Compaq or Microsoft

[DLazlo]

Am trying to gather some info on a problem that seems quite common on 5200 series Presarios. When running Win 98 on a K6-2 400 there seems to be a high number of cases where after 1 to 3 months the systems will start slowing down and freezing or crashing when run for even short lengths of time in some cases. In a large number of cases the standard Control/Alt+Delete will not even be recognized and users are left w/ no choise but the switch which leads to the second problem of Compaq's QuickRestore not properly reinstalling the software as specified or in some cases not rebooting clean or at all. Naturaly, Compaq blames it all on the "Other Guy" and has user's reconfig and put their hard drives on a starvation diet, thus depriving them of some of the features they bought the system for in the first place.
Since:
1.5200 series also have numerous problems w/ rockwell and lucent modems not functioning properly and
2.AMD K6-2 chips do NOT seem to have gained a reputation for being "wiggy" (ask your local overclocker if they're unstable) in everyday operation we hope to gather enough info to work out the problem and stabilize these systems (and maybe even get Compaq to take some of the heat off their customers pockets). Any info on this series, or it's components behavior in other systems is appreciated. C. L.
D. Lazlo Ent.
PS:If you want to post here thats fine by us, we'll keep checking & gathering info
(Besides, we have one of the damned useless things and our other system's busy.)

[DLazlo]

Sorry, tired and forgot to post specs.
AMD K6-2 400mz (not sure what other mz used in series)
VIA Apollo MVP-3 chip set
Rockwell or Lucent modem
ATI Rage LT Pro AGP (in most)
ESS audiodrive

[Susan]

Couple of questions -

Are there any errors messages that might have occurred on any of the systems prior to the lock-ups?

You mentioned that the system has trouble with those modems...is that from the get-go or are the problems arising after the locks-ups start?

How is it that the modems do not operate properly?

[DLazlo]

The modems are Lucent WildWire & Rockwell HCF. Most of the complaints seem to cite very poor connection & a tendency to disconnect unexpectedly & often. Several have said that if they did see a disconnect warning the system ignored any response and closed anyway. I have read at least a dozen posts w/ people saying that they were getting better conn. speed on 28 & 33 modems in there old machines (under same conditions) before they "upgraded" to the 5200 series. I have seen one though that said she had hers set to "connect automaticlly" which it did, about every hour or so if she was there or not. Many say the freezes are the worst while they are connected (They're advertised as the Internet PC) or shortly after going offline. After they start freezing it becomes a very common occurance (3 to5 times a day OR more) many of them have not been able to reboot and have had to use the QuickRestore CD supplied w/ them. A not so good percentage of the time they Don't work! I recieved a letter today from a guy who is on his third processor in a 6 mo. old system, it went 2 weeks & started freezing. I have personely run McAfee Nuts & Bolts on a machine that had started freezing up constantly and had it crash & not be able to reboot to Win98. I put in the start up disk made ON THAT machine when it was new and it went down even further and would not even run the QR CD. After much work when the system was running again 3 days later I ran N & B again, on PC checkup. The system had been fdisked, formated, and had been completely restored from the 2 CD Compaq set and came up as 28 invalid OLE objects, 2 shared DLLs missing, 19 other DLLs missing, 6 crosslinked and 2 unregistered fonts, 4 invalid file associations, a device conflict, and a couple of settings warnings! All this on a system that was supposedly reset to factory specs.
My apologies for being so long winded. I can try and provide some better data as soon as I get a chance to wade thru some of this mess and organize it. Cale

[DLazlo]

Thanks camel_w. That fits in w/a couple of other things we've recieved. Have heard Rockwells can be too agressive, but I'm not sure if I'm clear on their meaning. CL

[camel_w]

I work at Radio Shack and sell the Presarios. I have seen all the problems you are trying to find answers for. As far as error messages go, alot of illegal operation messages will come up after 2 or 3 months. Then usually the Presaario will freeze. It seems to me that on the new series 57 and 58 series have corrected some if not most of these problems. The guys and myself have taken apart every new Compaq we have gotten and found out that on the 52 series, they were using EXTREMELY cheap parts. This would probably be the cause of most of the problems, incompatible hardware. As for the Rockwell modems, I always use a non-winmodem. I find that the win modems will act funny. Some not acieving proper speeds, others being highly unstable. Hope this helps you guys some.