disable the firewire card before I insert the 802.11g card . But I guess it's just one of the compromises that I agreed to make when I purchased at this low price...

All-in-all, I guess I am satisfied, but if they would have just included native USB 2.0 built-in, this would have been a smokin' deal.

 

[batmanuel]

Originally posted by: dwopks
I finally got a PCMCIA Firewire card to work. Of course, as suspected, it had to be a Compaq branded card to get my WD 120GB external hard drive recognized Specifically, it was a Compaq 2-port PCMCIA Cardbus, Model CPQFWCB which was $49.99 at Microcenter - not on sale. I had tried a SIIG 2-port Firewire card and it would not recognize the hard drive at all. The SIIG card was $39.99. Guess it's going back. Now I suspect that any non-Compaq USB 2.0 PCMCIA cards might not fully work either - but won't know for sure until I can try it or someone else can and posts their experiences with other PCMCIA cards here. Doggone proprietary Compaq policy POS #@Q!#@^%$ !

So far the notebook has proven to be pretty good - but I have had the same problem as others with the scroll bar. I also purchased the Microsoft 802.11g card for $19.99 after MIR from Circuit City, but haven't tried it out yet - since there is only one PCMCIA slot (ugh), I assume I have to disable the firewire card before I insert the 802.11g card . But I guess it's just one of the compromises that I agreed to make when I purchased at this low price...

All-in-all, I guess I am satisfied, but if they would have just included native USB 2.0 built-in, this would have been a smokin' deal.

Weird, I've been running a Western Digital Firewire card on my wife's Compaq 1210US Duron 850 laptop for years with no issues. Just popped it in and Win XP got it running with no issues. I've used it for capturing video with Premiere and burning CDs and never had a hiccup. Are you sure the SIIG card wasn't just a dud?

I'm also running a Gigafast 802.11B wireless card that thinks it is a D-Link DWL-650+ (same chipset, so the drivers are interchangable) and it has worked flawlessly as well.

 

[Sonarcade]

thanks for checking out what's needed for firewire to work on this laptop. I have two firewire cards with a NEC chipset and VIA chipset that both don't work with this computer, which I feel is a shame. I'll have to check out the Compaq branded pcmcia card.