I received a Compaq Presario 1200 series laptop when I came to college as a gift. Opening the package and seeing a Compaq in the box already filled me with worry, as I'd already had several bad experiences with the company in the past having to deal with quality control issues, but I put on a good show of being appreciative, and honestly, having a laptop was better than nothing. When I got to my school, our campus had a wireless internet setup deployed, and we could use a wireless card to surf the web from nearly anywhere on campus. Having bought a wireless card I thought setting it up would be easy, and that part proved uneventful, but whenever I tried to use the wireless card, it would generate interference with the integrated sound system of the laptop. Every time the transmit or receive light would blink on the card a loud "BEEP" could be heard through the speakers. It was so distracting that when I was in class, I'd have to plug a pair of headphone into the audio out port to interrupt the output to the speakers. A minor inconvenience for the multitude of other difficulties I was about to have... First the CD drive failed, so I called Compaq, had a box sent out for warranty repair, and returned it to Compaq. I figured while I was on the line I might as well inquire about the odd audio issue while using a laptop. Their response: They didn't support wireless card on "consumer" grade laptops. I thought PCMCIA was an establishes standard... Oh well. Two weeks later it arrives back, and seemingly its fixed. A few weeks go by without incident, and now the hard drive fails. I call back again, return the laptop again (luckily I saved the box from the last return, so they were able to pick it up the next day). A week later it's returned and functional again. Less than a month later the display fails. Back in the box I was saving under my dorm room bed, and back to Compaq. After two weeks finals are approaching, and I'm still computer less. I call their support line (now on speed dial), and after being on hold for over an hour I get a hold of an associate. I ask about my laptop, and the girl asks me if I have the serial number. In the rush I was to send it off the last time, I forgot to write it down. She says that it might be possible to look it up based on my address, but it would take some time. Seemingly, out of the blue, I recall the 12 digit serial number. I recite it to her, and with surprise, she asks how I could possibly remember that. I smugly replied that after having called so many times, it had ingrained itself in my memory. I STILL remember that serial number 3 laptops later. ..
