With the increasing awareness about technology, more and more people are acquiring laptop and desktop computers at home and in offices.
the cost of getting a new laptop with good specs is quite high and so most people cannot afford them. most people who cannot afford to buy new ones prefer fairly used ones. they are less expensive and if you are buying from an end user, you can return it if you discovered its bad and get a refund. but, that doesn't always happen. also keep in mind that used laptops may not have all the features a new one has.
New laptops with a pre-installed system and the right drivers - all pre-installed from the manufacturer. but, this may not be so for used one as they don't always have the manufacturer's pre-installed drivers any more.
Now, if you are considering buying a fairly used laptop, here are some things you should consider;
Neatness
one of the ways to predict how good a bad a gadget might be is from the physical appearance. laptops with broken parts, dirty casing are results of mal-handling and most likely could be having hardware problems. some of the most common evidence of mal-handling and rough are missing keys, strange marks on the screen, broken parts and dirty casing, etc and buying such computers could be risky. so, the next time you are about to buy a laptop, go for neat ones.
Hardware Configuration
The hardware configuration of the laptop is also very important. I'm talking about the RAM and Hard Drive in particular. if you do not wat to have an annoyingly slow laptop, then you might wanna consider these. one major cause of slowness or hanging in computers is low hardware cofiguration - low RAM or Hard Drive or worse still - both.
the hardware configuration also depends on how much you are willing to pay to get a laptop and what you need it for. for example; a game freak can't be using a laptop with 256mb RAM and 4ogb Hard Drive. that's almost useless to him. a game freak would need a laptop with good processor and at least 500gb Hard Drive and 2-4gb RAM.
you need to make sure the laptop you are buyig can serve the purpose for which you are buying it. I'm not going tospecify what products you should buy. it depeds on what you need it for but whatever rpoduct it may be, make sure it can serve you well.
Hardware functionality
You wouldn't want to buy a laptop with hardware problems, some can be very expensive, difficult or even impossible to solve
The Bluetooth: if you are buying a bluetooth enabled laptop, then it's not a bad idea to test it before buying it. try transfering iles to another computer or a mobile phone.
if the one have is not bluetooth enabled, see How To install a Bluetooth on Your Bluetooth disabled PC.
Ports: USB ports, VGA ports, SD ports,etc should be in good condition. you can test the USB ports with flash drives to see how well its working.
Keyboard: some people are just too lazy to test the keyboard before buying the laptop and only discover its bad when its too late. They end up spending money to change it. it doesn't hurt to test the keys before buying the laptop. you can use on-screen keyboard or MS Word to test the keys.
to use the on-screen keyboard,
Click Start, click Run and type in osk.exe and press Enter. a window will ope that has all the keyboard keys. now, press the keys on the keyboard and see whether the on-screen keyboard senses it. the on-screen keyboard is a subtitute for the keyboard.
DVD player: most laptops now come with DVD Player in place of the Diskette and CD ROM. you can test the DVD ROM wih disks, CDs and DVDs in order to be sure its working well.
Battery Life
The battary life of laptops depreciates overtime. A new battary that lasts for 3hours when charged might not be so after a year. But, in any case, battary life of at least 1hour will be a good deal. The truth is most used laptop only last berely a hour, some less. But, if you are luck, you might find one with up to 2hours of battary life.
If you put all this into consideration, you will reduce the risk of buying a bad laptop by 95%.
Has this been helpful, I'd like to hear from you. Place your comments below.
3 comments
Everyone wants that their own laptop work for maximum period.For that maintenance is needed and your details will surely help everyone to maintain their own Laptops for longer period of time.
Thanks for your comment James, and I'm glad you like my post. people should be really be careful of what they buy with their money. used laptops are less expensive though but, one should still put all this to consideration.
Thanks Ramzan,
Sorry, i did not reply on time
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