Used Laptop at £250

droopsnout

Title says it all.

I've spent hours on eBay, only to be thwarted at the last moment by someone using a sniping program. I would get one myself, but the ones I've found you have to sign up for and pay, then ask for a refund if you're not happy. Don't want the risks!

Plus you can't see what you're getting on eBay, and since this would be a gift for the lovely Mrs Droopsnout, I'd rather it looked OK.

BenL

I have used "greenpc" on e-bay twice now.

Both laptops are ok.

Make sure you read the specs and get one with a a/c adapter as these cost a fortune.

Both mine have labels from Marconi so I guess they were the previous owner of them.

You will need an operating system, I run Win XP on mine and my sister has got a Linux distro on hers.

I couldn't get Linux to work with my wireless PCMCIA card.

Ben

Bargainbabe_2

Couple of things. What's the minimum spec you are looking for? Also, have you tried posting in the Techie Forum? They really know their stuff in there.

droopsnout

These things are variable aren't they, depending on price, but roughly:

700 Mhz Pentium III
40Gb
256Mb
14" screen

I've come close on eBay on a couple of occasions for a machine of this kind of spec (a little better, actually), once making the same final bid but a few seconds too late.

Machine would be used mainly for Mrs D's internetting (dial-up) and her embroidery program, which is fairly demanding on the graphics side, but which runs fine on our desktop PC which is hardly of the latest spec! (1Ghz, 512Mb, 120Gb).

Thanks for your advice, and later today I'll pay the folks in the Techie forum a visit.

Lifesaver

If you sign up to http://www.auctionsniper.com/ you get 3 free snipes and then if you recommend someone you can get another 3 free!
I have used it in the past.

damski_2

here you go, found 2 for you

PIII 500 £199.99
http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?lang=&submenu=Hardware&menu=peripherals&product_id=1474&session=12ba8922b7783b802a96f7eea2ef15dc

or

PIII 700 £269.99
http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?lang=&submenu=Hardware&menu=peripherals&product_id=1288&session=12ba8922b7783b802a96f7eea2ef15dc

droopsnout

Thank you to Lifesaver and damski. You have both opened up choice for me.

Was interested to see that BigPockets has a French site, too, so will have a nosey in there.

droopsnout

Another result for MSE and its members!!

Thanks again to Lifesaver, using auctionsniper I won an auction on French eBay yesterday for a Dell C610, 20Gb, 256Mb, 14" screen, sound card, 16Mb video card, wifi card, USB, etc, for 380 euro.

Thanks to all who offered advice.