Refurb / Used Laptops

10past6

This site is selling refurb / used laptops.

As a computer novice I've no idea about the pros / cons of buying such an item

Any suggestions please?

GunJack

TBH, I've just got my kids one each from bp for xmas...IBM thinkpads, 1GB RAM, wifi, celeron 1.4Ghz, DVD-ROM, XP-pro...okay, maybe not the newest technology, but they delivered them in around 5 days, had them both out and they work fine and fairly zip along (benefit of a clean install of OS), am in the process of installing the security suites, e-mail accounts and Office ready for "out-of-the-box" xmas morning

One battery seems a little low on life but works & charges (I'm going to do the freezer trick on it to try and extend the life a bit)...perfectly serviceable lappys. As long as you buy a spec that will do what you need it to do, no probs. These fit the bill perfectly...the wifi cards will let them connect in their bedrooms (one of which is on the top floor in a 3-story house with the router on ground floor, so no probs there), in fact, about the only thing they don't have is a cd-burner, but the other house pc's have, so if they need to they can pop onto USB stick and take to one of them, but at 10 and 7, not really something they'll be too fussed at.

...and at £330 for the pair, cracking value. Someone on here recommended them, and I'd go there again. Also, far more useful and educational than half a dozen games for their consoles ...and will save them arguing over their shared pc and the loser wanting to use mine

lee77_3

I found this website for cheap and used laptops: www.laptopsandpcs.co.uk
I bought a used Dell laptop as a spare for working from home for £200 and its was great value for money. It came with Windows XP, 1GB Ram. They also have very cheap new laptops for sale. Very helpful staff and quick delivery!.

10past6

Thanks everyone for your replies, Gunjack, because of your informative post and as you've purchased from them, I'm very tempted to buy one from BP.

This is a Christmas present, the person it's for has itunes and only does general web surfing, it will be plugged into the mains so battery life is not really a problem (hope that makes sense) XP will be OK, no real issue about it having to be Vista.

I've no idea re sepcs or what to look for, can anyone with more knowledge about computers than me help in suggesting a laptop from this site please?

GunJack

10past6 - if you can be slightly more specific as to what the person will be using it for, I'll gladly chip in my two-penneth....however the more info the better, as I've just had a quick look and they're selling-out left, right and centre !!

e.g. do they need to burn CD/DVD, or can they live with popping stuff onto a memorystick and burning on another pc ?? do they need to use MS Office or similar ?? Any other info would help....

GunJack

Actually, looking at what they've still got stock of, I'd go for this one:-

http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?nav=227&product=SOLV006&title=IBM+Thinkpad+T41+Laptop+Centrino+1.6Ghz+-+512Mb+-+40Gb+-+DVD-ROM+-+Wireless+WiFi+-+14.1+inch+TFT+-+Win+XP+Pro

Similar to the ones I've just got for my kids, and the RAM is upgradeable if you need to later on..and IBMs are reasonably bullet-proof !!

The cheaper ones don't have optical drives, so you could struggle to load drivers, programs, etc...

GunJack

Bumped for you

10past6

GunJack wrote: »

Actually, looking at what they've still got stock of, I'd go for this one:-

http://www.bigpockets.co.uk/product.php?nav=227&product=SOLV006&title=IBM+Thinkpad+T41+Laptop+Centrino+1.6Ghz+-+512Mb+-+40Gb+-+DVD-ROM+-+Wireless+WiFi+-+14.1+inch+TFT+-+Win+XP+Pro

Similar to the ones I've just got for my kids, and the RAM is upgradeable if you need to later on..and IBMs are reasonably bullet-proof !!

Hello Jack

Thanks so much for your help, I'll go with your recommendation and buy the one above, one question please, it says "Refurbished" what does that mean?

Has it been set back to fatory settings so it's like a new one?

10past6

GunJack wrote: »

e.g. do they need to burn CD/DVD, or can they live with popping stuff onto a memorystick and burning on another pc ?? do they need to use MS Office or similar ?? Any other info would help....

Jack

There'll be using if for surfing the web, and listening to itunes, they have a memory stick already with itunes on.

As for MS, I can download Openoffice for that.

They have a desktop which is used as the main computer, this is just when the main computer is already being used (Most of the time) :eek:

GunJack

10past...yes, the hard drive has been completely wiped, and XPPro installed, so that's the ONLY thing on it, so it's actually better than buying some new comps with trial versions of allsorts pre-iinstalled to bung up your system. You, therefore, have complete control over how much/little you choose to stick on it.....and therefore how much you slow it down .

I'd recommend avast antivirus, spyware doctor free version, MAlwareBytes AntiMalware, CCleaner and spybot s&d as a cmplete security/system cleaning suite, and as only avast and spyware doctor are real-time scanners, this package won't slow your system down, but you'll have a decent security suite:)

10past6

OK then Jack, thanks, did you notice in post 10 what it's going to be used for? if it'll do the job, I'll buy the one you've linked in post 7 of this thread.