Stolen Laptop?

Keldin

Does anyone know how I could check if an HP laptop is stolen?
I have one where the serial number sticker has been removed (as opposed to having fallen off).
I have obtained the serial from the bios and checked the warranty on HP's site. It has 1 year left on a 3 year business warranty.
I have a suspicion it may be a sale on ebay of someones 'work laptop' and would rather not have any comeback down the line. It all seems fairly legit except for the serial sticker having been removed.

K

jmc160

If it's got a year left of a business warranty and the sticker's been removed, then it certainly sounds iffy.

I think it's fairly common for business machines to be sold on once they're no longer serviceable, in which case the "removed" sticker may be a company asset tag rather than a serial number, but to be sold on while still under warranty...

Maybe see if the police have any record of that serial number?

If the company in question is on top of their asset database, then if it was stolen the serial number would have been given to the police and the insurance company for circumstances such as this one.

[Deleted User]

It could just be an ex corporate laptop perhaps.

jmc160

Deleted_User wrote: »

It could just be an ex corporate laptop perhaps.

Ordinarily I'd agree, but its the fact that a search on the HP site has shown it still has a year left on the warranty. Three year warranties are normally bought as extra. A company would have to be pretty dumb to buy a laptop and spend extra money for the extra protection, then throw it out a year too soon.

Keldin

jmc160 wrote: »

Ordinarily I'd agree, but its the fact that a search on the HP site has shown it still has a year left on the warranty. Three year warranties are normally bought as extra. A company would have to be pretty dumb to buy a laptop and spend extra money for the extra protection, then throw it out a year too soon.

HP business laptops have a 3 year warranty as standard not an extra purchase (I know because I have 2 already including an identical one to the one I just bought). That also means I know that the sticker that has been removed is the serial number and not a corporate asset tag. There is also a mark on the case where I think a corporate sticker has been removed.

I'll bounce it off my freindly neighbourhood copper and see what he thinks. I doubt HP would know if it were stolen and it's probably far more likely it's a 'misplaced' laptop that just never got returned when someone left their employment.

Leopard

You haven't disclosed where you actually got it from, which may well be the most relevant factor of all.

Belnahua

There is another possibility, and I've done it.

If coffee got spilt in the laptop, it voids the warranty.

However someone may have bought 2 broken laptops and put the working bits together to build one.

I've done it myself. So you could have the base of one laptop and the display of another?

My workplace didn't want to buy a new motherboard, but I bought a laptop with a broken display, and built 1 out of 2; so I have a good laptop made out of a work chuck out, and an Ebay spares laptop.