A laptop is a convenient and versatile mobile computer that allows the user to work or play on the device without being tied to a location. The popularity of portable computers is increasing every year, but the price is also growing. Buying a laptop of decent quality, which will cope with all the tasks not everyone can afford, so more and more potential buyers decide to buy goods from their hands. Buying a used laptop, like any other used product, can bring not only financial benefits, but also the risk of acquiring a low-quality device. In this article, we will tell you how to check a used laptop before buying and protect yourself from purchasing a faulty device.
Contents
Where to start checking
Before you meet with the seller, check the condition of the laptop and make a decision on its purchase, carry out a few simple manipulations. At the same time, they can significantly save time on meaningless meetings, and save you from buying a dubious device.
- Announcement. Take a look at the ad itself first. Surely the search is carried out according to some specific parameters that the buyer needs. Take a few similar notebooks for comparison. It is necessary to compare their cost with the proposed characteristics and condition. It is better not to consider frankly cheap options. Even when the laptop looks great in the photo. Surely some serious malfunction is hidden behind the low price, or it is a completely stolen laptop. Start from the average market value.
- Communication with the seller. Already here you can learn a lot about the condition of the laptop and its history. Ask specific questions. Check whether the computer was opened, whether it was being repaired, what actions were performed. Of course, sellers do not always tell the truth. But usually numerous and leading questions scare away those who are trying to sell under the guise of a good laptop an outright pile of hardware or stolen equipment.
If a preliminary study of the option did not show anything bad, you can arrange a personal meeting.
Launching the laptop
When, as a result of a visual check, nothing suspicious was found, and the seller answered all the questions of interest, you can proceed to direct testing for performance.
The first thing to do is start up your computer. When turning on, watch what happens to the screen. When you press the power button, the image should appear almost instantly. If this occurs for 5 seconds or more, there is likely a hardware problem with the device. But sometimes they are insignificant, and do not particularly affect the work. Although there are serious malfunctions, indicating an imminent failure of the display. Yes, changing it is not as expensive as on a MacBook, but still, the pleasure is far from cheap. Or the hard drive warns of its imminent death.
It can be safely argued that a long run is an undesirable symptom. And in the presence of such behavior, it is better to refuse the purchase. Alternatively, you can ask for a large discount, equivalent to the cost of subsequent repairs.
Loading the operating system
Operating system boot speed is more of a secondary factor. Some devices are perfectly functional, but they take a long time to load the OS. This happens if the operating system is full of various garbage, and many processes are installed at startup. Or, this is how a virus that has entered the system affects the OS.
But it is important to understand that prolonged loading of the operating system can also indicate more serious problems.
Study of technical characteristics
It is assumed that the laptop booted up quickly, without any errors. Everything is going well so far. But it’s too early to relax.
The next step is to take a look at the specifications. This will largely make sure that the seller did not cheat regarding the declared parameters. Take a look at the OS version, RAM and other specifications. If you have no complaints about them, move on.
Also, it will not be superfluous to open the Device Manager. This section displays all the equipment that is connected and running on the laptop. There should not be any devices in front of which a question or exclamation mark flaunts. After all, this means that the system cannot recognize this equipment, or some kind of error has occurred.
Look separately at the “Video adapters” section. It is imperative that the video card is displayed in the form of the manufacturer’s name and the specific model. Labels like “Base Video Adapter” shouldn’t suit you. This potentially indicates a failure of the video card. You can only find out by installing the driver.
Initial diagnosis
If a promising device is found, and the price suits, even before inspection and diagnostics by phone, the seller can find out about its technical characteristics, main parameters, as well as the state of the device. If everything suits you, then you can agree with the seller to meet and inspect the laptop.
The very first step that can change a buying decision is a visual or superficial examination. First, you need to very carefully examine the surface of the used laptop. If the laptop has visible damage to the case or screen, chips, cracks on the monitor, this may indicate that the device has been used carelessly, or it may have been dropped. If the seller assures that nothing is damaged inside the laptop, the laptop “works like a watch”, it is better to refrain from purchasing such a product, as the internal microcircuits and contacts could be damaged if dropped. Such defects can affect work in the near future.
Check the connectors for the charger and external modules; they should not be loose. And also do not forget to clarify what is included in the kit. Sometimes the power supply for unknown or unpopular laptop models is not very easy to find. Therefore, buying a new power supply is an additional cost for the buyer.
If there are no visible external defects, then it is necessary to proceed with further verification of the goods. The next step is to load the personal computer to study its main characteristics and functionality. Sometimes dishonest sellers try to sell a device without an operating system installed on it, but this is one of the indicators that something is wrong with the product.
If the operating system is not installed, further verification is impossible and the buyer will have to purchase a pig in a poke. It is better to ask the seller in advance to take care of installing the system, or if it is not available, refuse to buy, or agree on a return in case of defects after installing Windows, it is better to take a receipt.
After the laptop has booted, try to lift it, open and close in working mode in sequence. If the screen blinks during such manipulations or the device hangs, then there are internal problems with the microcircuits, it is better to refuse such a product. Carefully examine the laptop screen for the presence of dead pixels in the operating mode, which are expressed by characteristic non-illuminated dots on the monitor. Manufacturers of some companies allow up to ten such points on the monitor. However, if you find such defects on the screen, you can safely either bring down the price or refuse to purchase.
The next step is to test the keyboard and touchpad functionality. It is necessary to open a text document and check each key on the keyboard, since it is not comfortable to work without it, and its replacement costs a lot of money. Keys should be easy to press, respond instantly and not jam. The touchpad should also be fully functional, although its functionality can be duplicated with the mouse. Sometimes the connection of additional external keypads is not available.
At this stage, the preliminary check can be considered completed. If all the checked elements suit the buyer, it is worth moving on to a more important stage – diagnostics of the internal blocks of the device.
In-depth laptop testing
Superficial diagnostics of a product, in fact, says a lot, an excellent external condition is a guarantee that the product was treated properly. However, you should not buy a used laptop without checking the quality and functioning of the internal nodes.
This can be done both independently and by contacting a specialized service center, where professionals can answer almost all questions of a potential buyer. The services of specialists are not cheap, so we will tell you further how to carry out the check yourself.
To begin with, we check the laptop battery, because the device is bought primarily in order to work without being tied to a place. The battery condition determines the time that the user can operate the laptop without recharging. Most often, checking a personal device takes no more than an hour, so it is difficult to diagnose the state of the battery during this time. Of course, it is possible to buy a new battery in the future, but this is an additional cost for the buyer. In order to diagnose the condition of the laptop battery, you can use the Battery Bar program, which can be downloaded from http://batterybarpro.com/basic.php. With this utility, you can find out the battery life without recharging. You can check the charging function by connecting the laptop through the charger to the outlet.
Then you should not be too lazy and using the Everest program – http://www.lavalys.com/support/downloads/ – to check the temperature of the laptop, a high indicator of which may indicate a malfunction of the cooling system of the device. The processor temperature under load should not exceed eighty degrees. The laptop can be loaded by turning on any game or test. When testing the laptop in load mode, the device cooler should not produce loud unnatural sounds.
HDD
Another important unit that requires a mandatory check is the hard drive. You can check its status using the CrystalDiskInfo program, which can be downloaded from the link https://download-software.ru/crystaldiskinfo.html. At startup, this program will check the status of the disk in real time, report its temperature, service life and real technical condition. If there are problems with the hard drive, then it is better to immediately abandon the purchase of such a product or negotiate a discount.
Wi-Fi
Surely you are buying yourself a laptop with the intention to use it not just as a typewriter, but also open a web browser, search for information on the Internet, or even play online games.
And here you can’t do without a working Wi-Fi module.
To test its functionality, you need to connect to any available network. You can even create an access point using your phone. If there are problems with the connection, some errors appear.
Optical drive
Yes, discs are not used as often now. Basically, everything is downloaded via the Internet, or flash drives are used. But buying a laptop that doesn’t have a drive is also wrong.
To test it, it is best to take a DVD RW disc. The point is that ordinary CD-type discs are able to read even such drives that are on their last legs.
Another good way to test it is to try writing data from a USB flash drive to a DVD disc. This will give you a good overview of the state of the optical drive.
Video card
When buying a laptop equipped with a discrete video card, and not integrated into the processor, you must definitely test it. Practice shows that this element of a complete set of portable computers is one of the most vulnerable. And at the same time, video cards are also very expensive. It is extremely unreasonable to take a laptop, the video card of which is about to fail.
To make sure it works for sure, you can use a utility like FurMark. It’s free, extremely easy to use. Install it and enable the GPU Stress Test button. This allows you to test the operation of the video chip under load.
To check the performance, it is enough to test the video card for 3 minutes. If it does not turn on when you start the program, there is more likely a problem with the drivers. But when during the stress test the computer hangs, reboots or turns on a blue screen, then the reason is already in the video card itself. She has obviously practically exhausted her resource.
It is important to understand that a stress test should not be performed for more than 2-3 minutes.
Camera
Additionally, it is worth checking the operation of the laptop camera. To diagnose it, you can use standard Skype to make a video call to a friend or acquaintance. If there are problems with the camera, the buyer will be able to see them during the conversation.
If all tested nodes and modules are normal, then you can buy a laptop from your hands. In addition to the programs proposed above for checking the internal components of the device, buyers often use the SMART and Prime95 utilities, which are functional and give real laptop performance. Which utility to give preference to is up to you. In this matter, it is not the means that are important, but the result.
Summarizing
Buying equipment from your hands is an opportunity to save money, on the other hand, there is a risk of purchasing a low-quality product. In order to protect yourself from problems in the future and not “throw money down the drain”, take responsibly testing your laptop.
Do not be lazy, prepare in advance special programs that will help you diagnose the internal contents of the laptop. The check will give only a superficial result, which cannot guarantee performance over a long period of operation. Only after a high-quality diagnosis is there every chance that you will purchase a reliable product and it will serve you for a long time.