Is this normal?

[Goober]

Ok, here are the Specs:

AMD Athlon 2.5 Ghz;
256 SDR-DDR Ram;
Crappy Integrated Video/Sound;
80 Gb HD.

This is the computer my parents bought maybe a couple of months ago, its a Compaq prebuilt, and they have had nothing but troubles with it. First, Compaq had installed all kinds of crap on it that took around 6 hours to get rid of, then its generally a slow computer. I am not comparing it to mine (Athlon 1.7, 776 Mb), but generally, it is SLOW!!! Should it be acting like that? Shouldn't it be a reasonably fast computer? Are all Prebuilts this bad? They have had nothing but trouble from it, yet are too stubborn to return it. They have trouble with it too, IE, Outlook don't open very well/fast, things randomly crash, etc, etc, etc.

Those kinds of things shouldn't be happening, right?

 

[Achinz]

Right AFAIK.

I've recently upgraded mine to an Athlon 2000 and 512 DDR Ram with a budget all-in-one Gigabyte mobo (with the old 30 G HD) and it's as fast as I need it (even on Win98). I suspect much of the blame may be laid at the software installed.

If Win XP is installed it may be worthwhile having at least 512 MB memory though.

 

[blackhalo15]

Sure, it's a Compaq. I bought a Compaq. And don't bother calling the Compaq support, because it's NEVER a Compaq problem according to them. Always a Micro$oft problem. Does it have Windows XP Home Edition? If so, that explains the crashing. And Outlook is a Micro$oft product. So don't expect it to work to well.

 

[Goober]

Oh, I know. I installed Mozilla on their machine, but nnnnnooooooo, my sister accesses a website that can only be accessed through IE, so they cannot have Mozilla. And I have Outlook Express with my Hotmail on it, not too bad, works decently, and I am just too lazy to get something else. Yes, they have XP:HE, Compaq, AND ise IE/Outlook. There is no hope for their computer.

@ Achinz - We tried to put more RAM in, didn't work. Apparently you need a certain type of RAM from a specific company, or some BS. My Dad just gave up.

And if anybody is wondering why I am complaining, it is because since their Machine doesn't work well, they come and use mine, which is annoying.

 

[Comraddict]

first,. there is no such thing as 2.5GHz Athlon. It is running on 1.93GHz.

a) how many running processes you have

b) have you checked for spyware

c) is your hard drive running on 7200 rpm or 5400 rpm?

 

[Goober]

I mean an AMD Athlon 2500+ Ghz or whatever.

a) It is slow when NOTHING is running.

b) They have Norton AntiVirus '04 installed, and Adaware which they had frequently used. I just gave them SpyBot (had a heckuvatime trying to get IE to stay open)

c) Not a clue. Does it matter? I will check, and report back tomorrow.

Another thing: Is DDR-SDR Ram different from DDR Ram? I have DDR, they have SDR-DDR. Is there a major difference?

 

[Vancouver 2010]

I say you should take a ballistic missile to that computer. You've told me about that computer many a time, and every time I say I don't have a clue what's wrong with it. Aside from the obvious "all M$ products are crap" line.

The big question is: do you have a spare ballistic missile lying around?

 

[Goober]

Oh, you mean the one lying in cold storage under my bed? Sure, I can just use that one. If you think that will fix it, then I am all for it!!!

In reality, I dunno if it can be fixed, it is so screwed up. I wouldn't care about it if my parents didn't use my computer every time theirs decided to do the death thing.

Bottom line: M$ products are crap, and never buy prebuilt computers, especially prebuilt Compaqs!!!

 

[bobgote]

Firstly, compaq pre-built PCs are generally a bad idea. From memory yeah, there is compaq specific parts that you can't upgrade except thru compaq.

secondly, Athlon 2500+ means that its running at 1.9-ish GHz.

thirdly, 256MB RAM is not enough memory to run much at all. you should upgrade it to 512 if possible (it will be a hassle, but still possible).

but all that aside, it should run not-fastly, but it should still run, there is no reason that it should crash. I would say reinstall the OS if possible - and then only install stuff that you know what it is and why it should be on the machine.

there is also a possibility of bad memory. when it crashes, are we talking not-responding or blue screening?

and I would recommend against buying compaq in general, unless you know exactly what you want.

 

[Goober]

Well, to be honest, I should have told my Dad not to buy Compaq, but then again, I was drooling over the labtops at the time, and he did ask me if the one he bought was good enough.

The Processor should be more then enough (better then mine).

The Ram, we tried to get a stick of 512 DDR Ram, and add it, but it didn't work. Does SDR-DDR Ram and DDR-Ram go together? Do you need special "Compaq" Ram?

I think the main problem is the Ram, and a couple Viruses that are probably in it. I am going to update NAV'04, see if that helps.

 

[bobgote]

we had a compaq prebuilt once, and yeah, the ram was a different shape to normal commercially available ram. you probably need to go through compaq or a registered dealer to get it. Not sure about these days though.

 

[Comraddict]

with running processes I don't mean runing programs. go to task manager and report us number of running processes. ( 19 for me)

 

[DreadCthulhu]

Originally posted by RealGoober

The Ram, we tried to get a stick of 512 DDR Ram, and add it, but it didn't work. Does SDR-DDR Ram and DDR-Ram go together? Do you need special "Compaq" Ram?

The acronymn SDR-DDR RAM doesn't make any sense. DDR stands for Double Data Rate; SDR stands for Single Data Rate - DDR memory is twice as fast SDR, and both types have different sockets, so they are not compatable with each other. To find the type of RAM you need I really reccomend you try Crucial's memory selectory - follow the guide, and you should find out if you really need expensive custom

I am also willing to bet that computer is chock full of spyware - get Spybot Search & Destroy and Ad-Aware and run them on that machine. $5 says there is at least a hundred pieces of spyware that will be found. And if the machine is running Kazaa or Imesh, both of those programs are full of spyware.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

Do the reasonable thing and get rid of XP.

 

[FireBall]

Originally posted by RealGoober
Oh, I know. I installed Mozilla on their machine, but nnnnnooooooo, my sister accesses a website that can only be accessed through IE, so they cannot have Mozilla. And I have Outlook Express with my Hotmail on it, not too bad, works decently, and I am just too lazy to get something else. Yes, they have XP:HE, Compaq, AND ise IE/Outlook. There is no hope for their computer.

@ Achinz - We tried to put more RAM in, didn't work. Apparently you need a certain type of RAM from a specific company, or some BS. My Dad just gave up.

And if anybody is wondering why I am complaining, it is because since their Machine doesn't work well, they come and use mine, which is annoying.

All right...

Firstly, you probably said already, but what OS are you using?

You should go to Compaq's site and see what kind of RAM you need, you really ought to upgrade your RAM, that should help a bit.

Outlook isn't all that good, I think that actually is a MS problem, I'd reccomend Pegasus Mail since Mozilla didn't work out for you.

You should look up your hard drive speed, it can be important if it's below 7200 RPM especially.

The Athlon 2500 isn't a bad processor, I personally prefer Intel, but thats just my (somewhat biased) opinion. It should be more than adequete (sp?)...

Hmm, that's about all I can say...


P.S. Ignore all the typos and spelling mistakes please, I was typing fast.

Is it normal? Well, I haven't had much experience with Compaq, but I'm not all that thrilled about them, just think that there are better things out there (Dell *cough**cough*).


EDIT: Just saw the quote... if you're running XP Home, then you DEFINITELY need more RAM. XP needs about 384 by itself to run well, so I recommend another chip of 256 for 512 MB.

 

[Goober]

@ FireBall - thanks for the tip, I will tell them to check that out. We tried to install an additional 512 stick of Ram, like I did to my machine, but it did not work. I should have used it . . .

I think I may have solved one of the many problems; some virus that NAV '04 didn't catch. SpyBot took care of it, so all is happier then before. I went on their machine just now, and forgot to check the drive speed, working on that, but IE seemed . . . stable? and Outlook actually closed properly, instead of the hard way!!!

I may have solved some of the problems, and their processor should be more then adequate.