Stephen Haley wrote:
One word of caution re used laptops.
The Battery packs in laptops have a finite life (anything from 1 to 5yrs) on
average. They can be horrendously expensive to replace. My compaq failed
recently (2yrs) and the list price of a new pack in the UK was $200+. I
eventually bought some new LIon batts from malaysia for $30 and soldered
them into the old pack. Before you buy a used lappie ask how old it is and
if the batt pack has been replaced. Most have dates on them so its easy to
check but if the answer is 3yrs+ I would budget for a new pack in the price.

Good advice, but be alerted prices vary quite a bit. I paid US$90 for a
new battery pack for my 2 year old Toshiba laptop FROM Toshiba! Cheaper
than the other "no name" vendors. Toshiba offers returned/refurbished
laptops like Dell does, and HP probably also.

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Eric Greenwell
Washington State
USA