I'm asked to fix a friend's Compaq Presario. The machine had a virus,
and the hardware works fine.

The last time I fixed it, I used the recovery partition. I asked him
to order the recovery CDs from Compaq, and they did.

I attempted to restore the machine from the discs Compaq sent, and a
message immediately pops up saying they are the wrong discs.

The recovery partition didn't work this time, so I removed the partion
as I recently fixed another similar computer that wouldn't restore
from the recovery cds unless I removed it.


It's been over 6 months since ordering the discs, and Compaq refuses
to provide any satisfaction. I've heard there are ways of using an
offical Microsoft CD and using the Compaq Windows XP product key, but
Microsoft is no help either.

Any suggestions?

This scenario only makes me want to recomment Dells even more, as if
someone looses their restore discs, any Dell disc will work of the
same version of Windows. I've made recovery discs for peopel with
Compaqs right off the hard drives that still don't work. Rediculous
that Compaq can't simply charge an extra couple bucks and provide
them.

Compaq's solution was to purchase a new computer.

Thanks for any help.