[slemaire195]

my laptop is still screwed as you can see... :no:

i have gotten the drive to do SOMETHING, but you have to position it just right and be VERY gentle to be able to get the cd to spin. i installed "the sims" smoothly, but then the drive stopped working, so i figured out how to do something else...

i have 2 computers on a home network running XP, so i made them connect the drives together over the network and i could install the sims expansion packs. what i did was share the drive on the desktop to be able to run on the laptop and install all of the expansion packs until i could get the chance to call compaq and replace my drive.

sims superstar, maxis's latest expansion, works ONLY with these expansions (livin large, vacation, and unleashed). today, i got hot date and had an extra cd for house party (i have lost many others, i think like 5), and wanted to install them both. i installed hot date first, then went to get house party. i was able to install houseparty over the network thing i set up, but superstar MUST be started from a local drive. before i had hot date and house party, i ran the sims a few times and it would work, i would adjust the laser and move it just right and then put in the cd and start! no clue why i have to do this...

NOW since i have house party and hot date installed, superstar will not start. it says that since i installed previous expansions prior to superstar (again, superstar is the latest and they should be installed in order)

AND THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION:

the driver for the dvd-rom CORRUPTED :angry2: after an unexpected power loss... :angry2: :angry2: this has happened to me before, and i had to send it to compaq. this time it didn't happen the same way, and it recognizes the drive as a removable drive, sometimes a cd-burner, sometimes a dvd-RAM, and so on, but will not read cd's (it spins juuust fine and reads it, but when i double click the icon, it says "the disk in drive is not formatted, would you like to format now?" i wouild click no, but decided to click yes, it says i can format into nfts, fat, and fat32. i clicked nfts, but says "error:format can not continue"

i find that compaq sucks... because the last time this happened, they replaced my hard drive. but anyway. anyone that has ANY ideas, please let me know.

SORRY TAHT IT TOOK SO LONG FOR YOU TO READ THIS!!:winkgrin: have a good time thinkin....

 

[Kalmah]

Heh, I'm going to help by turning this into a Compaq-hate thread...

My family baught 2 compaq presarios at the same time about 2 years ago.. One of them wouldn't even boot up.. After calling tech support every **** day for about 2 months we finally made some progress. Well, we wanted them to replace the whole **** computer but they told us they couldn't do that. [email protected]#[email protected]#[email protected]# So instead they insisted on sending us random hardware parts so we could put them in and see if it works.. So a week later we got a soundcard in the mail.. I put the soundcard in.. it still wouldn't boot up.. what a @[email protected]#$ suprise.. Just like I told them... so we sent the soundcard back.. a week and a half after that we get a video card... I put the video card in.. Still wouldn't boot up.. Sent it back.. then spent another 2 weeks talking on the phone with them.. Then FINALLY they sent a whole new motherboard.. (the motherboard was dead before we even bought the **** thing brand new from circuit city) Replaced that and it worked.. Then for the next 2 months they kept sending us bills because we never sent the old motherboard back.. Still havn't done that.. I refuse to be inconvenienced by compaq by having to package the **** thing up when they refused to just replace the computer.

Now, on the other compaq that we bought at the same time.. It worked for about a week then one day when it was turned on it wouldn't boot.. Spent about 3 weeks with compaq on that one and just said @[email protected]#$ it. So that was 3 grand down the drain.

Now, about 2 weeks ago the compaq that we replaced the motherboard in.... the hard drive died in it.. The support didn't believe me that the hard drive was dead, instead they insisted on sending us 5 different versions of the compaq restore cd.. Now that I have confirmed to them that the hard drive is dead they tell me the waranty is up so they can't do anything. $%@#$% So I bought a new hard drive, gutted some stuff out of my old gateway and just put the hard drive in that.

Never again in my life will I even look at a compaq.

It's kind of funny how they advertise their computers... 1.4 GHZ!!! 256 megs of RAM!! cd burner!! But they neglect to tell you that the ram is pc100... and the video card is about 10 years old and is only 32 mb. and the soundcard doesn't even have a brand name on it.

:bandit:

 

[breakerfall]

slemaire195,

I think Kalmah's post says it all.
I've had bad experiences with Compaq too (not as bad as Kalmah though )

My opinion,
•Try uninstalling devices that you are having problems with, use
device manager for that. Download the latest drivers and reinstall
them.

•If that doesn't work, then backup your stuff and run the system
restore CD from Compaq if you have one. Compaq releases new
versions of the restore cd's all the time, so you may have to
contact them and see if they have a new version for your laptop.

Good luck,
I would try a different brand next time :dead: