Compaq Presario CQ56-115DX 15.6 2GB 250GB Laptop PC

HP Presario CQ56-100 CQ56-115DX XG809UAR 15.6" LED Notebook - Refurbished V140 2.3GHz - Black XG809UAR#ABA Laptops & Notebooks

Owner Reviews, Ratings, Comments and Criticism
I needed a basic laptop for web surfing, email, writing, and some light computer programming. I got this one at Best Buy for about $[...]. For the price I found it to be a good buy. It came with the 64 bit version of Windows 7 and had two gigabytes of memory, a single core AMD 64 bit processor and a two hundred and fifty gigabyte hard drive. Uses shared memory for graphics. After using it for about a week I became frustrated with the length of time it took to boot up and another while for your program to load. Once your program was loaded, it would run ok but I did not run more than three programs at once. It also seemed relatively easy to stress the processor. The system monitor would indicate processor usage was at near one hundred percent by merely installing a program. The battery life was respectable and the built in wireless worked very well. I found the keyboard and touch pad to be a bit odd but I quickly got used to how they worked. One peeve I had was that the initial memory came in two one gigabyte modules. It would have made more sense and been cheaper in shipping the laptop with a two gigabyte module. I however do not pretend to understand the business decisions of these computer manufacturers. Bottom line. Good value for the price but recommend increasing the memory to at least three gigabytes to work well. Good for light use around the home or at the office. I have not tried but I don't recommend games on this unit. I would give it 3.5 stars if I could but I cannot seem to give half star increments so three stars it is.