anyone ever buy a refurbished laptop??

[Ren the devils trailboss]

I would like to surpise the hard working milf with one...( laptop that is)

there are a bunch on ebay for around four bills...is it worth it??

Ren

 

[ashtxsniper]

Don't buy it unless you are for sure of what you are getting, unless they have a return policy, It comes with a warranty, or you have a good computer nerd friends who works and acquires parts cheap.

 

[Ken C.]

You can buy a new laptop for a little over $400. Why subject yourself to someone else's headache?

 

[Bob W]

We bought some refurbished Dell laptops at work, ordered direct from Dell. They last as long as a new laptop, the boss saved a ton of $$, and they came with a Dell warranty.

Good Luck,
-Bob

 

[Roadrunner]

www.tigerdirect.com sells refurbished IBM's (Lenovos) for a good price. I don't have direct experience with them, but would be willing to buy one. IMO a good refurbished IBM for $450 is superior to a new $450 laptop made of crap parts. The IBM was screwed together right the first time, they can't make a quality machine and sell it brand new for $450. Corners are being cut somewhere.

 

[Ken C.]

I second the vote for Tiger Direct. I bought a refurb projector from them and it rocks!

 

[SIFU1A]

i bought one from dell myself, and its been ok, only con imho was when i got it it was year old technology already,

 

[rebeltf]

I would like to surpise the hard working milf with one...( laptop that is)

there are a bunch on ebay for around four bills...is it worth it??

Ren

My co-worker James has bought 4 Dell laptops of the 'bay in the last 1.5 months , he buys them , puts a few hours and parts in them if needed and sells them at $100 higher than he bought them for , so far all of them have just needed a little TLC and usually a new OS.

Before I bought one there I would ask the seller to make sure it does work , the screen is good , all keys work etc... The stuff you cannot or would cost too much to fix , in other words.

Reason I say that is some folks are not specific in selling something they just want to get rid of and a laptop with a screen that does not work ( or similiar problem ) is pretty much not worth the effort

 

[bladefixation2]

One thing to watch out for would be the battery, if the laptop is used on battery often the battery wont last very long after a year or so and they are expensive to replace.

Of course if you are planning on using it on mains power all the time this doesnt matter so much

 

[ericb445]

Yep I bought my wife and I one each so we wouldnt be fighting over who is on the net all the time, I bought both for under 750. That was three years ago they are both still going strong. They where/are not the fastest and not that Fancy, but all we really do is music pictures and mostly internet. They have served us well.
-Eric

 

[nate1714]

www.tigerdirect.com sells refurbished IBM's (Lenovos) for a good price. I don't have direct experience with them, but would be willing to buy one.

I live right near 2 tigerdirect...and i go there for most of my comp stuff...they are very good place and i trust them a lot.. and they are very understanding with returns and what not that i have encountered...

 

[tyr_shadowblade]

You can get a brand new Dell laptop for between $450 and $499.

Refurbished is old technology that has been previously used, and there will be wear and hidden damage. DO NOT get a laptop from eBay or Best Buy.

Always buy laptops new. They are difficult to fix. Old technology (like the Dell batteries from 3 years ago) is frequently flawed. Buy new with a warrantee.

 

[Dunhausen]

Old technology (like the Dell batteries from 3 years ago) is frequently flawed.

Unless the hardware manufacturers go back and sneak errors into their old products, your statement necessarily asserts flaws in the new tech as well.

Not to mention that if it's a problem that can be fixed in software, then it will already be fixed for old hardware, but for new hardware you may just have to wait a long time for them to get around to it.

IMHO, there is no reason not to get a refurbished laptop from Dell, or anyone else with good customer service. Does it really matter if Dell gives you a crap motherboard, given that, under their warranty agreement, if it dies they will send someone out to your house in the next couple of days to replace it with a brand new one?

By all means, if you want the latest killer gaming machine to play Halo 2 on, you are going to need to buy a new machine, but otherwise, buying an old laptop gets you the same warranty at a lower cost, and the parts may in fact be more reliable, since at that point the chances of defects have been effectively eliminated and you just have to worry about wear-and-tear.

 

[tyr_shadowblade]

Unless the hardware manufacturers go back and sneak errors into their old products, your statement necessarily asserts flaws in the new tech as well.

Not necessarily. Laptop might not be refurbished by original manufacturer, or an old (defective-style) battery might slip past quality control. These batteries tended to spontaneously combust.

. . . buying an old laptop gets you the same warranty at a lower cost, and the parts may in fact be more reliable, since at that point the chances of defects have been effectively eliminated and you just have to worry about wear-and-tear.

On a "refurbished" computer, expect it to be cleaned, erased, and have broken parts replaced. This is not always done (i.e., old, and possibly infectious, files remain on hard drive -- as has occured with many computers obtained from Best Buy). Keyboard, monitor, fingermouse, and powersource/fan will not be replaced if they are deemed operable. All of these components are subject to wear, and have limited lifespans.

You cannot replace laptop components yourself, as with a PC. PCs are safer to buy refurbished, or even used, as one can work on it themselves. Laptops require special tools and training, and the miniaturized components are more prone to failure.

 

[Dunhausen]

Not necessarily. Laptop might not be refurbished by original manufacturer, or an old (defective-style) battery might slip past quality control. These batteries tended to spontaneously combust.

There have been various instantiations of the 'exploding laptop' over the years. But in all cases there has been a recall of the defective hardware and it has been replaced. I fully admit that you could have a laptop with an older faulty batter or such, but it is a very unlikely scenario... that's something the manufacturers take quite seriously.

But for new hardware, how do you know whether it is a defective product line with some variant of the 'exploding laptop' issue? You won't until the first batch of accidents happen. But buy from an older established line and you can be pretty sure about whether you have to worry about any intrinsic defects.

On a "refurbished" computer, expect it to be cleaned, erased, and have broken parts replaced. This is not always done (i.e., old, and possibly infectious, files remain on hard drive -- as has occured with many computers obtained from Best Buy).

I have trouble imagining Best Buy wouldn't do a clean wipe. I mean, if you send your computer back to them for any reason, it gets a clean wipe. (very annoying)

It would be pretty unorthodox for them to just delete files without wiping (and probably worthy of a class action suit against them), although I wouldn't be surprised if someone had simply trojaned one of their OEM discs. (in regard to your anecdote about infected files)

Harddrives are the one thing you don't want second hand anyway--they're the only (significant) bit of the computer with moving parts. Also, the only way to be absolutely sure that no one can recover your data off them involves some variant of smashing them with a hammer, so you shouldn't ever let Company X have your drive when you retire an old computer (hopefully, Company X will not be reusing old drives anyway).

Regardless, I think we will both agree that the first and most important rule of buying a computer is to not get it from Best Buy.

Keyboard, monitor, fingermouse, and powersource/fan will not be replaced if they are deemed operable. All of these components are subject to wear, and have limited lifespans.

"Limited lifespans" yes, but if you don't do anything stupid with them they are for all intents and purposes immortal. You might lose some pixels in your LED display, and the power converter might die if you use it incorrectly, have a surge, etc., but there is no good reason for any of those things to die from normal use if they aren't shipped defective. For that matter, apart from the panel, they are all easy to replace... in fact, my first order of business with fingermice is to disable them.

But that's all entirely moot because you should not be buying a refurbished computer without a proper warranty to go along with it. The consequence of your screen dying should be simply that Dell comes out and gives you a brand new one.

You cannot replace laptop components yourself, as with a PC. PCs are safer to buy refurbished, or even used, as one can work on it themselves. Laptops require special tools and training, and the miniaturized components are more prone to failure.

You can indeed replace laptop components yourself, and while it is not quite as a convenient as replacing components in a newer PC (it comes close), it is a lot easier than replacing components in one of the older systems.

In fact, if you've ever had to go through Dell support for a bricked lappie, they always have you go through and remove all of the components to see if any of them is the culprit. If they expect Joe Customer to be able to handle it, it's not that tough. The only major difference between that and working on a modern desktop (as far as replacing wireless card, harddrive, ram, cd tray, etc.) is that laptops still require removing some screws.

 

[tirod3]

I bought a refurb from Tiger years ago - still works, sort of . .

Sticky keys, a battery that never worked and just didn't get replaced after calls and emails for months, poor mouse interface that caused serious screen jumping, and no documentation for the infra red.

Buy new and it all works better, you get what you need, not can't use.

 

[huugh]

Unless the hardware manufacturers go back and sneak errors into their old products, your statement necessarily asserts flaws in the new tech as well.

And that is absolutely true.

Not to mention that if it's a problem that can be fixed in software, then it will already be fixed for old hardware, but for new hardware you may just have to wait a long time for them to get around to it.

Not exactly. Usual method of solving HW problem is releasing new generation.



I agree with tyr - used electronics is WORST thing to buy.

 

[STR]

Ok, let me tell you guys a story.

I bought new lap tops and only new ones for years. The longest I had one was the very first Toshiba that lasted like 5 years and it had many problems after like 3 where the last 2 years were a struggle with many errors and restart problems among many others until it finally crashed completely.

Then the last straw was a brand new Sony Vaio bought with all the bells and whistles for a grand total of $3200 +. It lasted 14 months and crashed. Sent it to Sony got it back with a quote for $800 and some change with a statment saying it would be like new with a 30 day warranty.

You have no guarantees with new electronics so don't fool yourselves. My second lap top after the Toshiba was a Compaq and it lasted about 2 years before it died. After that I had another Toshiba which had immediate problems and was returned because when I got Toshiba on the phone I discovered the store that sold it to me had already sold it to someone else who returned it with a virus. Yes it was new.

I only buy refurbished lap tops these days from USAnotebook.com and have not had a bad one. I'm typing on one now, my shop has another one and my wife uses one. Two of them are a year old, one is 7 months old and all were $200 each for just checking into the forums and emails and other things you use a computer for. Sure they came with windows 98SE and sure they may be a bit slower than my new desktop but they did come with six month warranty and for $40 I could have extended that. I figured so what if it lasts for a year and dies then its still better money spent than buying a new one for a lot more money. I looked for a new one at first and while it may be true that you can get one for $400 or $500 when you compare apples to apples, and realize that the new operating system is not as good as XP or 98SE, at least in my opinion it makes the refurbished ones look all that much more appealing.

STR