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Mini-Reviews: Compaq Armada 1750 Notebook Computer
Note: For repair and troubleshooting information, please see the much more complete Armada 1750 Upgrade, Repair & Disassembly page, with commented photo galleries.
We traded a Kryotech bare bones 900MHz refrigerated Athlon and a few items in exchange for this laptop computer a few years back, when somebody contacted us with the idea of doing a trade. We decided to go for it, since Jerry Pournelle (a popular computer columnist and science fiction writer) had an Armada at that time and found it to always be quite reliable (at one point, I think he even had one fly through the window of his truck when his truck rolled on a dirt road, and the computer part survived, although the screen was trashed).
Specifications:
One of the nice things about this machine is the built-ins. Need a floppy drive? No problem, it's there.* CD-ROM? It's there too. No extra cords and equipment to tote around. It might make it a bit heavier, but I don't mind; I carry it everywhere. I even used it to write most of this review.
* - Or swap out the floppy and pop in an extra battery pack, for 4-5 hours of runtime.
The laptop has worked out pretty well for two or three years now. Originally it came with Windows 98, but we have since upgraded it to Windows 2000. Shortly thereafter, we upgraded the RAM* to 192MB using a 128MB 144-pin SO-DIMM memory module (rated at PC100 speeds) we got on eBay for about $6.00 (no typo), which significantly boosted Win2K performance.
* - Two clips hold down the keyboard, which when unclipped and folded up (carefully - there are ribbon cables) reveals the memory upgrade slot on the left.
If you want a 256MB memory upgrade
See the extended information on the Upgrade, Disassembly & Repair page for the Armada.
At one point, we did have a problem develop (as result of jolting in a backpack - we only walk with it now) with a loose internal connector inside that caused the LCD backlight to go out so you couldn't see anything. Sometimes the backlight wouldn't give us any trouble, and sometimes we had to rock the display/cover back and forth on its hinges to get the backlight to come back on. We finally got sick of it and carefully disassembled the laptop from the bottom up (luckily, all the screws match) until we could get at the power board for the display. Then we removed the screw holding down the power board, gently blew out the connectors with compressed air, and reassembled it, taking care to make sure that the the board was firmly seated. It has worked perfectly since then*.
Further information and instructions regarding the backlight connector fix on the Armada 1750 Repair page.
*-Addendum 10/22/03: I had to disassemble it again a few days ago, because the rear exhaust fan in the same area wasn't coming on and the machine was overheating. I think I must have bumped the fan connector the last time I worked on it. Running fine now.
Durability: this machine feels very solid - there's no almost no creaking or flexing when you pick up and hold the machine, and I've had no problems with it aside from the display backlight problem above, and then the loose fan connector (don't run with your laptop in a backpack). I had a chance to compare it to a Dell Latitude recently (a C600, I think?), and found the Dell to have a dismayingly flexible case, at least on the backside of the screen/top of the lid. Probably doesn't affect reliability, but I'll stick with my Armada, thanks.
The touchpad, like all touchpad pointing devices, is a matter of taste. An external mouse plugged in is more precise, but the touchpad is ok if you're used to it and aren't doing graphics work. The keyboard, I've found, is nearly as easy to type on as a full-sized desktop keyboard. Not a bad layout; a bit crowded, of course (they always are), but better than most. It even has the inverted-T cursor arrow pad.
The ATI Rage LT Pro Mobility graphics chip with its 4MB of SGRAM is insufficient for all but the most basic 3D acceleration tasks - for example, it runs the ReVolt R/C car racing game reasonably well at low graphic settings (that is an old game). The original Half-Life runs a bit sluggishly at 640x480 in Direct3D mode (it actually runs and looks better in software mode!). Starcraft works fine. But, this thing is not a serious gaming machine (few laptops are).
The CPU is about what you would expect from a 366MHz PII. Reasonably quick boot times - about 1-2 minutes to fully boot into Windows 2000 and load the firewall, antivirus, etc. Does all right for light-duty video playback (not very good for DivX or Windows Media 9 codecs, especially high-res). Caligari trueSpace 4 runs all right for moderate 3D modeling tasks. MS Word is fine. Mozilla web browsing is ok, it can even do Flash applets just fine. The thing even runs ok when I have it throttled back to 183MHz for running on battery power (about 2.0 to 2.5 hours battery life).
The display is quite comfortable to use - it's as big as some of our smaller desktop monitors (14.1" corner-to-corner; slightly larger than the average 15" CRT), bright and clear, and viewable from a wide variety of display angles. Text is nice and clear and sharp. Like all LCD's, it doesn't flicker, but then, your CRT can also be set up so it doesn't flicker (85hz refresh rate, in the advanced display properties). The color still isn't quite as good as the high quality CRT monitors I like to work with; you have to tilt the screen to the correct angle, and it still tends to shift the colors slightly, like most LCD’s I’ve seen. From what I've been able to tell, all LCD's do this to some extent.**
The two type II PCMCIA slots work well - we've used it with a Linksys 10/100 network card, and a Linksys Wireless Networking card, both with no problems, although the USB port is directly over the PCMCIA slots, so some bulkier PCMCIA devices may block the USB port if installed in the top slot.
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The USB port is version 1.1 (900KB/sec), which is OK for a machine of this age. We mainly use it with a 128MB USB flash drive, or a USB optical mouse.
The onboard sound is ok - not very loud, but the quality is reasonable, even through the onboard speakers. Headphones are better. Volume control buttons on the side, which is nice.
I've used the infrared port, in conjunction with an interface hack for Windows 2000, to Hotsync my Palm successfully several times. The onboard modem connects fast and works quite well; I can usually get connection speeds of 50.6Kbps (a few times I even got 52.0Kbps in a Motel 6 in So. Cal.).
ALERT: There is a compatibility problem with the serial port on this laptop and Windows 2000 - data transfer keeps getting interrupted, so it's impossible to transfer any large files over the serial port. This can be a problem with a digital camera or PDA that hooks to the serial port. Stephan writes that XP Pro SP2 has the same issue. This problem is not present under Win98, and USB devices are not affected.
The W2K/XP serial port problem is kind of random - sometimes the digital camera can transfer up to around 500KB or 750KB, and sometimes it glitches out before it has even gone 49KB. I can download the pictures from the camera eventually, if I have enough patience, but I prefer to use a $10 Biostar USB 6-in-1 memory card reader I bought from NewEgg recently. One possible work-around for other serial devices that I haven't tried is a USB to serial converter. If anybody tries one of those on the Armada 1750, let me know how it goes.
One person also suggested that disabling the IR port might fix the problem.
Overall, I've been quite satisfied with the Compaq Armada 1750's performance, battery life, and ruggedness. I usually hate Compaq computers (I sure don't trust their consumer-level desktops; too proprietary), but for a laptop which has to be all built-in parts anyway, they do very well, and I would actually seriously consider buying another one used (preferably an Armada) when it comes time to upgrade (unless I can afford one of those high-performance Alienware or Voodoo Computers laptops with the Radeon 9600-class 3D accelerators). I recently saw refurbished Compaq Armada 1750 laptops advertised at PowerOn.com for under $300 (minus operating system).
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You may also find the following article of interest: Laptop Overclocking & CPU Upgrades - Armada 1750.
If you liked this article, please click the "Feed the Alien" link on the right.
Addendum/rant/pet peeve [may not be entirely applicable anymore]:
** - You can probably tell that I'm a proponent of CRT (cathode-ray tube) monitors. I concur that LCD's are nice in that they're flat, don't use much space or power, and give a bright, steady, flicker-free display. However, I don't agree that they're significantly better visually than CRT's - in fact, in some cases, they're worse. Color isn't quite as good, for one thing. I think the reason people say their LCD is better than their old CRT is because they were running their CRT at the default, fluorescent-tube-like, flickering 60hz (I've seen even computer techs doing this). When they bought an LCD, suddenly the flickering was gone, because an LCD can't update fast enough to flicker, so it just displays a steady image. Of course, the LCD will ghost (leave behind a trail of after-images that take a fraction of a second to fade) when playing games or movies; you need an LCD display with at least a 25ms pixel response time, and 10ms is much better. Most of the older or lower cost ones are 40ms, which will make playing movies well-nigh impossible and even leave a trail behind your mouse pointer. Also, an LCD runs at a fixed resolution, which is ok unless you need to run a game at a lower resolution to get a fast enough framerate, in which case the LCD will interlace, giving a blocky image.
A good CRT shouldn't be flickering - if it is, check your display settings (Settings tab -> Advanced button -> Adapter tab), and make sure your refresh rate is set to at least 85hz. Sometimes you have to tell it that it has a Plug 'n Play monitor (under the Monitor tab) before it will work. If Windows still won't listen to you, try updating your graphics drivers with the latest drivers from the video card manufacturer's website (such as ATI, Nvidia, or Matrox), or downloading Powerstrip and using it to force a custom refresh rate.
I don't mind people buying an LCD - I find the thin casing and sharp text of LCD's appealing myself - but for now I'm going to place image quality above aesthetics, and buy a good 21" CRT for my desktop computer when I get enough money.
Of course, you may have reason to disagree with me. But, I have to go by my experiences, and so far I've been much happier with (properly adjusted) CRT's.
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