The Worst PC Company?

[SgtM]

I would have to say the worst pc company would be Packard Bell!!!

I couldn't agree with you more! Seeing how that wasn't an option though, i opted for the next closest thing.. Compaq.

[Xpirate]

I voted Compaq because I have had to deal with about three of them recently. BIOS information is stored on the hard drive for Compaq machines. If you blow away the hard drive with DBAN, you have to format the drive with a disk to restore that BIOS partition. I could not upgrade it with the memory sticks I had and it used a special power supply.

I had a Gateway machine that had a bad install of Windows XP, but other than that it was okay. My Dell laptop has a problem with the keyboard, but everything else works.

Most people on this forum probably build their own machine most of the time, unless they are getting a laptop.

[noopypoop]

I hate Dell for one reason. We have to use em at school. Even the brand new ones suck ass. And they all look the (&^# same (the crappy ones atleast) Plus non computer-literate people associate Dell to PC compared to Mac. Which is annoying. (This is just my opinion so dont bash me)



They do make some nice laptops though.

[Ap1thy]

ive only had two prebuilt systems in the house, adn those belong to my parents. the first was a gateway and they replaced the system with a better one when the power supply caught fire out of warranty. dell on the other hand refused to replace the hard disk under warranty even though the system had never been opened.

[Eclecticos]

I believe the worst one is Hewlett Packard.

[a.Bird]

My first prebuilt was a Gateway and for $1600, it was just flat out a bottom of the line p.o.s. A couple years later, I dropped $500 @ tigerdirect on individual parts and put a rig together that blew the Gateway out of the water. Hardware is hardware, it does what it does and it'll handle data as best as it was designed to, but these companies really made a killing back in the day. I think nowadays, there is much more technological awareness and commercial competition.

[tinker]

I think nowadays, there is much more technological awareness and commercial competition.

Very well said.

[Indybird]

I had a Gateway that my Dad bought for $1200 in 1999:
Intel Pentium 3 500MHz
32MB RAM
4MB Voodoo 3 Graphics
8GB Hard Drive
Windows 98

It ran fine up until there was some sort of registry corruption.

-Indybird

[blueonblack]

I would have to say the worst pc company would be Packard Bell!!!

I'm with Render here. Absolute junk, and their "customer service" line was legendary. We actually called it, got the usual "please hold blah blah blah" message, set the phone down on the table and went out to dinner across town, came back and we were still listening to it. That machine did finally find some use as a primary component in a thermite experiment though. It was too big for a paperweight.
________
George W. Mason

[Zephik]

I've played around with quite a few machines in my lifetime so far, maybe not as many as some of you other guys, but the worse that I've experienced was with emachines, without a doubt it my mind. I didn't even look through the list, as soon as I saw the thread title I instantly knew who I would pick. They are not just bad, they are atrociously bad. I'm not trying to use fancy words here, it really was that bad of an experience for me. But, that was way back in the day, when every computer sucked something awful really.

My list of least favorite PC companies in order of worse to best.

eMachines <-Pure concentrated evil in an ugly beige box thats been slapped with an ugly company name closely followed by some of the worse tech support my father and I have ever known.
Compaq <-Better off getting a Dell.
Gateway <-Better off getting a Dell.
IBM <-Are they even still around? lol They're just about as old as dinosaurs...
Acer <-Better off getting a Dell, kind of.
Toshiba <-They have a few decent ones...
HP <-Doing better these days. Verve? Blackbird? That other one that I can never remember?
Dell <-Doing better these days, still my brand of choice without a doubt.*
Sony <-Not too bad really, but damn those Vaios are pricey. Who do they think they are? Apple? lol

*They aren't the greatest brand in the world, but for the price, really? Its pretty easy, imo at least, to look over their flaws (which aren't nearly as bad as they used to be) when you consider the deal your getting. Sure sure, you can build your own, so can I, but having a warranty is getting to be so appealing to me anymore, I'm just getting tired of spending countless hours trying to fix something when I can just send it in and call it a day. That, mixed with their low prices, is well worth (to me) the half hour of uninstalling all the crap they put on their PC's.