The Worst PC Company?

[TheGreatSatan]

Who do you think is the worst PC company? A Lot of people tell me it's Emachine, but I've always hated Dell. Your thoughts?

[Luke122]

To be honest, I've never had much trouble with any of those you listed. All of their prebuilts just come loaded with junk, but once you clean them out, they are decent computers.

I suppose I've worked on more Dell's than anything else (part of the job here), but the worst trouble I've ever had was on a prebuilt from a small company in Edmonton. ECS mobo BIOS got flashed by a virus, and they refused to warranty it. So I had to buy a new board.. from somewhere else. B@$tards.

[rendermandan]

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

[tinker]

I think emachines are probably the worst but thats just because they make cheap basic computers. I have also had bad experiences with gateways but it was mainly because the computer was ancient.

Whoever voted HP is WRONG. HP makes solid computers. I would buy one again if building one wasn't an option. I've had mine for 5 years and it's still my main computer. It is now starting to get dated but is plenty fast for internet and slightly above marginal for photo editing. It cost me $700 5 years ago so I think it's served very well.

[Enigma]

Compaq all the way !!!
Why you ask !?!?!?
Well let me put it like this, nothing in the pre-built machines matches up against components from other manufacturers, nor does the software.
At least the machines i've had my hands on.

Let me give you a little something to explain what im talking about.
In one of my old Compaq licensed PC;s i whas about to put in a clean version of XP 'cause i did'nt want the crap that was on the disks i got from Compaq.
So in it goes, and what happens ?
Well, no sound is detected, trouble with RAM, it hangs up all to often and so on, nothing but trouble.
Same way when i put in another HD with XP on, it could'nt detect a lot of features.

My 2 cents

[Drum Thumper]

I'd have to say IBM from personal experience. Their machines are overpriced, underpowered, and when I bought my last one (early 1990's) it had more damn bloatware on it than you would believe. And this was at the beginning of the bloatware phase.

[NightrainSrt4]

So in it goes, and what happens ?
Well, no sound is detected, trouble with RAM, it hangs up all to often and so on, nothing but trouble.
Same way when i put in another HD with XP on, it could'nt detect a lot of features.



Knowing the people in this community, this is probably a given, but you DID get the drivers off the disk or from their website correct? Of course there is going to be issues with the sound and memory if there aren't drivers(sound, chipset, lan, etc.) installed. You probably did but just checking. I've had more computers than a 20 year old should, and never had an issue throwing XP on any of the pc's ive used, ranging from Gateway, Emachines, Compaq, Hp, Sony, Systemax, IBM. I'm sure theres a few more.



As for the poll, no vote from me. I haven't had to deal with huge quantities from any one manufacturer and one or a few bad units doesn't define a company when they make millions. And customer support, you can't define a company by the acts of a few individuals. Yes these will have me form opinions about the company and whether or not I purchase from them, but does it define if the company as a whole is poor? IMO no. I understand with customers you really only get ONE chance. But does that define the company if that chance goes awry? No, at least not in my opinion.

Edit: My opinion might have been formed from when I worked in the pc retail industry (aka Best Buy). All companies are on equal playing field because you never know who you will start carrying. Bash one company to a customer and the next month you could have their units right on the display.

[TheGreatSatan]

Best Buy is kinda goofy though. They sell Dell's and Apple now too.....

[Enigma]

Knowing the people in this community, this is probably a given, but you DID get the drivers off the disk or from their website correct? Of course there is going to be issues with the sound and memory if there aren't drivers(sound, chipset, lan, etc.) installed. You probably did but just checking.

Yes the drivers were all there !!!



As for the poll, no vote from me. I haven't had to deal with huge quantities from any one manufacturer and one or a few bad units doesn't define a company when they make millions. And customer support, you can't define a company by the acts of a few individuals. Yes these will have me form opinions about the company and whether or not I purchase from them, but does it define if the company as a whole is poor? IMO no. I understand with customers you really only get ONE chance. But does that define the company if that chance goes awry? No, at least not in my opinion.

This make a lot of sense, could'nt agree more , really !!!

[Indybird]

Compaq.

Two of my friends had one, they were incredibly slow (when they were brand new). On one of them the PSU died and they didn't cover it for some reason. On the other one all of the USB ports died and they also didnt cover it.

Mind you this was the Windows ME era and that definitely didn't help these computer's cases, but the problems they had were not ME related. I cant exactly comment on their new stuff though...

-Indybird

[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 (http://www.dodge-wiki.com/wiki/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.

[cooldud02123]

mine would be acer cuz they just suck and emachine cuz i had to fix alot of them at work and they allways had problems with the mother board that and they both like to over heat and crash

[Xpirate]

Turning this around would make an interesting survey. If you had to set someone up with a pre-built machine, which one would you choose? Dell isn't doing well in the survey, but that's probably what I would pick if I had to get a ready built machine. Sony is a little too proud of their hardware.

[TheGreatSatan]

Sony <-Not too bad really, but damn those Vaios are pricey. Who do they think they are? Apple? lol


All of their computers are waaaay overpriced. You could have two laptops with identical specs and the sony would be $300 more.

[FuzzyPlushroom]

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

Damn, I just came in here to say it.

I'd say Gateway would have been the best, up through 2002 or so... Dell's not quite as bad as they used to be, nor is eMachines. Gotta be one of those two, though. Compaq's not that great, but then they're basically a budget version of HP, who puts out some of the best-quality computers today...

If I were getting a prebuilt computer, it'd be a tossup between Dell (if I didn't ever want to upgrade it) or HP (if I did).

So, I'll go with eMachines - after the whole Bestec fiasco (sauteed southbridge, anyone?).

As far as value, Sony's clearly the worst.

[Zephik]

Could this possibly be a sign?? haha kind of awesome really...

http://img246.imageshack.us/img246/1570/666gw3.jpg

All of their computers are waaaay overpriced. You could have two laptops with identical specs and the sony would be $300 more.

This is true, which is why I consider them to be a wannabe Apple company (or maybe they are? I guess they are the Apple of the PC world). But out of their entire PC selection, the only ones that I actually like would be the Vaios. I feel horrible saying it, but every time I'm looking for a laptop and I see a Vaio I go; "oooh, I want that one!". I can't help it. They're so nice looking! lol

They have a pretty cool looking ultra portable (http://mobilitytoday.com/articles/sony_ux_90s_shots.html) too, but meh, I would take the much cheaper, possibly better, Eee PC anyday.

...yikes! (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834117623) :eek:

[Dilphat]

I would have to say emachines. If you remember the post i had before of a computer case that we shot like crazy with shot guns, if i remember correctly my friend said it was an emachine. he detested it soo much. lol

[TheGreatSatan]

I have an Emachine that's 8 years old and runs great! It's got XP running on 1GB RAM and a Celeron 1.7GHz.

[chaksq]

I voted for Dell. They are way overrated, they make decent machines but they aren't worth the reputation they get from the general public. My parents bought a system from them and it runs horrible. The RAM is crap and my older machines can multi-task better. I've used an Dimension XPS for years and their is nothing spectacular about it, even when it was new it wasn't that great. I also had an older Dell laptop, out of the box it didn't support the hardware installed on it (IrDA and USB are not easily supported buy win95). It also was impossible to upgrade the OS, it refused to properly load an installer. Their system cases are horribly designed, flimsy and/or impossible to work with.

Dell does however make great monitors and MP3 players. The UltraSharp series is amazing.

eMachines are horrible but everyone knows that. I actually think they have better cases than Dell but that doesn't take much. Whenever I get my hands on an eMachine I strip it for parts, those CPUs make great keychains :up:.

I used to think Gateways weren't that good but I've changed my mind. I came across a pair of 6400 Server models. I typed in the serial numbers on their webpage and found all sorts of information. The exact hardware lists of my machines, drivers, manuals, even all the original product views. Some of their low end desktops have mediocre hardware but still decent little machines. They have great laptops though. I have one of their new ones and it's extremely well built, the LCD housing is the best of any laptop I've ever owned.

IBMs are great for working but not much in the way of multimedia. I love their ThinkPad series of laptops. So much compatibility and expandability in them. Have had a 560e for years, kinda old so I can't do much with it but it has never failed me once. I also use a T20 when I'm out and about, works great for schoolwork and light internet browsing. Plus any upgrades I get for it (Dock, Ultrabay devices, etc) I can use with newer models if I decide to upgrade at some point.

The others:
-Nothing good to say about compaq, never really owned one but friends/family have and they all seemed kinda bad.
-Never owned a HP or Sony have heard they are good though. Sony's seem too pricey.
-Never had a Toshiba or Acer, can't comment either way on them.

Kinda long so summary:
-Dells are way overrated and mediocre. Peripherals are better than machines.
-eMachines should all be stripped for use as keychains. Better cases than Dell.
-Gateways are decent desktops, great laptops. Awesome online support even for older models.
-IBMs are great as long as they aren't used for multimedia. Laptops have great expandability.
-Haven't owned/used others enough to comment.

[dfigravity]

Compaq all the way !!!
Why you ask !?!?!?
Well let me put it like this, nothing in the pre-built machines matches up against components from other manufacturers, nor does the software.
At least the machines i've had my hands on.

Let me give you a little something to explain what im talking about.
In one of my old Compaq licensed PC;s i whas about to put in a clean version of XP 'cause i did'nt want the crap that was on the disks i got from Compaq.
So in it goes, and what happens ?
Well, no sound is detected, trouble with RAM, it hangs up all to often and so on, nothing but trouble.
Same way when i put in another HD with XP on, it could'nt detect a lot of features.

My 2 cents

I'll second that...I have a perfectly GOOD Compaq sitting here right now...I formatted the HD and put a clean install of XP on it and now when ever I turn the computer on, it goes to a black screen with a little flashing line in the upper left hand corner. Maybe the mobo is bad, I dunno. Either way, I hate Compaq.

[Quakken]

I am writing this on a two year old compaq. I seriously hope the hard drive doesn't break, it seems like a crazy amount of system critical data is being stored on there according to what you people have said about it.


On the other hand, though, I have had no problems with it. It's going on 3 years old I think, and the worst problem it has ever had was when I put some el-cheapo ram in it a year ago. I, in my naiveness, thought it was a virus. So I used the recovery console and restored it to factory. It's been fine ever since (and since I realized it was bad ram, AFTER I had reset it to factory.)

There is a recovery partition on the hard drive itself, you just recover from that on the startup screen and you're fine again.

They are just the budget version of HP. HP is the largest computer company in the world, my dad works for them, and they are currently making totally awesome PC's, so they're going to be my favorite.

Dell preys on stupid people (but their computers are solid).

Emachines are like the gay bachelor at your christmas party. I don't really know where this metaphor was going.

never had any experiences with any others. Overall, these days you probably aren't going to get a bad computer from any company because the market makes them strive for excellence (although you can't go wrong with HP.)

[TheGreatSatan]

Dell preys on stupid people (but their computers are solid).

Commercials at 3 a.m. do that.


Emachines are like the gay bachelor at your christmas party.

Hose it down with Zima!

[Quakken]

Well, really many commercials prey on stupid people. Or just exploit them. Two words- beer commercials.

But I've never first or second hand experienced a problem with a dell, some of friends have them and I do not hear them complaining.

I'm going to have to google zima now, I better not regret it!

edit- huh. zima If there was ever a gay beer, zima was it. Or is it?

Please don't impale me.

[Braveheart]

Dell, why do you ask? because they ship PC's with half of the hard drive filled with 800 different media players and game demos. and i am still yet to get the side panel off of this one.

[Quakken]

Blowtorch. That's all ya need.

[Xpirate]

Dell, why do you ask? because they ship PC's with half of the hard drive filled with 800 different media players and game demos. and i am still yet to get the side panel off of this one.

Most of the companies listed in the poll put bloatware on the hard drive. Which is the reason most of us build our own machine.

[Quakken]

In fact, dell sells or at least used to sell bloatware free computers for "business" or something like that. Paying more for it, of course.

I bet you would have to go to the most high end gaming PC's from most of the othr companies to have no trace of bloatware on your system.

[TheGreatSatan]

From what I've seen Sony has the most bloatware. I counted 31 programs, from Music players to photo editing software on 1 Sony laptop.

Emachine had a long streak of defective PSU's that apparently started after I bought mine.

[Quakken]

They have to get the price down somehow, although it's probably one of the more annoying ways to do it.

I think this machine probably had around 20 when It came. I went on a long trip throughout the program files and add/remove programs list. Now if I could only get that "update advisor" from HP stop popping up and annoying me. I can live with that, though.

[TheGreatSatan]

Disable it in msconfig

[Drum Thumper]

ok did u guys know that gateway ownes emachine and acer bought into gateway to sell in the U.S and hp ownes Compaq

I think it's pretty safe to say that we all know that. We're a bunch of geeks here.

And BTW, it's owns, not ownes.

[vastonecat]

I think it's pretty safe to say that we all know that. We're a bunch of geeks here.
.

Yes we are all geeks here but some of are new geeks and don't know the history of our proud race.:redface:

[Tech-Daddy]

Packard Smell ... all the way....
hated those POS's... but I'll tell you what! The end users had a ton of problems and I was paid handsomely to fix them!
;)

[nil8]

The generic no-name junk they sell at Fry's electronics & Wal-Mart are worse than eMachines.

[Xpirate]

The generic no-name junk they sell at Fry's electronics & Wal-Mart are worse than eMachines.

You are talking about "Great Quality" at Fry's. Those things are horrible junk.

[melanko]

I'll put in my input now on One unlisted company for canned PC's. Look out for Digital Storm (www.digitalstormonline.com). I use to be a system builder there and I could write a book on the things they do wrong there. The owner thinks he is all gamer but he is not in the least. And the thing is the owner of the company is this guys dad who is some old fuddy-duddy who's probably never seen a PC game.

The employees were underpaid for their skills and were pretty much treated like crap so buying a computer from Digital Storm just enforces companies like this to just pass of these crappy canned computers.

[Quakken]

Looking at their website, they don't even have custom cases, just repainted ones.

Without that next step, It's nothing more than a couple of guys building computers in their basement.

[Fuganater]

Dell as #1??? I can't believe that. Dells are fine as long as you use the "Dell Software". Which comes with every machine. I've redone my 1720 laptop and its awesome now. Oh and did i mention that Dell has the best warrant? That they will still support me even though I use none of their software or the OS that came on my laptop?

Hmm.. they sound so horrible to me...

Anyways... I vote Compaq cuz I've had alot of problems with them in newer machines being just junk for like $500. I guess I just don't like them cuz the sell computers that should not even be in the same class as a computer.

[Mysteriphys]

have to say I go with the vote for no one, honestly I've been through 486 clones, 6 toshiba p85 - p250's (satellite & satellite pro's) compaq and hps PII's a Dell which I dubbed "the claw" and have since moved on to home builts, I have to admit, there are definately some chipset issues with compaqs sometimes, the supplied hardware with most pre-builts is sub par at best, but with the right combo of parts, you can get a strong PC. the 486 clones always did their jobs (word processing lol) the toshiba laptops were amazing to be honest, for their speed, the fact that they could run 95 on the best of days, they went through arizona desert heat, unprotected shipping, thumps and slams against and into vehicles, I think the only one that ever suffered was a broken lcd from the latch breaking and too much pressure on the lid. compaqs always had HDD issues till I swapped for a western digital, or seagate, the HP PII & PIII's survived, my 9 yr old half brother and one sits in my storage room ready to roar to life at a moments notice, "the Claw" I tore the case apart on that thing after getting it from a friend in the commercial district, started out as a plain jane desktop no frills windows 2000 box and became a semi-high end gaming pc after I chopped a few holes in it and mounted a vidcard cd-burner and a new sound card, (called the claw because it had that swivel top hatch that would slam down on your hand if you didn't prop it up right lol...)

so ya, they all have their problems, but hey, they're perfect for the average joe that doesn't compute much :) (well, when we're done with them, kuz I didn't bother bringing up all the ones I've fixed for friends)

[TheGreatSatan]

Toshiba has horrible customer service. I had a customer buy a $500 Toshiba and it died in 4 months. He sent it in for repairs via the warranty. They had it for 8 weeks, then sent him a bill for $400! IT WAS A $500 LAPTOP

Dell was sued (http://www.wkyc.com/news/rss_article.aspx?ref=RSS&storyid=67875) by the state of NY (http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3678091)