So I got a new laptop on Wednesday October 19, 2011, 11:11am.  I got a Compaq Presario CQ62-209CA running Windows 7.  It has a  2.2ghz AMD v120 processor with 2gb of ddr3 ram.  The next day, ordered 8gb ram on Amazon.  The most confusing thing when I first booted up the computer was all this HP software on a Compaq machine.  My first thoughts were that somebody had messed up and reinstalled the OS from an HP restore disk since it is a refurb. So shortly after I found Compaq and HP branding on the computer, I Googled it and found out that HP bought Compaq 10 years ago.  Where the hell have I been?   Anywho, Not a bad little computer though if I say so myself, my biggest complaint would be the location of the keys on the keyboard.  It’s rather hard to find the left shift key.  I either hit the calculator shortcut key or the back slash (\) key.  The  touchpad and the 2 buttons definitely suck on it.  The touchpad is not sensitive at all and the buttons seem to only want to work about half of the time.  One push of the button doesn’t seem to get the job done and I continuously find myself having to push down on it several times just to get the thing to work.  I can’t click both buttons at the same time to open in a new window on Chrome either.  So instead, I plug in my Logitech M305 Wireless USB Mouse for normal usage.  The only other complaint I have is the volume is not loud at all.  I expected a lot more from Altec Lansing speakers.  I actually need to use the EQ as a preamp to boost the volume levels.

It’s taking me a little bit to get used to Windows 7 coming from XP.  I’ve always been one to skip an operating system when they come out.   I had 3.1, skipped 3.11.  I had 95/98 and I skipped ME.  I had XP and I skipped Vista.  After all, who the heck has the money to invest in a new OS when they come out every couple years?   Anyway, it seems like they just jumbled up everything here on 7.  At least on XP it was an easy transition coming from 95/98 and mostly everything was labeled what it was before.  It seems like what they did for 7 was dumb the OS down for the average user.

Overall it’s not a bad computer.  I’m upgrading from a Dell Inspiron 1501 with a 1.8 Sempron processor and 1.5gb ram running XP.

I’d like to give a special thanks to Computer Renaissance and Market Presence.

My Review, Part II – 11-10-11

So now that I have the laptop up and running optimally, (or at least as good as I can get it), I tried to do some recording with it last weekend. After figuring out the confusing task of separating the built in mic from the mic jack, I finally get some sound coming through the system. Here’s the thing though, there’s a half second delay on Windows 7 that makes recording impossible! I checked all the Windows forums and all I saw was the same copy and paste from all the Microsoft reps claiming it to be a driver issue and 98% of the people with the issue still having the problem even after trying the so called “solution”. Looks like I’m going to be busting out my XP laptop to do some recording. Oh well, I was really looking forward to using this 8 gig of ram on some recording!