Product Description

The Compaq Presario A945US Notebook PC's striking design has a rectilinear shape that is repeated in patterns throughout the system, the cut out speaker grill, the vents on the bottom casing, even the pattern within the finish. Its high gloss Imprint finish encases the form and is more durable than traditional painted surfaces and features an exclusive Trace pattern that resembles brushed steel and complements the clean design elements. From the simple step by step setup through easy support tools with preinstalled Advisor, the A945US gets you up fast and keeps you running. The built-in webcam can be launched from the desktop or from QuickPlay and a preinstalled demo shows you how it works. The 5:1 digital media reader enables you to transfer photos to your PC in seconds. The Compaq A945US ships with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1, Pentium Dual-Core Mobile Processor T2390, a 17.0" diagonal WXGA+ High-Definition BrightView Widescreen Display (1440 x 900), Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 (shared), with up to 358 MB Total Available Graphics Memory, 3072 MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm), 160 GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA), LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support, and 802.11b/g WLAN. Dimensions: 15.6"(L) x 12.22" (W) 1.31"(min) /1.76"(max) (H); weight: 6.8 lbs.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4106 in Personal Computers
• Color: Black
• Brand: Hewlett-Packard
• Model: A945US
• Dimensions: 6.30" h x 12.22" w x 1.76" l,
• Display size: 17

Features

• 17.0-inch (diagonal) WXGA plus High Definition BrightView Widescreen Display, 1440 x 900 resolution
• 1.86 GHz Pentium Dual Core Mobile Processor T2390 with 1 MB L2 Cache
• 3072 MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm), 160 GB (5400RPM) Hard Drive (SATA), Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100
• LightScribe Super Multi 8X DVD±R/RW with Double Layer Support, 802.11b/g WLAN
• Windows Vista Home Premium, dims in inches: 15.6"(L) x 12.22" (W) 1.31"(min) /1.76"(max) (H) approx., 6.8 lbs.

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Customer Reviews

Great for the price
Note: It has USB ports on the right and the left, where I plug in my mouse receiver, being right-handed. Problem with mouse pad interference from typing is UNIVERSAL. I was happy to see the off switch for it (my old Toshiba didn't have one) since I prefer a wireless USB mouse most of time. Keyboard and screen are great. Performance is as you would expect for the price -- the weakest area is 3D graphics. Not bad overall. If you need high performance in graphics, get a laptop with a separate graphics chip and memory. I've run professional 2D graphics creation programs on this laptop without too much pain. Ordinary apps -- great. This is my first Vista computer. Vista sacrifices usability/performance for security. I have several XP computers, and am used to, and happy with XP. I've found that Vista is not as bad as I feared. The main slow-up I've observed is when plugging in flash drives. Wireless works great. Conclusion: this is a great choice for the price if you don't need a high performance laptop.

Lousy Design
I bought the Compaq A945US notebook because it was a good price for a 17" screen laptop, and I thought it would be easier to use on the road with a bigger screen for computer work.

It performs OK but it is a Vista machine, wish I could get an upgrade to Windows 7 for cheap. However, I like that it is dual processor.

But what an idiotic design. The USB ports are on the right side near the front. If you are right handed, anything you plug in will get in the way of using a mouse. Even the mouse cord gets in its own way there! It is just nuts. There are only 2 USB ports, definitely could use a couple more on each side to the rear.

There is no physical knob to control audio volume - has to be done by software. So forget trying to be quiet while booting up on an airplane or hospital room or library or wherever. The media audio is also incredibly weak - at max volume I could barely hear a DVD I was playing (even though the windows boot-up jingle is sufficiently annoyingly loud).

The screen has a kind of washed out look and not the best for viewing photos, movies etc. Fine for basic office work though.

The clamshell design is awkward to pry open, you feel like you'll drop it or knock it off a table doing it.

The touch pad, in default configuration, is sensitive and sometimes does things while you are typing, or clicks on something while you meant to be moving the cursor. Fortunately it has a small button switch for turning it off. Maybe you can adjust it better, but I find it a hassle.

Wireless works fine.

The power cord is three pronged -- thanks a lot. Another gotcha when you're in a hurry and stuck with a two hole outlet or extension cord.

It's just not a friendly design. But if you could upgrade to Windows 7, it makes a decent work horse. I'm finding that the 17" screen mainly adds width, not height, so you generally don't see more lines of a document, for example.

Love it, but a small problem...
I purchased this laptop a few months ago (I only wish its OS was XP, not Vista) and had some small issues with Vista. The timing on this is almost ironic, as yesterday the hard drive failed!

I called HP/Compaq tech support and explained, in detail, everthing that I was doing and steps I took to make sure it was in fact a disk failure. They were fantastic and sending a replacement which should arrive in 3 days along with a set of new DVDs of the OS, etc. at "NO" cost to me. However, I do have to return the failed drive to them within 2 weeks of receiving the new one (my signature determines the receipt date). Most manufacturers require you send the defective product first and will then send a replacement. There was just one thing and understandable, they asked for a credit card number in the event I did not return the defective one. Once again, at no cost to me, as they are including a pre-paid shipping label!

I would definitely recommend HP/Compaq to others. My Dell desktop, top of the line, is a nightmare and never again would I buy from them. Even Microsoft, unbelievably, were much more helpful with a system crash when Vista auto-upgraded to SP1 which the unconcerned Dell & more helpful MS techs were unable to resolve. I was, with a bit of research, able to get it up and running again in several months (mainly because I didn't have the time to devote to it) I am writing this on it now, which was the impetus for purchasing the Compaq laptop. Give me an HP product anytime over Dell and several others anytime.

Huge thumbs up for HP/Compaq tech support!!!