What to look for when buying a used netbook?

Question

Iron

What tests to drive to understand that the machine is alive?
Everest, naturally, I’ll see what kind of iron is worth, what else would you advise?
The seller says that the netbook is six months old and he was given it for debts.

Answer 1

On the same thing as when buying any equipment:
-the presence of chips / scratches, especially dents. If the laptop was dropped, I would not buy it.
- presence of dead pixels or other screen defects - compliance with
the configuration declared by the seller
- battery life (either with Everest, or just turn it on, note how much% is left, carry out all other evaluation manipulations, it will take at least ten to fifteen minutes, and look at how much the battery has run down ). For a netbook, battery life is one of the most important parameters.
- check the operation of all buttons
- check the operation of all peripherals that you can: webcam, card reader, even usb ports and headphone jack
- in case of defects, do not hesitate to bargain, if the seller easily and quickly makes concessions: beware and look carefully -
listen to the inner voice. He doesn't lie :-)

Answer 2

the main thing is to check the battery, in Windows something like this
powercfg.exe -energy -output "c:\report.html"

Answer 3

1) on the condition of the case
2) the netbook should be quiet - if it makes noise louder than usual, then it was dropped
3) if hdd - then on bad blocks, if ssd - on the deterioration of the cells.
I advise you to boot from Ubuntu and run the smarctl test - it can tell a lot of interesting things about hdd
4) battery wear. Its capacity is from the nominal. You can also more or less accurately look ubuntu.
5) the necessary periphery. I don't need a camera - I never check them. Recently, I was surprised to find that on a new laptop it was determined by my ubuntu and works)
6) check the power supply to the USB ports - eeepc has a defect with power to usb over time. If the ports are pulling a flash drive or mouse, then it is no longer possible to charge something from these ports or connect an external HDD larger and more abruptly. I myself encountered this on my netbook (2 years).
7) check how tightly all ports sit in place, especially minijacks - I shredded mine very quickly and quickly, then I suffered for a year. I glued, soldered, glued, soldered ... and the contents of the port were pulled out along with the headphones.

Answer 4

I would pay attention to the SSD (if it is there), in particular, there are specials. programs for diagnosing SSDs with SMART support - for example, under Intel - Intel SSD Toolbox. The program requires .NET to work. And on the eee701 4Gb SSD is so dull that it does not support SMART at all, if anything.

Answer 5

I advise you to take a closer look at the screws and the stickers that cover them. This can tell if the netbook has been opened.