Hi, I'm plan to buy a used laptop from someone today or tomorrow, but I'm scared of buying a fake laptop or a laptop that ends up breaking down after 2 days.
How do I know if a used laptop is still good? Like what are the things I should check before paying for it.

The seller is selling it to me at 40k
The brand is HP
He says it's still good and all.. but it's so hard to trust people these days.

Please if you have any tips or advice, it would be very much appreciated.

1. Check for breakage. ANY broken plastic part is a big no-no.

2. Open the screen. Are the hinges firm? If they are a bit lose, don't buy.

3. Check the screws at the bottom. If anyone opened the laptop, it is very hard not to scratch the screw heads. If the laptop was opened, it was either to repair it (why?!) or to replace components (risk of having inferior components inside).

4. Check the keyboard. Is the middle of the space bar especially "polished" unlike the other keys? Spacebar is the most commonly used key. If the laptop was used for a long time, it is likely that this key will be affected as described.

5. Turn the laptop on. Don't accept the excuse that the battery is empty! Does it boot smoothly? No weird error messages?

6. Once it boots completely, are there any vertical lines on the screen constantly on or constantly off regardless of what is on the screen? Sometimes even the entire sections of the screen are either off or scrambled.

7. While the computer is on, try to close the screen half way and watch the picture. Does it get affected? If so, it means that the flat cable connecting the screen is damaged, so don't buy.

8. A brand new battery should carry the laptop for 1 to 3 hours. Of course, you can't wait for that long. When you first put the laptop on, check the battery level percentage. If you test it for 5 minutes, the battery should not drop by more than 10 percent. If the battery drops by 20 or more percent in 5 minutes, don't buy.

9. Check the laptop charger. is it the original charger? Also, check the cable at both ends of the charger. It is the most common part of the cables which gets damaged. If you see inner wires, ask the seller to give a good charger.

If you have more questions, let me know.

DrMuzungu:
1. Check for breakage. ANY broken plastic part is a big no-no.

2. Open the screen. Are the hinges firm? If they are a bit lose, don't buy.

3. Check the screws at the bottom. If anyone opened the laptop, it is very hard not to scratch the screw heads. If the laptop was opened, it was either to repair it (why?!) or to replace components (risk of having inferior components inside).

4. Check the keyboard. Is the middle of the space bar especially "polished" unlike the other keys? Spacebar is the most commonly used key. If the laptop was used for a long time, it is likely that this key will be affected as described.

5. Turn the laptop on. Don't accept the excuse that the battery is empty! Does it boot smoothly? No weird error messages?

6. Once it boots completely, are there any vertical lines on the screen constantly on or constantly off regardless of what is on the screen? Sometimes even the entire sections of the screen are either off or scrambled.

7. While the computer is on, try to close the screen half way and watch the picture. Does it get affected? If so, it means that the flat cable connecting the screen is damaged, so don't buy.

8. A brand new battery should carry the laptop for 1 to 3 hours. Of course, you can't wait for that long. When you first put the laptop on, check the battery level percentage. If you test it for 5 minutes, the battery should not drop by more than 10 percent. If the battery drops by 20 or more percent in 5 minutes, don't buy.

9. Check the laptop charger. is it the original charger? Also, check the cable at both ends of the charger. It is the most common part of the cables which gets damaged. If you see inner wires, ask the seller to give a good charger.

If you have more questions, let me know.

wow thanks alot. I will follow your tips

DrMuzungu:
1. Check for breakage. ANY broken plastic part is a big no-no.

2. Open the screen. Are the hinges firm? If they are a bit lose, don't buy.

3. Check the screws at the bottom. If anyone opened the laptop, it is very hard not to scratch the screw heads. If the laptop was opened, it was either to repair it (why?!) or to replace components (risk of having inferior components inside).

4. Check the keyboard. Is the middle of the space bar especially "polished" unlike the other keys? Spacebar is the most commonly used key. If the laptop was used for a long time, it is likely that this key will be affected as described.

5. Turn the laptop on. Don't accept the excuse that the battery is empty! Does it boot smoothly? No weird error messages?

6. Once it boots completely, are there any vertical lines on the screen constantly on or constantly off regardless of what is on the screen? Sometimes even the entire sections of the screen are either off or scrambled.

7. While the computer is on, try to close the screen half way and watch the picture. Does it get affected? If so, it means that the flat cable connecting the screen is damaged, so don't buy.

8. A brand new battery should carry the laptop for 1 to 3 hours. Of course, you can't wait for that long. When you first put the laptop on, check the battery level percentage. If you test it for 5 minutes, the battery should not drop by more than 10 percent. If the battery drops by 20 or more percent in 5 minutes, don't buy.

9. Check the laptop charger. is it the original charger? Also, check the cable at both ends of the charger. It is the most common part of the cables which gets damaged. If you see inner wires, ask the seller to give a good charger.

If you have more questions, let me know.

thanks a lot broh. this is the most helpful tips v seen since ages

I'm going to take my time, I'll add to what DrMuzungu post.

1. Check the carcass, make sure it is clean, open and close the laptop like 2,3-4 times to make sure the hinges are not shaking, apart from that it will also help you to know if the signal cable is not shaking too which will make the display flicker.

2. Check for any missing screw, or screws that are not the same, if screw is missing or not the same then it have been tampered.

3. The keyboard, make sure you open note pad and click all the keys one by one, yeah you press one key and it work doesn't mean all other keys will work, so test it yourself.

4. You have to check if there is any on board password, if there is on board password, you won't be able to do some settings in bios setup.

So shut down the laptop, switch it on again, immediately press f10 for HP, F2 for Dell and other brands like Acer, Toshiba, lenovo, brain etc.

If it doesn't bring out any box for you to input a password then you're good to go.

5. Test the ba3, forget about what the windows is telling you, it is not always correct.

If you want to test how long a ba3 will last you, watch movie with it, though you can't do this there, that's why you should ask for a warranty on the ba3, in case you can return it back.

Test the charging, make sure it increase from one percentage to another, make sure it is plug in charging.

Also ask for original charger, fake charger can damage the laptop.

6. Check the screen well, make sure there are no whites dots or black dots, observe if the screen is flicking, when you power on the system make sure the screen doesn't flash white before showing characters, if u see anything like that, the screen have been work on.

You can use ur hand to press round the frame to make sure the signal is OK, Incase it was packed.

7. Check all USB port, don't use USB flash to test, use USB keyboard or your phone to test it.

Make sure u check all USB port, make sure there is sound and the headphone port is working too.

If there is camera, check the camera too.

8. Check to see if the windows is activated and all drivers is driven.

9. Ask for warranty, at least you will get 1month if you're buying a used laptop.
After purchase, make sure the serial number written on the receipt is the same with the one on your laptop.

Ask for receipt, the fear of SARS is the beginning of wisdom.