2nd hand laptop

[peterpies]

Is buying a 2nd hand laptop, out of warranty to much risk? I have purchased a refurbished Dell laptop from Dell before with no problems.

With laptops though any problem with the GPU and the motherboard needs changing. And this is from Gumtree/Ebay

I suppose if I am asking this question, then I already think it is to much risk. The price saving seems pretty good though.

 

[Eximo]

Not really much to say. A lot of laptops don't have modular components these days. So if there is a CPU or GPU problem that usually means a new motherboard, which is a good chunk of a laptop's cost. Some no longer even have modular RAM. Drives are about the only swappable component that is pretty common, wifi cards too.

Battery life would be the most common issue with a used or refurbished laptop, unless they supply a new battery as part of the refurbishment.

 

[USAFRet]

Is buying a 2nd hand laptop, out of warranty to much risk? I have purchased a refurbished Dell laptop from Dell before with no problems.

With laptops though any problem with the GPU and the motherboard needs changing. And this is from Gumtree/Ebay

I suppose if I am asking this question, then I already think it is to much risk. The price saving seems pretty good though.

Refurb from Dell is one thing. Used from "some dude" is completely different.

Hinges, latches, screen scratches...
Battery life.

And for any used system, you personally need to do a full wipe and reinstall as your very first move.
This verifies any license key that it supposedly comes with, and wipes out any existence of the previous user(s). Don't trust him if he says "I just did a clean install".
You have no idea if he did, or where it actually came from.

 

[peterpies]

Thanks for the replies.

I suppose it comes down to the saving versus RRP, with electronics it needs to be good, more so with laptops as their parts are not easily changed like desktops