Refurbished ipaq's ?

[lawnman]

Has anyone purchased from Compaq one of their refursbished units? The 2-for special their running right now is awful tempting. I would appreciate any user experience with one of these units. Thanks.

[lar3ry]

Has anyone purchased from Compaq one of their refursbished units? The 2-for special their running right now is awful tempting. I would appreciate any user experience with one of these units. Thanks.

First, I'd like to start off with the following disclaimer. I am a Compaq employee. You could call me biased. But before I was a Compaq employee, I was a Digital employee (absorbed in the Compaq/DEC merger). I don't do any direct work with iPAQs in my job.

I've seen a few of my coworkers using iPAQs and when I heard that the guys in California had managed to port Linux to it, I started drooling over it (being tied to Windows wasn't an option for me; I'm a die-hard Linux/Unix user/programmer and have been for quite a long while).

Last December, I got a "bonus" of sorts from the company... a pseudo credit-card worth about $500 from selected merchants. Compaq's factory outlet was one of the merchants. With that in hand, I finally convinced my wife to allow me to purchase an iPAQ. Her main complaint: "You'll probably load Linux on it, so I won't be able to use it. If you get one, you'll have to get one for me." I agreed.

I was able to get a "new" 3765 for my wife, and a refurbished 3635 for myself (it was the included CF sleeve that made me want the one with less RAM/ROM, since I had a bunch of CF cards for our digital camera). The total cost was just about the value of the bonus thanks to Compaq's employee discounts.

I have had two problems with our units since we got them. I believe that they are both "self inflicted" and not the result of a bad design:

First, on my 3635 (the refurbished unit), the locking mechanism for the stylus started to only work intermittently, and now no longer works. My stylus sticks out about a centimeter. I know that I could have gotten the thing fixed under warranty (I think refurbished units have a 3 month warranty, which probably is expiring or has already done so), but I've gotten used to the stylus sticking up and choose to simply ignore it... I don't want to put up with not having my iPAQ around for a week or so to get it fixed! (If anybody could point me to a web page with instructions on how I can manually fix this, I'd be appreciative).

Second, on my wife's iPAQ, one of my daughters sort of forced it into the cradle (although she swears that she didn't force it), resulting in some bent pins in the USB connector. I fixed this with a jeweler's screwdriver and the unit continues to work and synchronize. Again, I could send it in for warranty repair (it was a new unit), but my wife doesn't think that the "downtime" would be worth it.

Are we happy with the units? Yes, sir!

Again, you may consider me biased, and I just may be. But I've received three refurbished systems from Compaq since they purchased Digital: two Presarios and one iPAQ. I've had no trouble with any of them. Yet. [smile!]

[lawnman]

I don't mind "biased" feedback, so long as it is based on fact rather then loyalty. I was pleased with my 3635 before I sold it. (Got it into my head that a palmsized unit -Jornada 690-would be the cat's meow). I have looked at the the new Jornada's and am turned off by the type 1 CF slot. So back to an Ipaq for me. I think I will take a chance on a refurb unit. Thanks for your input.

[Merlion]

If anybody could point me to a web page with instructions on how I can manually fix this, I'd be appreciative.

At www.pocketpcpassion.com , there's an instruction on the right side panel for fixing some iPaq stylus problems. I don't know whether it applys to your problem, but you can check it out. :)