Frontpage Story #16

I am a computer consultant. One of my clients got saddled with a Compaq Prolinea 5100e by the guy that used to take care of their network.

One day the floppy drive failed and needed to be replaced (this machine is in use in a dusty warehouse and had been up and running for a couple of years so I can't fault them for that) so they called me and asked me to do it.

I have replaced floppy drives *many* times in clones and other brand name computers so I thought nothing of saying "Sure, it'll take me 5 minutes", little did I know.

I had to buy a special screwdriver to open the case because Compaq uses that screw that looks like a 6(?) pointed star. No big deal, I should have had one anyway but I can't help but wonder why they chose to use this type of screw when most people don't have the means to remove it.

I brought in a totally standard Panasonic floppy drive and attempted to install it. To start the ribbon cable was too short to reach the connector that was on the right hand side (if you're looking at it from the top with it facing you). This cable was clearly designed to *only* fit drives that had the connector on the left.

I reached into my toolkit and got a standard ribbon cable but because the connector was on it's side the cable would not fit into the motherboard due to the key notch.

At this point I gave up and made the long trek (via public trasportation, I'm an eco-friendly computer guy:) to the 'Official Compaq Dealer" to purchase an "Official Compaq Floppy Drive" which was identical to the standard drive I brought with me but with the connector on the left and a higher price tag.

Over the course of this 'easy' job I encountered proprietary screws, cables, floppy drives, motherboards and who knows what else.

Could it be that the Compaq customer has no choice but to buy "Official Compaq Replacement Products" at inflated prices? My opinion is that this is the case.

Were anyone to ask my advice on purchasing a new computer system for their home or office I would recommend they not buy a Compaq system.