What to be careful about when buying a used laptop?

[Degrah]

Someone is selling used HP probook 6550b for 180€. Is that a good deal?
What should I ask him when buying it, and what should I be careful about? I know that battery degrades over time, but I can't really do too much about that, and it's not too big of a problem since I'll be using this laptop at my university and I'll almost always be able to charge it there.

   

[seabass9990]

when you get it, open it and clean it immediately. also make sure it dosent rattle.

[don_svetlio]

I got mine 2nd hand. Battery is ded. Lasts for 20 mins and drops dead.

Check if it overheats, check in what condition the HDD is. Make sure it hasn't been doused in anything.

[PudgyAstronaut]

I have heard of people having good experiences with used/refurbished probooks, I would look for signs of abuse as red flags, but if it looks good odds are it's in decent shape. Business laptops are made fairly well so your chances are better.

[beach_boy98]

Just buy a new HDD for your own sake. Most of them drop sectors really fast. And you don't want toloose your data.(brought like 10 laptops To sell on.)

[don_svetlio]

I have heard of people having good experiences with used/refurbished probooks, I would look for signs of abuse as red flags, but if it looks good odds are it's in decent shape. Business laptops are made fairly well so your chances are better.

Not every time. I'm fairly happy with what I got. It's mobile, it has enough power to drive some older games and movies off my desk. I can take it with me to a friend's place and etc. It's probably been burned via cigars tho.

I also managed to get a 3 month warranty on mine.

[Degrah]

Just buy a new HDD for your own sake. Most of them drop sectors really fast. And you don't want toloose your data.(brought like 10 laptops To sell on.)

I'll probably buy a 250GB SSD and use move the HDD inside the laptop to my computer for storage for movies.

[beach_boy98]

I'll probably buy a 250GB SSD and use move the HDD inside the laptop to my computer for storage for movies.

Yeah that's really the best use for them.

[PudgyAstronaut]

Not every time. I'm fairly happy with what I got. It's mobile, it has enough power to drive some older games and movies off my desk. I can take it with me to a friend's place and etc. It's probably been burned via cigars tho.

I also managed to get a 3 month warranty on mine.

 

Nice, and yeah you still have to be careful, but I knew a guy who got his college laptop for like $400 and it was far better than the Walmart special or whatever that some get in that price range, so I was just pointing out that you can get good deals on professional laptops and they usually still have some use left in them.

 

I got a Thinkpad Yoga refurbished which is a sorta-business-class laptop I guess and have been really happy with it. The thing is super rigid for the thickness.

 

TL;DR: msrp is for noobs