What does refurbished mean?

There's a MASSIVE range in the quality of refurbished gear available for sale. Some dealers at the lower end of the scale do not really refurbish computers at all - obviously broken parts may be replaced but little more than that is done. If you receive a cheap laptops that is not even been properly cleaned, it is highly unlikely that it has been refurbished whatsoever - it is simply a used computer with software reloaded onto it's hard drive, with little or no other inspection. Obviously the failure rate of units like these is much higher. In an industry with tightening margins, unfortunately many dealers now fill pressured to cut costs in the preparation of refurbished laprops and computers.

Common Issues with Refurbished computers / laptops

Chassis / cosmetic damage Any crack (especially around the hinges), discoloration or other damage to any part of the cheap laptops body should have been corrected with a replacement part

Drive faults Any component faults in a unit such as a faulty Hard Drive, mouse etc must be corrected. Hard Drive, floppy drive and CD Rom drive faults are the most common hardware problems discovered.

Screen faults The TFT screen has a limited life span and is very expensive to replace. Faults to look for include damaged pixels (dots on screen - a few of these are not serious and should be ignored) and overall darkening of the screen or a screen that is slow to warm up. The latter is more serious and is probably lead to complete failure

Very poor battery life / battery not charging The quality the batteries supplied with a laptop very massively. You should not expect a battery to be "as good as new" on your cheap laptops unless they are specifically described as such. A battery life of 30 minutes is good; in reality you will be using it with the PSU most of the time.

Intermittent crashing If this is not the result of an incorrect or damaged software installation (which is usually the case), it is probably caused by motherboard damage - always requiring a professional repair. view: Gadget Blog

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I have been helping people to get best laptops in the market, my weblog will give tips and resourses for finding Cheap laptop computers. Cheap & Discount laptop computer review