Tips for buying 2nd hand laptop

[ruthyroo]

Our laptop - a Sony vaio - isabout four years old and seems to be on the way out. I'm really fed up of buying new and getting such a short useful lifetime out of laptops - this is the second one we've had yhst gas died after about four years use. Can anyone give me any tips for buying adecent workaday laptop second hand? What age is acceptable? Where would you get one? What makes ?

Cheers
Rr

[NetworkGuy]

Any clues as to why you think i is on the way out ? Also, is it that you perhaps feel you paid a premium price and expect longer ? I'd say 4 years is not too bad, given warranty periods of 1-3 years are common.

You might look online at Ebay, from a business seller, perhaps getting a year warranty, or worse, at a local store like CashGenerator / CashConvertor / CeX (I only say worse because prices are often higher and warranty is likely to be 60 -90 days).

It depends on how much or little you want to spend, as a new laptop may be 250 - 500 (recent threads included some with 6GB RAM for around 300-350, but brand names, and retail prices are very variable, and I'm far from convinced spending a lot more than 350 will get you a much more reliable machine).

If you spend around 350, and it lasted 4 years, do you think you'd be happier (I'm guessing you spent quite a bit more for the Vaio and if you sell it now, while still working, you may get half the cash towards a cheaper new laptop).

I'd look for Dell and Toshiba if buying second hand on Ebay. I've bought HP, Dell and others over the past year, generally spending 100 to 200 but in my case looking for Windows XP, so they were at least 5 year old machines (and most had keys missing, or similar minor problems... not a great problem for me as I tend to use laptops with second screens and USB keyboard and mouse, so I have consistent keyboard layouts on all my Windows and iMac machines).

[TiffIsKool]

I'm OP. You are tired of new laptops that die on you after 4 years so you are going to buy a 2nd one. No chance of an old laptop dying on you any time soon eh? :)

Anyway, what do your laptops die off? You be surprised how many people see a lack of memory or sluggish pc coz of too much junk on the hard drive as signs of a hardware failure

[ruthyroo]

You are right pp it doesn't make sense. I guess I had it in my head that spending say 100? on a second hand one that might last for a couple of years or longer would be cheaper than spending lots more in the hope of it lasting as little as four years. Will rethink!

[TariffHound]

Here's a couple of options that may help.

1. Toshiba laptop from John Lewis £400:
   

www.johnlewis.com/toshiba-satellite-c855-2fc-laptop-intel-core-i3-2-3ghz-8gb-ram-640gb-15-6-black/p231820505

same laptop also from Amazon for £380:
www.amazon.co.uk/Toshiba-Satellite-C855-15-6-inch-Bluetooth/dp/B009HQ6SGS/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363253214&sr=8-2-fkmr0&tag=mumsnet&ascsubtag=mnforum-21

The recommendation would be to get it from John Lewis as you will get a 2 year warranty and good after sales service from JL if anything goes wrong.

1. Chromebook from John Lewis for £280:
   

www.johnlewis.com/store/samsung-chromebook-wifi-xe303c12-a01-exynos-5250-1-7ghz-wi-fi-11-6-inch-display-silver/p231740130

The Chromebook runs Google's own operating system, so it can't run any Windows software. If you need to run Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook etc it's not for you as it doesn't support any Windows software.

For most families, the home computer is used for internet surfing, Facebook / social media, You Tube, internet shopping etc, and this computer will do all those things well.

If you need to write documents or use spreadsheets or do email, you can still do this using Google's GMail and Google Docs internet based apps.

Have a look at the customer reviews on the John Lewis site for this laptop - quite a few families are finding the Chromebook to be a perfect low cost alternative to buying a more expensive laptop that runs Windows.

Again, John Lewis will happily give you a 2 year warranty on this product and good after sales support.