Running XP Pro and has RAM maxed out at 188MB. Video Memory set to a whopping 8MB Shared. Has Linksys Wireless card and streams music from a laptop in another room with an external drive. Streams 320 Kbps music all day long. Its single USB port has an IR reciever that I used to control it with a Media Center Remote.
This computer has been on for the last 3 years and I never shut it off.

I got my Compaq 1200 in June of 2001 for graduation, loved it. It's been my best friend for seven years--until it ran out of space. That's my bad, but the fact that it's short on space has caused issues. I've had to delete almost all my programs off of it and it hasn't really fixed the space issue... I know I should have de-fraged it a long time ago, but it always took forever or ran into errors so I just skipped it. My screen broke about a year ago, that's been really annoying, I have to prop it open any time I want to use it. As of last night, it just turns off on me and will only restart in Safe Mode. I have no idea what's going on-something obviously is bad somewhere. I knew this was coming eventually, and I'm pretty sure I can recover my files. I should have bought a new laptop when my screen broke last year. I am sad to see it go though, I loved it!

I use this HP computer with a wireless network card, to read my Email, surf the web, run star calculators and map software. It's like having a really big PDA.

Well i just bought this laptop and it is great. I paid my friend $300 and he gave me this computer with a new battery, a 30gb hard drive and a ram upgrade (its at 308 mb ram). This laptop is fast, speakers on it sound great, and instead of having hard plastic by the mouse pad, it's a rubbery type thing i really recommend this laptop.

I have had my HP Compaq Presario 1200 laptop since my dad bought it for me for a graduation present from grade 8. It's been a great laptop since then. I have dropped it about 5 times, had the screen break but replaced for 50 bucks on eBay. I still get about 2 hours worth of battery life with the original battery. The floppy door guard broke off. Other than that it's been great. Good quality laptop for homework, and the Command and Conquer Red Alert 2 game works great with it.

Even though this is my first and only laptop, I think that it is a great one.

Overall the HP Compaq Presario 1200 notebook is perfect for people who work more often outside than inside the office due to it's size.

The keyboard is nice, every keystroke gives the confidence to the user what was ebing typed. The JBL speaker is outstanding with it's placement towards to the operator's face, it gives full sound power with good quality sound produced.

The only problem with the notebook is the notebook shell which is very easily cracked and as usual HP products parts price is killing its consumers

The HP Compaq Presario 1200 is a very solid machine, reliable. After five years I had only had a problem with the screen cable

I bought a HP Compaq Presario 1200 new in september of 01. Its been a good computer other than the battery. No major problems. Only minor things i have done to it my self. Upgraded the memory to 320mb, small improvement over the 128 mb from the factory, but it did help.

One day my HP Compaq Presario 1200 laptop, with 4 years of discrete use, shut off, and I can't use it any more. The Distributor told me that the motherboard of this model failed, and that they had a lot of clients with the same problem. I think that the HP Compaq Company should deal with the OEM problem with there being such a high quantity of cases.

The HP Compaq Presario 1200 laptop was my first good computer. I have enjoyed many many hours playing on it. It's a great little laptop. Perfect for internet use, and for some games such as Age of Empires 2 and The Settlers.

It loads quickly and rarely has an error.

I'm really happy with my Compaq!

I am sad to hear that a lot of people have had problems with their Compaq Presario 1200. The only thing that I can find is the battery (it sucks).

I recommend Compaq to anyone that is looking for a laptop.

Another reason why I think people are whinging about their old Compaq Presario 1200 is because it's slow (well... mabye because it's old).



Most people think of it this way... at least your laptop is still going.

The HP Compaq Presario 1200 laptop computer has good build quality, but the heat issue makes the laptop pretty much useless.
Consider this laptop if you need something to warm up your house in winter.

I've always had desktop computers and was given a hand me down Compaq Presario 1200 laptop. I think it worked for about one week. One day I went to turn it on... checked connections.... nothing. Brought it into a service station.... it got fixed. I forked over $150 .... everything seemed fine. Went to turn it on the very same night.... (tonight). Not a thing!

I have had a hand me down Compaq presario for almost a year.... for about 6-7 months of that time it's been in service. When it actually turns on it's a great little computer... but now it just sits there like a big black paperweight with a green light for power.

COMPAQ=No good in my opinion.

I've owned my Compaq since early 2001, it's actually my very first computer I've ever owned.

I put it through the paces, especially when it became a company computer. The abuse this poor thing went through was unreal and it kept going just as strong as ever, however this wasn't meant to last.

In January of '05 I downloaded the new Java and it killed the HD, it was so bad I couldn't F-Disk the thing. Now other people had similar problems as I did so maybe it wasn't the computers fault. I recently brought it back to life using Linux and enjoying it again. Generally the Hard Drive is slow to boot whether it has 98, ME, XP Pro, or Linux. You have to hire a specialist or own your own special tools to replace the HD or motherboard in this computer; it'll take up to a 5 gig drive but without the tools that avoid breaking those little plastic hooks it's not smart to go ahead and try doing it yourself and the Specialists overcharge to do the work so that is a drawback unless a 3.2 GB HD won't hinder your use for the computer.

Also this Laptop has no Ethernet port, you have to either buy a card for it or get a USB to ethernet adapter to connect to broadband of any kind. This is a problem but not a big one also the monitor isn't doing as well as it use to, it's dim now, darker than it was before but no dead pixels but I figure it's been 5 years since it was created and it was hardly ever turned off and suffered the wear and tears of onsite abuse so I'm not too surprised.

Overall I am very glad I bought this machine, it more than paid for itself years ago and It's actually the most dependable Windows machine. I've owned and now with Linux it's probably last at full speed another 2-3 years without another major problem.

I have [had] two of these HP Compaq Presario 1200 units and they ended up with faulty HDDs and motherboards. Reading other rewievs I can see a pattern here. I belive we should all get refund from Compaq/HP. Oh, did I mention that I am running a Computer service company for the last 9 years and that all this looks very familiar? I've spent lots of hours with compaq/hp technical team discussing this issues - not their fault, they didn't design or approved its manufacture. Personally, I've stopped using or supplying my customers with their product and so should you until they come clean and confess their sins. Lokking at features, availability and cost of spare parts, number of dead [unrepairable] units - I would recommend Toshiba Portege or Tecra series.

To get the best performance our of this Compaq Presario 1200 I really need to tighten the screen or somthing.
And I don't know what im going to do about the screen going bad..

I have a HP Compaq Presario 1200...worked good for a year..now it won't start up...Battery is ok but it has a heat problem ...cooling fan is too small and allows heat to buld up..and it shuts down...won't start up for 5 days. DO NOT BUY FROM COMPAQ or HP...their help tech service is off shore in Bagladesh and English is their 2nd language...very poor training.