What should I be aware of when picking up a 2nd hand Laptop ??
 

Hi there

I will be picking up a used laptop tomorrow. May I know what kinds of hardware I need to bring along to check & ensure the functionality of the used laptop is working Ok ?

Please kindly advise.

I had a fairly old Asian gentleman buy a laptop off of me, and he was incredibly thorough!

You can bring along a USB device like a flash drive and test each USB port to make sure it works properly... you can bring along a CD and/or a DVD to make sure the optical drive works properly... that's about it...

But of course also check the system properties to make sure the laptop has the right hard drive size and amount of memory as advertised...

Commonly you'll find nekkid pics that the user has forgotten in some hidden folders that are hidden within 10 sub folders. :) Usually they're named "Family Photos".

wd tools on a usb stick to make sure hd is working

there some other utilties out there to help you out.

stuff to look for
-dead pixel
-sticky keys
-harddrive integrity
-hinge
-charger
-basically all mechanic things working

My main concern would be the battery.
Make sure it still holds and takes a charge. There's nothing worse than buying a used laptop and then realizing the battery is toast, which costs over $100 to replace.

i personally will never buy a used computer..
there are just so many things that can go wrong!

make sure there's no sticky stuff in between the keys on the keyboard :lol

oh...the screen...make sure the LCD is not flickering or fading etc.
Battery is important too, but not sure how you can check it unless you wait 2-3 hrs until it runs out

I guess the quickest way (but not necessarily the most accurate) way is to just pull the power, perform some tasks that would be similar to what your regular activity would be and see what the remaining time is. If it's a used laptop that's more than 2 years old on the original battery, I wouldn't expect too much out of it. Maybe 1-2 hours of runtime would be ideal, but I wouldn't expect a battery with full capacity.

You should probably set your expectations out before hand with the buyer (taking into account the age and price of the laptop) so that you don't waste each other's time though. HD check, dead pixel check and battery check are probably the core things I would check though. If you don't want to waste time there, you can perhaps have the seller start the tests, and hopefully by the time you get there, they will be done (or if you trust him/her have them send you the results of the test)

;)cum leftover in between the keyboards

Check all keyboard key for loose or broken keys.

:lol at the sticky keys