Discussion on:

Who made the worst PC ever?

I would say there'd be a tie between Packard-Bell and Acer for the worst PCs of all times. But, there are lots of other options.

For the purposes of the poll listed in Classics Rock:

http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/classic-tech/?p=122

I only stuck to PCs that aren't around anymore, so that got Acer off the hook.

Noone I know who had a Packard-Bell had any luck with it. As for Acer, we got a shipment of 15 of them once at the Police Department for our Dispatch System. 8 of them were dead out of the box and another 3 died in the first year.

Acer's still around, having even purchased Gateway, so they must have gotten better. But in the 90's, they were junk.

Who else was bad?

I wound up getting one as a replacement for a computer destroyed in a flood (my insurance company shipped it to me)

That damn thing went down more often than a hooker in the Bronx on a Saturday night!

Yeah, I had considered putting Compaq on the list since technically the original company is no longer around.

However, HP still sells it as a 'brand' and I wanted to limit things to brands that weren't around anymore.

Talk about mating a stallion with a nag....

because Compaq had bought Digital.

The original idea was that combined HP and Compaq would be able to beat IBM. Not so much on the desktop anymore as IBM had become irrelevant on the desktop by then, but rather in services and in the server arena. Compaq's purchase of Digital helped in this as mentioned by another poster.

Seeing as how HP passed IBM in revenue by $10B last fall, the bet finally paid off after many years.

It also didn't hurt that by eliminating Compaq, it put HP closer to dethroning Dell on the desktop, which it finally did as well.

The purchase looked boneheaded for a few years, even so much as people wanted to break HP, but now everything seems to be ok. For a while anyway.

on the desktop/notebook side was it would have more shelf space due to competing lines.
Take a look at the stores and this does show. Most of the stores that I see have more HP/Compaq (mixed) than any single other brand. The funny thing here, is that they sell models that are almost identical, just branded different between the HP and Compaq models.

The first reason was so that HP could acquire the Proliant server line.

The second reason was so that they would simply be the largest manufacturer of pc based systems.

Thirdly, it provided them DEC, and the associatd designers of the Alpha processors. HP really screwed up on hat, and more or less fired them. AMD turned around and hired them, and viola, the Athlon was born a while later.

Firstly I think anyone buying boxes from a retail outlet (Presario's and Pavillions for example, from Best Buy etc.)to be used in a business gets what they deserve.

I worked for a medium sized company that ONLY used Compaq but not retail boxes, the Deskpro EN/EX series, which were professional workstations, not available in the retail/low end market. They also had a price tag to match but were solid and reliable.

Faster Hard Drives, good system boards, reliable due to hardware standardization, 5-year onsite warranty etc.

Once they and HP joined forces, we found all the boxes were absolute crap in comparison, they all seemed to be low end, retail store, Pavillion clones. They quickly ousted HP/Compaq and started working with IBM pro workstations again.

As for the Compaq Presario's, they dont qualify for comparson in a business market, they were not designed for business, and are simply hokey little boxes of crap hardware, MUCH MUCH different than the workstations. If you want to compare a Compaq Presario with something, look to e-Machine.

I feel much sadness and remorse when I think about how Compaq was once upon a time the primo personal computer company, back in the original days of the 80386. It's funny the transitions that the industry goes through over the years.

Compaq was the original PC clone company and I thought they had a great reputation at the time, maybe better than HP did.

...but by the mid-90s I couldn't stand them anymore. They took the route of tweaking otherwise standard parts just enough so that you could only replace them with "genuine" Compaq replacements, which made inexpensive and timely support impossible. Even replacing a floppy drive became impossible.

and as clunky as an Edsel with water in the gas tank.

But the Deskpros were excellent even after 2K. As for hardware, we always bought pro boxes, which came with a standard 5-year onsite warranty, they would ship me parts overnight without any questions or costs involved.

Again though, the retail boxes were crap, the pro workstations were great boxes, even their Servers were good when you ordered the right combo of controllers and drives in them

Packard Bell IS still alive and kicking - in Europe. From what I've heard, they actually make a halfway decent box these days.

Actually I have found that the hardware, the computer itself is not too bqad. Rather it is the software that HP installs. They have taken Miscrsoft Windows Vista, and even though it is not a good program, they have made it worse. Their tech support is worthless. All they know how to do is to tell you that you need to run their installed recovery program, which first formats the HD.

Back in the early 1990's when PC's were costing in the thousands of dollars and I was a retail sales rep, the Packard Bell line (all models)had the same design flaw - a brittle plastic push rod that interconnected the front panel on/off switch to the power supply located in the rear of the PC. If your push was to hard the plastic was broken also chassis heat made them brittle as well. To top it off Packard Bell did not make a replacement rod for any of them, plus the chassis was sealed with a Void Warranty If Chassis Opened Strip. After 35 units returned and a refusal of Packard Bell to accept returns to their factory -- I refused to sale them and almost lost a job over that refusal.
Yes They Have The Title

Subject line says it all.

After unpacking a shipment at a customer site - they ordered the turds - and the whole bunch smelling like the crap house door on a tuna boat, that became my chosen name for the worst batch of parts in history.

The PB had some poor designs but I found them very servicable.

Prior to the sale of PB from Telidyne/waterpic. It was a real pieece of unsupported parts. So many brand names traded hands in the decade finding the real fault is impossable. Three men from Isrial bought PB and it was a fine machine for its time, they even had expansion parts as they owned Revel as well.

Like all low end items the market they distroyed to get sales turned on them as well
They got blitzed when Compaq merged with HP, and IBM brought out a real bottom line E-Machine.

They're part of Gateway...

Now they're part of Acer.

...but the Compaq LTE 5000 series has been by far the worst single PC I've encountered.

The recall process was something else...akin to cruise lines extending ships by a few hundred feet by chopping it up and adding in the middle. Except with the cruise lines, this usually results in a better product.

In terms of overall manufacturer, the worst I've dealt with is Gateway. They tried to take an 'Apple' approach to hardware early on, and it was just wretched trying to shoe-horn proprietary software onto any of their systems. Especially if the client insisted on Windows NT. Driver issues galore!

I haven't touched a Gateway for many years now, and if I have my druthers, I'd just assume keep it that way. Put the cows to pasture!!

that was a nightmare. My first Windows machine and that one put 'off the shelf systems' at the top of my sh*t list forever more.

I bought a reconditioned one from TigerDirect about 3 years ago.

It was totally problem free. This was after they were bought by Gateway, but before they became Gateway style machines.

James

I think it was either e machine or packard bell that if you wanted com1 to become com2 you had to cut a trace on the circuit board. Who came up with that bit of genius?

My eMachines was every bit as well put together as an HP or Compaq.

None of them as good as what you build yourself, but now the prebuilt are so cheap.

James

I tried really hard to forget about this company. Packard Bell was really bad, but eMachine was the worst. I have experienced about 100 of these in a rollout, and we had close to a 40% failure out of the box. Within three months all but 5 or 10 failed. Absolute crap!

PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF HUMANITY AND ALL THING GEEK, NEVER SPEAK THE EMACHINES NAME AGAIN!

definitely the e-word. I felt lucky if the machine lasted 3 years.

We had one in a shop I used to work in. It lasted about 3 days and took about 2 weeks to get hold of support and a replacement that lasted about a month. Again multiple weeks trying to get a replacement that again barely lasted more than a month. Do you see the pattern?

I was once a Commercial Sales Rep prior to starting my own privately held IT firm. Emachines would be returned anywhere from the next day to two weeks later due to defects. Packard Bell? Hah, I had a Packard Bell that lasted me for years. I hold two Bachelor degrees in Information Technology/Computer Science and I have all the certifications so I'm pretty sure I understand the business.Sorry Emachine, but I've worked on many of your boxes.

Nothing wrong with e-machines IF, you get one that is not a Wal-Mart package deal. The ones made for Wal-Mart use cheaper grade components and are built to be sold at the lowest price possible (which many times is at a loss). I have a T-series E-Machine that I bought at Office Depot in 2005 that is a great computer. It has all high grade components like an MSI MB, full 64-bit processor, NEC DVD burner, Western digital HD, etc. My niece and a friend both bought Wal-Mart packages and the monitors are a cheaper version than the usual ones E-Machines sells and both experienced problems. My niece's had a defective power supply that failed after a week and my friend's had a DVD burner that overheated and eventually burned out completely. Don't buy a package at Wal-mart, get one at a place like Best Buy and you get better quality.

it has to be Gateway. that was a piece of junk from the word go. I had an Acer, in fact that was my first computer and it ran good. never had any problems with it.
I have a Dell now. no comment.

Sorry, I don't speak Hindi.

First 486 I ever owned was a PB - couldn't figure why the old Sound Blaster ISA card would quit working - card worked fine in other PC's. I looked closer on the Mboard to find _rust_ in the ISA slots. Yes, it was apparent that my 'new' PB had taken a bath before it reached the store.

The absolute worst piece of crap I ever saw somebody buy.

Within a few months everythign becoem out of date and you need to upgrade, teh Acers had EVERYTHING on board and any additional cards required a degree in system engineering in order to upgrade, IF Acer allowed you to.

Out of teh four or five I replaced (with Compaq deskpro's) all owners were happy to simply throw away the Acer and cut their losses with a sigh of good riddance.

The netfinity 200 or 225.

My company bought a few hundred of them and only 25 or so did not have leaking, bulging, exploded caps in them.

As in their first attempt at building a pc themselvse.

Awww, well... I'm just being a smart a$$ anyway.

Dan

The first PC I built is still running. And well, too I might add. AND I sold it for $400 two years ago.
So there.

And couldn't beleive someone didn't say that.

Me, I'm to blind to build a pc. I've had some built by friends, but I would never ever be able to see those freaken jumpres to set them correctly. I have the mechanical ability, hell. I swap crap out all the time.

But when it comes to small things... That require delicate touch.. Lol, I lose on both counts.

Dan

I use magnifying eyeglasses at about 3x when it comes to fiddlin with those jumpers. lol

Look pretty goofy in 'em too, what with the fact they ride over the glasses I wear every day!

etu

I bought my first PC maintenance tool kit based solely on the fact that it not only had tweezers, it also had both a DIP puller and a DIP inserter.

Edit: the usual. Must be my night...8 posts, 7 edits.

I'm sure we can find some of these in the Questions Forum!

brand name: Blue Chip

All proprietary parts, non-replaceable parts (just had to buy a whole new motherboard), etc etc.

They were around back in the day when "clone" PCs were cool and Packard-Bell was just out.

God, I love the good ole days of shopping for PCs at Service Merchandise or Montgomery Ward or KMart. lol

You forgot the TRS 80 (known as the Trash 80. Radio Shack's bid for computer greatness.

Actually the TRS-80's werent all that bad for their time. Tandy's problem was they held on to the platform too late into the 80's after the rest of the industry had moved into 16-bit computers.

The Model 16, with a Motorola 68000 CPU, was introduced shortly after the Mod 4. The Mod 16 evolved into the TRS-80 Model 16B, and then the Tandy Model 6000.

Additionally, they released an upgrade for converting a Model II into a Mod 16.

You're right the Model 16 and the Tandy 6000 were both 16bit descendants of the Model II business machines. I should know seeing as how we sold the things when I worked at the Radio Shack Computer Center.

We didn't sell MANY of them, but every once in a while people would come looking at them. I wasn't familiar enough with the OS to be much use selling them. I think the 6000 was using a version of XENIX, which was a Microsoft-derived version of Unix.

The Model II, 16, and 6000 were all TANKS. Huge, heavy machines...

MS licensed UNIX v7 from AT&T, with the intent of making it available for 16 bit CPUS. The initial port of XENIX to the 8086/8088 was done by SCO, who later acquired exclusive rights to XENIX, which eventually became SCO UNIX.

I'm not sure who did the port to the 68000; but, Tandy's license did come from MS.

As for being tanks, the Mod II, 16 & 6000 were definitely that; but, they were lovable tanks. I'd love to add a Mod 16 or 6000HD to my collection.