Reliable Used Laptops??

[QCH]

Hello....

I am looking for suggestions for reliable used laptops. Are there any reputable dealers of used laptops, and what brands do you think are safe.

The laptop is for my grandmother, she only needs web and email. She's 81, so trust me, that's all it will do. That will take enough energy to teach her that. I prefer Dell, IBM, or Gateway's since I work on them at work all the time (re-imaging, tweaking and such). I hate Sony's and Toshiba but that's because of their control of drivers and supplied software. I like to customize the OS and it can be difficult with Sony's and Toshiba's.

Anyway.... What do you think?

[Geeky1]

I would look on ebay for a laptop for sale by a person with good feedback. I would definitely get something that can run Windows XP properly because XP is much easier to deal with, especially if you don't know computers all that well, than any other version of Windows. Basically, I'd look for something with the following bare minimum specs:

600MHz Mobile P3
256MB RAM
6GB Hard Drive

You may want to stay away from laptops with the ATi Rage Mobility graphics chip because ATi doesn't provide drivers for it, and it doesn't support OpenGL or D3D with the Windows drivers, and without those, it has difficulty running anything remotely resembling 3d, and even if it is just for e-mail, I still wouldn't be terribly thrilled with making someone use it... The specs above are identical to my notebook that I used for my sophmore and junior years in high school in the school's laptop program. I bought XP Pro a week before it came out (OEM version) and put it on and discovered that the volume control rocker switch didn't work under XP, The Rage Mobility literally couldn't run anything 3D, but other than that, it was fine... it was a little slow, but it was fine...

How much is your budget? I mean, if it's like $700-$1000, you could always get an ECS Desknote...

[dodo]

My pick is IBM. They seem quite reliable and anything over 500 Mhz should work fine for what she wants.

~dodo

[Flintstone]

I'm going to throw this out there because I've spent probably $10,000 at this site and NEVER had a bad deal or experience.

UBID.COM

My Toshiba laptop is now 5 years old and my 2-19" LCD's just got here last month and the 2-27" Toshiba tv's are going strong 4 years later as is my 21" Nokia monitor, to name but a few things I've bought there. All at auction and if not as represented, it went back with no hassels at all. Every penny returned or the merchandise replaced, if possible. Hell, I just paid $125.00 for a 3.2 megapixel digital Toshiba camera that is great for my work. Nothing like the Nikon I bought my girlfriend retail for Christmas, but it's a 4 MP camera and in another league entirely.

It's just another place to check before you buy and you must bid with your eyes wide open. Check prices before you buy, don't assume the auction prices are low just because it's an auction.

Good luck,
Flint:vimp:

Go Here:
http://www.ubid.com/cat/get_cat_page.asp?CatID=1001

[Straight_Man]

IBM, and a check at http://www.delloutlet.com/

Dell sells off-lease Dell refurbs there. Talk to Delloutlet sales for gotchas, they are GOOD, but give them package numbers. The configurator is an availablility searcher also, and they run through refubs many per day, so visit 2-4 times a day or two apart if you like Dell and need inexpensive machines that are decent. These are good enough that they will offer full warranties for three years for a not-too-bad price. Most IBM refurb dealers will not warranty beyond 90 days adn some will not handle any warranty issues as IBMs get more doen to death on average and are resold when older and thus more obsolete.

If you REALLY know how laptops tick UBID is quite good.

[PowerMD]

delloutlet is your best bet
some dells are upgradeable - I've upgraded my laptops vid card and HD. I'd like to get a new mobo though for one of those centrinos

[QCH]

Thanks everyone...