Companies that vanished: Compaq -- from dinner napkin idea to market leader

I own two laptops, a Compaq Armada and an Acer Travelmate. The Acer has twice the memory that my Compaq has, and the battery works, but the Armada can handle more programs than my Acer can. And the fact that I have dropped the Armada about 10 times and it stills works, is amazing(dropped the acer once and had to get fixed)

I have owned no less than 5 Compaq computers, including one laptop. I still have a Presario 7885 that works great. But it's not only the computer, but the technical support they have. No matter the age of the machine, they're there for assistance with a problem. The beauty is, the technician will stay with you until the problem is solved, no matter of the time, as opposed to Dell, who won't offer squat, once your "Timed Support" expires. I bought two Dell's, but will never have another one. They are too unreliable.

I have had two Compaq's one was a new mid 90's desktop with 20gig H/D and a AMD processer,(I dont recall the clock speed)and 512mb RAM.that PC was $3,500 with tons of programs plus it had a multi voicemail box answering system,this PC was intended for small bizz. It handled Windows 95 fine but OMG this thing was as slow as molasses in January,it drove me crazy. So what happens?,we purchased a new Compaq laptop in 1999,(I didnt learn the first time around) that thing took 5-7 minutes just to boot,it had a AMD processer,20gig HD,256megs RAM and was only upgradable an additional 90megs!!,we ultimately sold them all and bought a new Dell laptop with an AMD processer and 256megs of RAM,it was slow too but anywhere near as bad as the junk Compaqs,oddly enough we have some friends from Switzerland that had a new Sony VAIO that was an OK PC it was stolen and when the insurance company paid up they bought a new HP/Compaq laptop and ITS as slow as the old PC's.
We have a new,cutting edge Dell laptop with a good old intel procsesser and Vista,this PC is fast and we have NEVER had a problem with it!!. We also have a Dell tower thats a year old,same deal.
I wouldnt touch a Compaq with a 10' pole

Have owned 4 Compaq's...2 notebooks, 2 desktops...still using the latest, purchased in 2003 and 2006...all Presarios. The first one from Office Max in 1998 for approx $1800 on sale... survived five grandchildren until just recently. I gave it to my grandaughter in 03 when i bought my new one, and she just replaced it last year. My first notebook (2001) still works but hinge is broken and screen is unreliable. But it's still alive and boots up. I keep it, thinking I'll save the hard drive but haven't had time to get it done. Compaq always had the most competitive prices, were very reliable and good support. HP support is good also..but I miss Compaq!! I never had the problems my friends had over the years with other brands...except reinstalling Windows a couple of times.

I lived in Houston when Compaq was starting. A young woman I knew was the sales rep for one of the national electronic sales firms. She gave Gateway (the working name for the company before Compaq was incorporated) most of the parts for their original prototypes. She wanted me to go to work for them. I didn't, but a coworker of mine did...... I guess it worked out pretty well for him. :)

My first computer was a hand-me-down so when I was ready to buy something better, I purchased a Compaq. That desktop was loaded with programs! After that time I bought another Compaq desktop, and a Dell desktop. My current desktop was a Compaq 9000z but I fried the mother board so I had to part it out to the present computer. I still use that desktop and my current computer which is a Toshiba laptop. I never had a problem with my Compaqs and I'm really sad that they are no longer Compaq, but HP. I would consider buying one today if they weren't manufactured by HP now.

I worked for a PC component board maker in the late 80's and Compaq was the company most committed to quality on the market. Their engineers tested our boards in a totally cooperative attempt to make every reliable and useful component board, including ours, adaptable to their PCs. Being endorsed by Compaq was a proud statement for our little firm, gone long before Compaq.

Compaq is also connected to the disappearance of the second largest computer company of the 70's and 80's. Digital Equipment Corporation was second only to IBM back then. Compaq acquired DEC in 1998 and HP acquired Compaq in 2002. DEC's long-time president, Ken Olsen, was not known to advocate PCs. In 1977, he reportedly said "there's no reason for any individual to have a computer in his home". It's ironic that a PC manufacturer acquired his company.

I have had several Compaq desktops over the years and was generally pretty satisfied with them.
One of the 1st ones I had was an all in one unit with a drawer beneath the monitor which had the hard drive inside it. This made it easy to upgrade memory etc even for a non techie like me.
Actually the one I have been the last satisfied with is my current one which is a HP which also has the Compaq name; I dont have the model # with me. It had some bugs in it from the beginning either from the mfr or from the dealer. They had to come out and change some settings so that the modem would be operable. Also one of the cd drives never worked quite right. Sometimes when I tried to copy on that drive it would keep spinning and the only way I could stop it and get the drawer open was to shut off the computer and restart. Even though I had an extended warranty I was told several times "sounds like a software problem". So much for extended warranties.
The bright spot with this computer is that it has been very durable (drat!) and it still has plenty of capacity and speed for all the applications that I use including plenty of picture and music downloading even though it is 31/2 years old.
Fortunately copying to cd's is not important to me anymore.

In the early 1980s, my department at the university had 2 desktop computers for which the faculty had to make appointments to use. So I bought my own computer. I don't remember how much it cost or the model but it was made by Compaq. We were warned not to move the department computers or we would harm the hard drives but my Compaq was built to carry around to where I needed it. It had a handle on top for carrying and the base came off and became the keyboard. The monitor was about the size of half the keyboard. This was a marvel of a machine, never breaking down and in demand from all the other faculty who begged to use it when the department machines were over booked or down for repair. I loved that machine and truly regret ever passing it over for one of the newer, faster types. I told my grandson I had one of the first "laptops" and I wish I had it back!

What Jim and Roy didn't mention about the Compaq conquering of DEC is that the CPQ management obliterated the DEC name on most products. Manuals showed up labelled "Compaq OpenVMS ..." and "Compaq C" -- although there were a few which would require a complete and potentially confusing renaming. (While looking for something else yesterday, I came across a reference to an application package called "HP DECforms".)

HP has seemed to recognize that (at least some) brand names have value in their name recognition and such; too bad other people didn't.

I'm not sure whether the Hurd is significantly better than Carly, the famous follower of 'Neutron Jack' (gotall the people but left the buildings standing). The current management has been very up-front with employees regarding employment compensation, benefits, and other treatment of employees is that they chase the industry average. This is particularly cynical when one considers that their size can influence the industry averages!

If anyone in the management structure has considered the probability that average salaries are likely to translate (over time) to average people doing average work, they've kept that under their hats. I'm reducing my expectations of their future products.

HP is big enough that they can survive several years of decline, provided that they can properly diagnose it and can find the will, finances, etc. to reverse it. With some recent management decisions in mind, I am uncertain whether they are able to recognize problems at all, much less diagnose them accurately.

A broker advised me to purchase some Compaq Computer stock in 1984 for my retirement portfolio. I bought 1200 shares at $15.00/share but a year later it had dropped to $5.00/share. A broker from Kidder-Peabody called me one day and asked me about my portfolio and when I told him about the Compaq Computer stock I owned he nearly shreiked, telling me that I wasn't safe to be alone on the streets if I had that in my retirement portfolio. So when the stock got back to $15.00 I sold it and breathed a sigh of relief that I got my money back. BIG MISTAKE!!!! If I'd held on I would have had over 100,000 shares, with all the stock splits, by the time Compaq was bought out by HP 20 years later turning a $20,000 investment into over $5,000,000. And what about the advice given me by Kidder-Peabody. Ever hear of them? I didn't think so. They've been LONG GONE!!

I was a 9 year employee of Compaq (94-03).

Interesting that Ms. Carly is now with the John McCain campain. She got all her "spin" expertise while CEO of HP. This is also true of Mr. Michael Capellas of Compaq. These CEOs both applied the spin to employees and investors that the HP/Compaq merger would be the best thing that ever happened. I believe HP only wanted the Compaq Intel-based (ProLiant) server business. I believe Mr. Capellas only wanted to get Compaq sold, probably carrying out the wishes of the Compaq board. And as expected, after the merger, thousands of Compaq people lost ther jobs. And Carly had HP furnish her a jet plane for travel. And Mr. Capellas bailed from the very (now merged) company that he "spun" to us to be such a great thing. Half the Compaq campus buildings are now empty. Some of the remaining employees have been asked for salary reductions (I know this from people still there). HP sold hundreds if not thousands of acres of previous Compaq land that had been purchased and reserved for Compaq main-campus expansion to real estate developers for yet more expensive new homes and shopping centers. Oh yes, the job functions of many ex-Compaq people were offshored.

As Sonny and Cher sang, "The Beat Goes On".

I have repaired and upgraded many Compaq and HP desktops, in my experience all brands use mass produced, components, with good results. Except when Microsoft upgrades operating systems . Brands are selling new desktops with motherboards that only support Vista . The consumer should be able choose the operating system they purchase. There are plenty of motherboard manufacturers who sell mobos wich support XP,win2000,and Vista. The truth is brands like Hp, Dell, Gateway and E-Machine, contract companies to build too many motherboards that only support Vista. This is not fair to consumers, much of Vista's problems stem from a lack Ram, or the need for video card, some of the motherboards have no room for expansion. The s7700n hp slimline for example, no room to expand. The fault is directly Hp's, for approving such a motherboard for that pc, knowing that Vista could need more resouces to run well. Those who build pcs or know hardware can see this coming, many consumers have no clue. You can downgrade to XP but at your cost!! Consumers should never have downgrade an os at their cost, on a pc less than 2 years old. Lets not forget Microsoft plans to release another operating system to replace Vista in the next couple of years.

I used to own an origanal COMPAQ (C) Presario Laptop A Year Before The Companies Merged (so called). That laptop I had was the best. No problems at all. Then when I bought a new one from the new HP/COMPAQ (C) It Sucked. The Grade and Durability Dropped. I am still a Compaq Customer Today and recondmend this name to others, but I would rather own a HP then a compaq now. It seems that HP just throws it together and doesn't care if it works or not.