Go through there, and you will see that I have more that one or two complaint about HP COMPAQ.
I sell them.
Compaq Persarios are a piece of garbage in my opinion. Like some of them have good specs, but they are built by part from the lowest bidder (IMHO).
Same goes for HP Pervillions.
Thankfully I just let the big retail chains detail with them.
The HP Business notebooks (EVO, NX Series) are much better. However ever since the Tech Support got out sourced to India, the after sales support and dealer presale support has been lacking.
As for second hand notebooks, I would not purchase a 2nd hand Compaq.