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Presario 7360 - 'Friends don't let friends buy Compaq' - PRMartin 19Jul2001
I read through the posts and I just couldn't stand it any longer.
I am working on a customer's Presario 7360 - Hard Drive crashed. Previous to this, I have never worked on a Compaq before, and now I am absolutely positive that I do not want to work on one again. This would all have been SOOOO great if these "QuickRestore" CDs (provided by the customer) did what Compaq says they should. What they did for ME was to reboot the computer - over and over and over and over and over and over again. Read many posts regarding the "QuickRestore" procedure. Tried tapping the CAPS LOCK key as several posts suggested. Tried this many times. Removed all additional hardware that was not originally installed by Compaq. Tried (as many other posts suggested) partitioning the new Hard Drive and THEN using the QuickRestore CDs. Tried re-partitioning the HD and FORMATTING it before using the Quick Restore. Tried these things many times. Guess what the QuickRestore CD does - guess what the FIRST thing this CD does when you boot using it? It blows away the new partition you just made. Every time. When I went into the bios to view settings, I discovered how LITTLE of the bios settings that Compaq puts you in a position to change (or view, for that matter). You can change the device boot order. You can chnge a few irq settings. I don't believe in just jumping into a strange bios and changing things, but I like to be able to see the way things are SET - Compaq does not give you this option. I do not agree with a previous post stating that Compaq uses "sub-standard" this or that. But from what I have experienced over the past month, I have formed the personal opinion that Compaq engineers their product in such a fashion as to try to bottleneck you into paying them for the technical support - that is, if you (like myself) are working on a computer whose warranty has expired. Telephone technical support - the first thing you are told is that your product is out-of-warranty, then you are informed that you can pay $56.00 for a one year subscription for a support account. Then you get a runaround with 5 or 6 people, all who sound like they are from India. But You finally get a pretty decent URL to use to question Compaq regarding your specific problem. And you get a response that makes sense within about an hour. So after about 50 attempts to use the QuickRestore CDs, I finally gave up on them and installed Win98SE from a CD supplied from the customer. Now I have a barebones Win98 installation which needs the audio and Video and Modem drivers. At this point I try www.compaq.com again. Their support tech e-mails me back that I can use the QuickRestore CDs to do a "Selective Restore" once I am in Windows. I think GREAT! But it turns out that the actual path to this windows quickrestore program on the disk is different, the actual name of the executable is different, and I am once again left scratching my head. Oh yeah - I tried running a bunch of the executables that I ran across on the QuickRestore CDs... nothing got me going. But my search DID bear fruit - I found the text file on the QuickRestore CD named 7360.txt - this file (it appears) is the one referenced by the QuickRestore program itself - you select model 7360, and the program knows the correct drivers to install, referencing the drivers by folder name. In this manner I was able to install the correct modem and video drivers - great! we're almost done. I installed the audio driver and it APPEARED that this worked. But it did not. I have a speaker icon in the sys tray. I can open the volume control and SEE the synth meter move when I play a sound. I max out all volume controls, I plug in a set of powered speakers and turn them all the way up... the sound is there, and very clear.... but VERY SOFT in volume. Using a standard set of un-powered speakers, you cannot hear the output at all. Back to www.compaq.com. Nice web-site. You type in Presario 7360. You select Win98SE. You are presented with a download page concerning all modem, video, audio, keyboard and bios updates for this model. Very nice. I download the audio drivers (which appear to be different from the one on the QuickRestore CD) - the on-board audio is ESS Allegro - I install it. No change. I try the other driver available on the same download page. No change. I go to ESS.com and download their utility that you can use to determine which audio chip you have on your motherboard. I identify my chip, and verify that the driver on the QuickRestore CD is the correct driver. It is. However, ESS.com has two other drivers that I can try for this chip for Win98SE. I download both. I try both. NO CHANGE. Did I mention that I have tried everal other sets of speakers - both powered and un-powered. I have tried headphones. I have tried a music CD in the CDROM. The audio output is still at this microscopic level. I e-mail ESS.com my result.txt file generated by their chip-identifier utility and I am still waiting for a response from them. I am e-mailing Compaq again about my current situation - perhaps they can help. The computer works great otherwise, but my customer will not be happy with no audio, as I would not be happy either. I will not be ignorant enough to say that I will never work on another Compaq. But I have worked many other brands, many other OS's, many older or newer hardware. I am absolutely NOT impressed with Compaq - the QuickRestore CDs especially. What is wrong with providing (besides the additional software that Compaq was offering) the OPERATING SYSTEM DISK? E-machines does this also. You are paying for the Operating System license. They are REQUIRED by law to provide the Operating System on disk. A customer recently lost the motherboard because of a lightning strike - fried the on-board modem (and fried their digital answering machine also). I looked all over the 2 "restore" CDs provided - I'll be damned if I can find the Windows XP Operating System on them. If its there, they've disguised it, renamed it or something. That is really back-handed. I have never experienced this particular kind of Audio problem (where I DO have sound, but it is barely audible) - and I do not mean to suggest that I am blaming this problem on Compaq. But it has been one heck of a long road on this one computer just to get to this point where I have currently run out of options to solve my current problem, except of course, to install a PCI Sound Card. I really think that Compaq engineers their product in a very proprietary manner - you are almost forced into purchasing the technical support. And if all of that just translates into a big "turn-off", well, then I can say that working on Compaqs is a big turn off for me. I have another Customer who has an older Compaq model that the Hard Drive has died on.... I will keep an open mind and give compaq the benefit of the doubt. We will see how that compaq goes... Meanwhile, any suggestions for my audio problem? I-net search for "Win98SE ESS" has revealed that this ESS on-board audio chip problem is not native to Compaqs - but the search result has NOT produced helpful pointers either... I agree that these posts have contained some pretty arrogant and snotty entries - suggesting to someone that they might not be a very good consultant is not very helpful either. Heck, I wouldn't CARE how good a "consultant" other people thought I was - ever see how much consultants make? How do I get a Consultant job? z wrote: Patrick, another tip or two: Posting the way you posted in your lead is guaranteed to get you flamed -- If you have a legit qt, fine. There are no stupid questions if posted genuinely, but, but you can easily muck it up, with a jab or a stab comment I'm 'round all brands of computers, and I can tell you the good, bad, and the ugly know no brand names -- Check out Dale, Gateway, etc NGs, to see this One final point: you carry your weather report in your head...In sum, it is all brain chemistry...A jiggle here, a jiggle there separate the Spit Drippers from the Einsteins Soul Peace+ z "Patrick Martin" wrote in message ... Working phone/computer technical support for a real job, and doing computer consulting on the side as my client's need, I very wrongly accepted a Compaq Presario 7360 consulting job... Story is he http://borderline.dnsq.org/compaq.html However, my client didn't get charged for my RE-learning experience - and that was re-learning I NEVER do consulting jobs on Compaq PCs - life is too short to experience that much displeasure! -Pat |
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