Low-end Laptops?

cryingpoet writes: "I remember the good old days, before everyone wanted a cell phone or PDA, back when you could buy a used laptop for $80 (USD). Now all the affordable laptops have hit the recycling bins as raw materials for new screens. To make matters worse, the state of the economy has driven companies to stop upgrading and keep all used laptops "in-house." Most used laptops run twice their cpu clock speed in dollars [$ = MHz * 2($/MHz)]. Auction prices seem to be worse than that of wholeseller. So I come to you, /.ers, in the hopes that there are still some used laptop deals to be had. Is there such a thing as a low-end used laptop anymore, and where?"

Comments

Megahertz Don't Matter...

[omnirealm]

... when it comes to buying a used laptop. Your GHz machine will be of little use to you if there are dead pixels, sticky keys, bad batteries, malfunctioning drives and/or ports, etc.

A few months ago, I picked up a used laptop from E-bay. It was from a reseller who purchased refurbished units from Dell which were on a corporate lease. There were tons of them selling at once, and I got a decent PIII for under $600. I was only moderately satisfied, as there were problems that couldn't be fixed (one of the PC-Card slots doesn't work and the left Ctrl key works only half the time, but the battery is still good). Some advice that I can offer from this experience includes:

• Don't trust the warrantee. No matter how good it sounds on paper, they will probably do more damage to your laptop and return it to you in worse shape than it originally was in if you do send it in.
• Don't be afraid to swap out parts yourself. Especially the keyboard. If you need to replace a broken part on your laptop, consider getting a "dead" model for less than $100 and using that for the parts.
• Figure in the cost of a new battery when you browse for a new laptop. More often than not, the battery that comes with the laptop will be useless.
• Ask specific questions about the laptop before buying it, like "Are there any dead pixels?", "Does the keyboard work perfectly?", "Do all the ports work?", "How long does the battery last?" The more questions the seller can't give definite answers on, the lower your offer should be for the laptop.
• Make sure the vendor is reputable. If they have a fly-by-night Yahoo E-commerce deal going on, beware. If the company web site has a picture of a big building with the company name on it, it's probably safer than "some guy" selling his laptop.