Post by default on Nov 23, 2009 17:54:38 GMT -5
My first computer was a Packard Bell, consequently I win this thread.
Same here. Well, actually, we had a few older ones including briefly a Commodore and then a Tandy. We then got a Packard Bell and most of our distant relatives got one. We ended up with all of their 486's when they upgraded. I've actually had very little problems, but I got to know Windows 95 and 98 pretty well (3.1 I pretty much just used). I think the only major problem I had with a PB was when I accidentally installed a new $30 CD Rom backwards my dad bought and fried it. One major problem I've seen with those were people not plugging them into surge protectors. Given the chance, they'd fry quicker than eggs.
Personally for me, it's Compaq. I've never owned one, but relatives and friends have and they've always caused problems. My sister got a Compaq laptop on clearance at K-Mart for $250 (back when laptops were like $400-$450 on sale) that never gave her major problems, but it just seemed really crappy. Even after I cleaned stuff up for her, it took longer to load stuff with a 1.7ghz than my 600 Pentium Dell did. Granted, she had the lower processor and I had a P3 and hers was a laptop and mine a desktop, but still. She had more HD space, more memory, etc.
Hewlett Packard had some problems. Around '01-'02, they seemed to have serious problems with the way they installed the female plugs for the keyboard and mouse hookups. I knew a kid who had one and luckily knew how to reweld them on and managed to repair quite a few. HP laptops seem to be pretty good, however. And their LaserJet printers are insane. Hell, our HP LaserJet 4 by them is from the '92-'94 range. The tiny menu screen doesn't work, but it's a workhorse.
My favorite brand is Dell. I've had zero major problems with the three desktops I've owned and very little minimal problems. My dad's had a few problems with his desktop (that he bought for $30 used) in that the soundcard doesn't work as he set things up backwards (And this isn't a Dell problem, it's a motherboard problem. I had it with a home built AMD 333 and my friend and I were trying to fix a friend's Compaq that had problems with it as well.) My first two Dells were a 600 gifted from a friend and then an 800 I got at a yard sale. I think the most time I spent working on them was setting up the 800. It had locked Windows on it and needed cleared and fresh installed and then it only had one spot for a HD, so I had to rig my second above the disk drive and find a cord that could run that far.