Poll of the Day > Remember Compaq and eMachines? Man, their computers were shit.

(+) Yeah! (+)

I got suckered by them many times years ago, glad they aren't around anymore. And by "I", I mostly mean my family. I couldn't afford my own computer so I just had to deal with whatever family computer they were willing to buy, which was usually the cheapest thing they could find. I'm sure in the long run they would have spent less money just shelling out for the higher quality.

I loved my Compaq :( but got mine in 1998 which may be out of your range of frustration
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Compaq keyboards are the better keyboards.
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My first computer was a Compaq. It sucked but it sure seemed awesome to have my own PC when I was a kid, lol. I remember downloading a ton of shit off Napster and later Kazaa on that shit, played a ton of Star Craft on it. I even got one of those PCI video cards since that is all it could take and I was using the shitty integrated graphics before lol.
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Lokarin posted...

Compaq keyboards are the better keyboards.

Mechanical keyboards are the best these days.
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compaq was my first modern computer for my time(had a tandy 2000 before that)

yeah we learned it was shit.
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My Compaq was my first solely mine computer. It wasn't the greatest, but it never gave me problems.
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SonicTH posted...

I loved my Compaq :( but got mine in 1998 which may be out of your range of frustration

Yeah, I seem to remember they were actually a pretty reputable brand at that point. It wasn't til the early 2000's that they turned to shit. They basically turned into eMachines with slightly better branding.

jayj420 posted...

Lokarin posted...

Compaq keyboards are the better keyboards.

Mechanical keyboards are the best these days.

yeah sure if you want to go deaf
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first computer my family owned had a black screen with orange text
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Greenfox111 posted...

jayj420 posted...

Lokarin posted...

Compaq keyboards are the better keyboards.

Mechanical keyboards are the best these days.

yeah sure if you want to go deaf

Not all mechanical keys are the same... they have what they call "silent switches" or blue switches maybe, they are barely any louder than a traditional keyboard. They do have loud as fuck mechanical keyboards but those are usually the stupid gamer ones with all kinds of pointless lights n shit.
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Krazy_Kirby posted...

first computer my family owned had a black screen with orange text

mine was blue with white text. grandfather designed the OS himself. it was simplistic but effective for the era he did it in. for as smart as he was though, he didn't put much thought into his password. it was my name and as such a young child I didn't know what a password was so I just entered my name.
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https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/728660-the-emachines-emonster-500a-restoration-and-modernization/
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my family had a lot of emachines. I'm not sure what you mean by saying they were "shit"... it's not like they actually made the computers, it just had inexpensive hardware (often celerons).
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helIy posted...

https://linustechtips.com/main/topic/728660-the-emachines-emonster-500a-restoration-and-modernization/

Can you summarize what this is, I skimmed over it and it looks like somebody restoring an old, mediocre computer... just because?

Sahuagin posted...

it's not like they actually made the computers

Uh, yeah I guess, you could say that of pretty much any retail PC manufacturer though

Rockies posted...

Can you summarize what this is, I skimmed over it and it looks like somebody restoring an old, mediocre computer... just because?

smfdh
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The worst computer I ever owned was one of those Gateway all-in-one computers:

https://pc.watch.impress.co.jp/docs/article/991029/gateway1.jpg

I had a compaq too. I remember trying to install a graphics card and it didn't work. Turned out the AGP slot was disabled on the motherboard.
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I remember the first two computers I used heavily were Compaqs. I always knew they weren't the best, but I didn't care cause the second one could run Diablo 2!
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Never had a Compaq, but I knew plenty of people who did. It was always kind of a 'meh' machine for them. eMachines, on the other hand, always seemed to be the ones people bought because they could not afford anything better, and they usually tanked. ... In that era, my family had a Packard Bell, then a Sony Vaio, then a Gateway (... back when Gateway did not suck ass; Hell, that PC still worked fine as recently as last year, it just couldn't go online any more).
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I had an office job in college where they used both Compaq and emachines. Needless to say, everyone hated using them.
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They were budget computers, kind of like the netbooks of today. I actually never had one, my parents went from a Windows 95 (can't remember what type it was, but I know it was on the higher end) machine to a Dell Windows XP one. Never had any of the in between computers.

I worked on a ton of them though, all of my family and friends had one at some point, and yea they sucked. I hated having to do stuff on them.
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Rockies posted...

Uh, yeah I guess, you could say that of pretty much any retail PC manufacturer though

yeah, and it would make equally less sense to say "their PCs are shit" when they aren't even really manufacturing anything in the first place. you're buying hardware. if the hardware you're buying is "shit" then you bought the wrong hardware. complain about celerons being crappy or something.
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Dikitain posted...

They were budget computers, kind of like the netbooks of today.

Netbooks of today? I thought they stopped making those at least five years ago

Rockies posted...

Dikitain posted...

They were budget computers, kind of like the netbooks of today.

Netbooks of today? I thought they stopped making those at least five years ago

Nah, they are still around today. I bought one for my mom last year, and you can go into Best Buy and find them all over the place.
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netbooks today are called ultralight and are tons better than they were 7 or 8 years ago
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