Refurbished Laptops

[Razanir]

How reliable are they? I'm in the market for a new laptop, and it's easier to get one halfway decent for gaming if I buy refurbished. And if it matters, I'm talking about GeekSquad refurbished

[Velaryon]

Although it was many years ago and the circumstances were different than you're talking about, I had a refurbished laptop once and got nothing but grief for it.

What I did was buy a refurbished computer from a booth at a convention. It was my first computer that I purchased for me (as opposed to sharing with family), and I was young and didn't really know better. But it was a disaster - the warranty wasn't much good and the CD drive was irreparably screwed up within a year or so. The battery ended up going bad, the screen stopped being able to free stand and had to be propped up, and then the cord started developing kinks. In short, almost everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

I've never dealt with Geek Squad-refurbished computers, and in fact didn't even know they did that. But if it comes with some kind of good warranty (I'm talking comparable to buying a new computer) then you might as well give it a try.

[thubby]

anything refurbished by a brand name company is likely to be basically good as new.
90% of them are things that were returned after opening for no particular reason. another good chunk had their batteries replaced.

the only thing you dont buy used are solid state drives. they have a finite number of read/writes and anything used has a random amount of them missing.

[factotum]

the only thing you dont buy used are solid state drives. they have a finite number of read/writes and anything used has a random amount of them missing.

With a modern SSD's wear levelling algorithms, I'm pretty sure you could be using the thing continuously for five years without ever running into problems due to exceeding the maximum write cycles! (And it *is* only writes that are the problem, they're good for millions of reads without issue).

The thing I would be doubtful about in a refurb laptop is the battery--those things really *do* have a pretty short shelf life. I consider it unusually good that the one in my five-year-old laptop lasts as much as 30 minutes when it's off the power!

[azadforum]

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[lailahussain889]

Couple of days a go I purchased this refurbished http://www.laptopoutlet.co.uk/toshiba-portege-z30-13-3-4th-gen-core-i5-laptop-intel-4200u-16gb-ram-128-gb-ssd.html from Laptop Outlet in UK and till now its working very smoothly. One more thing i would like to add is that it looks like new and no one can even say its a refurbished laptop. But i will recommend always check the refurbished product before placing any order. :smallsmile:

[wumpus]

Two things to look for:
A replaceable battery (I've had a cheap tablet die this way, and have to guess on the replacement. Expect to ruin multiple tablets before you get good at opening them up [I've had this job...]).
LED backlit LCD. The most common death of a laptop is the LCD, and their lives used to be limited by the fluorescent tube/inverter combo. While I can't guarantee that LEDs won't burn out (I've seen one die, but it probably was burning too bright). I suspect that there aren't that many non-LED screens out there, but google it to make sure it has LED. Also make sure that replacing the LCD is an option, Dell doesn't cover that under warantee repair (if there is a crack) and it is the easiest repair (with the possible exception of the keyboard) in the machine.

I'd try to avoid geeksquad, and really wouldn't put that much over craigslist used. I've been in the business of "refurbished" POS (PCs disguised as cash registers) and "refurbished" meant cleaning and replacing any broken/failed parts. I wouldn't expect any better of Best Buy. Basically budget a new battery as well, as I suspect a strong reason to return it was a failing battery.

Also be even more paranoid about backups. Of course, as a game machine you could pretty much let steam handle it.

[Winter_Wolf]

I trust Geek Squad less than I can throw the fat six six foot and some guy running the desk. You really don't need much qualification to be on the Geek Squad, and in my experience anything that would actually require refurbishing is beyond them anyway.

[wumpus]

Although it was many years ago and the circumstances were different than you're talking about, I had a refurbished laptop once and got nothing but grief for it.

One thing to ask yourself is what can go wrong? I'm assuming a "name brand" laptop, as I can't imagine Best Buy handling others.

The battery. Hopefully if it was returned due to the battery they replaced it, but I suspect that if it works at all Best Buy will simply sell it (and let it die in a few minutes). Check the warranty for how long it is expected to last during a rundown test (and run something 3dmarks on a loop to see how long it lasts).
The LCD. Basically, just make sure it is called "LED" (it will be LCD, unless a state of the art phone/VR headset running OLED, but they call anything with a LED backlight "LED"). Besides, you can get a newer laptop for roughly the same price as anything old enough not to be LED.
The SSD. This is less likely to be an issue than you might think. In practice, it is pretty hard to send enough data to an SSD to cause it to wear out, but some old drives had poor buffering so they tended to write the same thing over and over (called write multiplication).
[here's a $60 240GB SSD. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820211984&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-PCPartPicker,%20LLC-_-na-_-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=3938566&SID=
the sale will probably be over before you are ready to buy, but I'm sure there will be others. SSDs are the last bits of computers that fall in price like computers in general did from the 1960s-2000s, so don't be afraid about replacing one in a year].

Oddly enough, keyboards/keys are probably the only other "big threat" to laptops. They are the easiest thing to replace on nearly* all Dell laptops, but I've never had to price the replacements. I'm pretty sure that keys break due to sudden stress and that used/refurbished keyboards aren't in any more danger than new. * the exception is nasty, but rare.

The final kicker is "for gaming". CPUs haven't gone anywhere, hard drives are made to be replaceable, but GPUs are still evolving and tied to the laptop. My guess is an old .28nm GPU would be ideal (I can't imagine the .14nm are on the market used, if they were they were returned for a reason). I have no idea if laptop GPUs can be overclocked, nor how you would tell if somebody overclocked yours. If you are buying to game, I'd think long and hard why it has to be a laptop.

[Flickerdart]

I trust Geek Squad less than I can throw the fat six six foot and some guy running the desk. You really don't need much qualification to be on the Geek Squad, and in my experience anything that would actually require refurbishing is beyond them anyway.

It would be ludicrous to suggest the Geek Squad desk jockeys are the ones actually refurbishing these devices.

[Winter_Wolf]

It would be ludicrous to suggest the Geek Squad desk jockeys are the ones actually refurbishing these devices.

I'm not privy to the inner working of Best Buy, but the only public face of Best Buy staff for computer repair that I'm aware of in any Best Buy I've been to is Geek Squad. And I'd test even less a completely faceless, anonymous repair team. But hey, that's just me.

[Flickerdart]

I'm not privy to the inner working of Best Buy, but the only public face of Best Buy staff for computer repair that I'm aware of in any Best Buy I've been to is Geek Squad. And I'd test even less a completely faceless, anonymous repair team. But hey, that's just me.
The Geek Squad nerd du jour receives a laptop destined to be refurbished from a customer, and sends it off to the factory where they actually have the equipment to refurbish it. Then they put their name on it, because as you demonstrate, the Geek Squad brand has cachet.