Compaq Presario Explained

Compaq Presario
Lifespan:1993–2013
Predecessor:HP OmniBook (business notebooks)
Successor:HP Pavilion

Presario is a discontinued line of consumer desktop computers and notebooks originally produced by Compaq.

Introduced in September 1993, the Presario family of computers went through a number of iterations over the years, which included several different design changes to the desktop and tower cases for each series of computers. In the mid-1990s, Compaq began manufacturing PC monitors under the Presario brand. A series of all-in-one units, containing both the PC and the monitor in the same case, were also released.

The Presario brand name would later be repurposed for a line of low-end home desktops and laptops made by Hewlett-Packard (HP) under the Compaq brand name after Compaq merged with HP in 2002, and was sold concurrently with HP’s other products such as the HP Pavilion. The Presario line of laptops also subsequently replaced the then-discontinued HP OmniBook line of business notebooks around that same year, with the branding being reintroduced 22 years later in 2024 as part of HP's rebranding of its consumer products.[1]

The Presario line of computers then continued on for a few more years until the Compaq brand name was discontinued by HP in 2013.

Desktop PC series

(NOTE: This is a non-exhaustive list and may never satisfy completeness, but shows some of the more or less common models of desktops under the Presario brand.)

Model number suffixes

A one, two, or three letter suffix located on the model number, if present, indicates special information about the computer as well as indicating what features the computer may have, such as the type of processor used and/or the country it was offered in. In most models, these suffixes would be affixed to the model number in the following format:

----xxx

Where "----" indicates the model number in four digits and "xxx" is a one/two/three letter suffix (e.g. 7000T, 7000US, 8540SE1). This format may differ from model to model.

The following chart below describes each of these suffixes. Most of them would later be inherited by HP after their 2002 merger with Compaq, with some of these suffixes being introduced post-merger.

These suffixes describes the country (or region) that the computer was sold to.

Notebook series

(NOTE: This is a non-exhaustive list and may never satisfy completeness, but shows some of the more or less common models of laptops under the Presario brand.)

Model number suffixes

A one, two, or three letter suffix located on the model number, if present, indicates special information about the computer as well as indicating what features the computer may have, such as the type of processor used and/or the country it was offered in. These suffixes were usually affixed after the model number in many models.

The following chart below describes each of these suffixes. Most of them would later be inherited by HP after their 2002 merger with Compaq, with some of these suffixes being introduced post-merger. See the Model number suffixes section under "Desktop PC series" above for more info.

These suffixes describes the country (or region) that the computer was sold to.

All-in-one

These are all-in-one computers containing the PC and monitor in the same unit.

Monitors

Various computer monitors of different display types and sizes have been produced under the Compaq Presario brand since 1996.

Timeline

1x25 and FXx00 series

The 1X25 monitors were the first monitors made by Compaq under the Presario brand, first introduced in 1996. They were paired with the Compaq Presario 4500, 4600, and 4800 series as well as a few other Series 2 designed Presarios, which featured a spaceship or rocket ship design on the front casing of the towers. The towers also had smoked-black CD bezel covers. Other Presarios of this era didn’t use the spaceship design of the 4500, 4600, and 4800 series Presarios and instead had different case designs that had a beveled concave shape surrounding the exposed drive bays. In both instances, the towers had "easy-access" buttons located on the top of the case. These monitors all shared the same design cues from the towers they were meant to match: all of them had a split lower bezel which ran down the middle. The monitors had dials for brightness and contrast, plus a volume dial for speakers, which also acted as a power button when pressed. It also has a mute button for the volume on the left side of the monitor, and featured four additional dials behind the bottom panel for manual display adjustment (these were replaced with digital controls on the 1725 model). The monitor also has a built-in microphone, located on the top of the monitor.

There is also a very rare set of monitors (the FX series) which are all black and had built-in speakers and a subwoofer, plus three extra USB ports. These are designed to go with the 4800 series Presario multimedia towers (specifically the 4830 to 4882), as they were all black just like the FX monitors.

All of these monitors came with JBL Pro speakers which could be mounted to the sides of the monitors. The FX is the only exception, which had built-in JBL Pro-powered speakers with a subwoofer in the rear of the casing.

MVx00 and FPx00 series

The MVX00 and FPX00 monitors were the second monitors made under the Compaq Presario brand in 1998, designed to be sold with the Series 3 designed Compaq towers. They retained the original spaceship design of the second generation Presario towers, albeit with a slightly squatter design that was more rounded. The higher-end models housed in taller cases featured smoked-black plastic "easy access" flip-up doors on the bottom containing USB and audio ports behind it. The "easy-access" buttons located on the top of the case were removed from the towers in this series of Presarios. Like the previous monitors before it, these monitors were designed to match the design cues of the Series 3 Presarios. These monitors had their brightness and contrast dials of the previous monitors removed in favor of digital controls accessible by a button on the monitor. The four hidden dials for display adjustment as previously featured on the 1425 and 1525 monitors were also replaced with the aforementioned digital controls as well. On the MV500 monitor, six LED lights were present on the monitor to indicate the type of control being used, while the MV700 and MV900 monitors removed the LED lights in favor of on-screen display digital controls. The volume dial (which acted as a power button) and mute buttons from the previous monitor were also removed, with a standard power button in place of the volume dial. The MV700 and MV900 montiors also featured a dedicated degauss button. The monitors retained the built-in microphone from the previous monitors, located on the top of the monitor.

Flat panel displays were introduced during this generation of monitors, which featured a flat panel LCD screen. They were one of the first flat panel monitors to be offered for a home consumer PC. These monitors were designated with the letters FP.

As with the previous monitors, they came with JBL Pro speakers which could be mounted to the sides of the monitors (with the exception of the FP series).

MVx20, MVx30, and FPx20 series

The MVX20 monitors were the third monitors made by Compaq for the Presario brand in 1999, designed for use with Series 4 designed Presarios. They featured a redesigned spaceship form factor of previous generation Presarios in a more curvature shape, and most of them had translucent purple plastic flip-up doors that provided access to USB and/or FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports. Like previous Presario monitors, these were designed to match with the Series 4 Presarios as they shared the same design cues. All monitors featured on-screen display digital controls as opposed to the six LED lights that indicated the type of control being used, which was only used on the MV500 monitor. As with previous Presario monitors, these monitors featured a built-in microphone within the monitor. These monitors also dropped the "Presario" name from the monitors, with only the words "Compaq" and "MVX20" being written on the monitors.

In early 2000, the MVX30 monitors came to the market alongside other monitors of this generation with a single model, the MV730i. These monitors were similar to the MVX20 monitors but with a refreshed exterior design that shed most of its boxy-styled angular design from this generation of monitors in favor of a more curvature exterior. This change was only done on the front portion and the stands of the monitor as the rear portion retained its angular box design. An on-screen display with digital controls and a built-in microphone were standard, and featured silver accents on the microphone and power buttons. It was made to go with the EZ2000 series of Presarios, which were radically different in design and form factor compared to other Compaq computers in this generation, featuring a blue exterior with translucent plastic feet and a built-in on-screen display with controls. This monitor was the precursor to what would eventually become the MVX40, CVX35, and FSX40 monitors, as they all share the same design aesthetics.

Flat panel LCD displays continued to be offered with this generation of monitors, designated with the letters FP.

Unlike the 1X25 and MVX00 monitors, these monitors (aside from the FP series) lacked the side mounting holes for the speakers. Instead, it relied on separate JBL Pro speakers, which were redesigned to match the monitors and towers but are not mountable. The EZ2000 series came with the same JBL Pro speakers offered in this generation but with blue speaker grills.

MVx40, CVx35, FSx40, and FPx40 series

The MVX40, CVX35 and FSX40 monitors were the fourth and final monitors made by Compaq under the Presario brand prior to its acquisition by Hewlett-Packard in 2002, and was produced in 2000. These monitors were designed to be used with the Compaq Presario 5000 and 7000 series, as well as some Series 5 designed Presarios. The newly-redesigned towers of the 5000 and 7000 series moved away from the spaceship-derived design of previous generation Presarios in favor of a new front case design that has a more sleek and stylish look-and-feel to it, distinguishing these towers from previous Presario towers. The towers also featured removable translucent colored plastic faceplates which were offered in six colors; one of them was used as the default color for all 5000 and 7000 series towers produced with the other five being offered as options. These cases have small translucent (later solid) plastic flip-open doors for the USB and/or FireWire (IEEE 1394) ports as well as an optical disc holder for CDs and DVDs, accessible by a colored translucent door at the bottom that matched with the other faceplates. The monitors were also refreshed with the release of the 5000 and 7000 series, which were mostly similar in design to the previous MVX20 monitors but with a more curvature exterior instead of the boxy-styled angular design of previous monitors, fitting in with the design cues of the 5000 and 7000 series. This new design debuted a few months earlier with the MVX30 monitors, with a singular model (MV730i) featuring the same design aesthetics as with this generation of monitors. The majority of these monitors continued to use a built-in microphone as with previous monitors, and all of the MVX40 and FSX40 monitors featured silver accents on the microphone and power buttons. The CVX35 monitors lacked the built-in microphone the MVX40 and FSX40 monitors had, as well as having the silver accents being replaced with the ones that matched the monitor's casing.

Flat-screen CRT displays were introduced alongside the MVX40 monitors and are designated with the letters FS. Flat panel LCD displays were also available, designated with the letters FP.

Unlike with the preceding MVX20 and MVX30 monitors, these monitors had the side mounts for the speakers as with the 1X25 and MVX00 monitors, since all of these monitors came with JBL Platinum Series speakers that could be mounted on the sides of the monitors. The speakers also featured removable colored speaker grills offered in six colors (one was the default color offered in retail and all of the other colors were offered as options) matching with the case design of the 5000 and 7000 series, and has a line-in jack for audio input. The FP745A is the only exception, since it has integrated speakers built into the monitor.

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Harding . Scharon . May 20, 2024 . HP resurrects '90s OmniBook branding, kills Spectre, Dragonfly . May 20, 2024 . Ars Technica . en-us.
  2. Web site: Compaq Presario Desktop PCs - Motherboard Overview and Specifications for Models With Microsoft Windows XP Preinstalled (Europe) HP® Customer Support . 2020-11-27 . 2021-10-22 . https://web.archive.org/web/20211022011204/https://support.hp.com/rs-en/document/c00189654 . dead .

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