# Refurbished Laptops **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Tags:** computer-hardware\ **Created:** [April 29, 2026, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641 "2026-04-29T12:10:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/21 "2026-04-29T16:11:34Z")
Does Newegg give any warrantees with their refurbs? ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/22 "2026-04-29T16:20:00Z")
The i5 is a good processor, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5050 8GB GDDR7 is about 1 1/2 times faster than the RTX 4060/Arc B580, which was pretty decent. The problem with limited hard drive space is to simply get an external hard drive. You can do custom installs in which you can direct the installation to the external drive. I think it’s a decent deal. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/23 "2026-04-29T16:22:17Z")
My finger is hovering over the Check-Out button. I’m considering throwing in that extra hard drive too, but I may hold off on that as it really kind of blows my budget. Maybe for my birthday at the end of the summer. I appreciated all the good info. I knew the Teeming Masses wouldn’t let me down. ---
**Author:** ![Briny\_Deep](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/briny_deep/32/17188_2.png) [@Briny\_Deep](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Briny_Deep)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/24 "2026-04-29T16:35:06Z")
A laptop is a secondary computer for me. I go to brick-and-mortar stores, in case there are problems, and buy something very cheap. Never a problem though. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/25 "2026-04-29T16:54:02Z")
Here are 4 refurbished gaming pcs with 7th and 8th generation I7 processors in your price range. [Laptops and Notebooks Computers](https://www.newegg.com/p/pl?N=4021%204016%20100167748%20601394670%20601303722%20601283907&d=laptop&isdeptsrh=1) ---
**Author:** ![Thumper668](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thumper668/32/20803_2.png) [@Thumper668](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thumper668)\ **Post date:** [April 29, 2026, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/26 "2026-04-29T17:00:29Z")
IMHO you really don’t want a gaming machine with GTX10xx graphics in 2026. They were released 10 years ago. The reason those machines have i7 processors is because that’s the only way you can get an old graphics card to run. Those machines are a great value for someone who needs to do heavy compute and light graphics. Definitely not recommended for gaming. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/27 "2026-05-03T21:12:39Z")
I got my new laptop in today, which is nice. Everything is humming along nicely so far … except, my external drive. When I plugged it in it came up with errors - please scan and repair, but that didn’t work. Now, my older external drive, which gave me the same error when I originally tried to plug it into this older laptop, was still errored, but I formatted it and it was recognized. I tried to plug my newer external drive back into the laptop I’ve been using and error again. I’ve been trying to scan and repair it for about a half hour now and I don’t think it’s working. Long and short … looks like I lost everything that was on those drives. Not big losses, mostly game installs. Some pictures and videos that I think I managed to save on a thumb drive (or whatever we’re calling them these days) but I’m baffled about those external drive errors. The only thing I can think is that the operating systems were different, between the three different laptops they’ve been plugged into that cause some conflicts – ?? Anyhoo, nice to have a new computer. I’m loading up a _NBA2K23_ right now to see how smooth it plays. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/28 "2026-05-03T22:00:29Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > My current laptop is a refurbished Dell ultrabook from a company that “flips” business laptops and I’ve been really impressed with it. May I ask which company you purchased from? I may want to do the same. My current laptop is a Dell and I’m thinking of getting a similar model, but without Windows installed. All the bad things I’m reading about Windows 11 have me about ready to take the plunge into Linux. ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 3, 2026, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/29 "2026-05-03T22:17:39Z")
Update - I was able to repair the newest external drive I was using. There is literally nothing important on it after all, just game installs, but I guess I got that going for me too. Plus, 2T worth of external storage at my disposal now. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/30 "2026-05-04T00:26:33Z")
> [@Jack\_Batty](#): > > I was able to repair the newest external drive I was using. What did you to make that happen? Or did ‘scan and repair’ finally complete? ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/31 "2026-05-04T00:50:17Z")
You know, a magnifying glass here, a fridge magnet there, and before long you have your own data recovery company… ---
**Author:** ![Jack\_Batty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jack_batty/32/3201_2.png) [@Jack\_Batty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jack_Batty)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/32 "2026-05-04T00:52:44Z")
Scan and repair finally finished. Which leads me to believe I may have been able to save that other drive before formatting it, but, ya know … whaddayagonnado? ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/33 "2026-05-04T02:08:22Z")
Like everybody else, I would never trust some rando Amazon reseller for a refurb. The only difference between buying a brand new Mac or one from Apple’s refurb store is that the refurb is going to be about 10-15 percent less expensive and come in a plain box. ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [May 4, 2026, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/34 "2026-05-04T06:59:41Z")
> [@Llama\_Llogophile](#): > > May I ask which company you purchased from? It’s a local company here in the frozen north of the old world - not of much use to you, I boldly presume. ---
**Author:** ![sjankis630](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/7ea924/32.png) [@sjankis630](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjankis630)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2026, 8:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/35 "2026-05-11T20:57:14Z")
I also use Ebay and try and buy either Lenovo X1 Carbons or Dell XPS 15s. I make sure they are no older than about 5 years and then only buy from those with positive feedback. I have not had one miss yet after about 5 buys. I try and keep it right around $300-350. They all have activated OEM Windows 10-11 licenses. Good luck. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2026, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/36 "2026-05-11T21:19:37Z")
FWIW, I’ve bought two refurbished laptops for myself and one high-end model for a friend, for a total of three. The most recent was probably about five years ago, so this is not up-to-date info, but as I said, FWIW. All three were directly from Dell, and were former business laptops whose leases had expired. There was also an Optiplex desktop – the one that I’m currently using. The good news: all the machines were in great condition, functionally and cosmetically, and Dell did a great professional job of cleaning them up. The desktop, which I opened in order to replace and add components, looked inside and outside like a brand new machine straight from the factory. The bad news: All four machines came with a basic vanilla version of Windows Professional – that is, the version of Windows they were supposed to come with, but completely vanilla, with no hardware-specific drivers, not even for the basic Intel chipset. In every case, it was necessary to download all the necessary hardware-specific drivers from Dell, and carefully follow instructions for installing them in exactly the right order. If you don’t do this, a lot of functionality like the display and the USB ports operate only in a very basic mode, with no extended features like USB 3. Doing this all, and doing it correctly, is a bit of a time-consuming ordeal in which you’re entirely on your own. ---
**Author:** ![JohnGalt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johngalt/32/184_2.png) [@JohnGalt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnGalt)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/37 "2026-05-12T03:52:53Z")
I bought my last couple of laptops directly from the Lenovo website. I look for the refurbished or returned units, but sometimes their sales are worth checking out. My last one is a X carbon model, lightweight but powerful (but not a gaming system). ---
**Author:** ![Toxylon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f05b48/32.png) [@Toxylon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toxylon)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 6:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/38 "2026-05-12T06:55:16Z")
I did none of that with my refurb Dell, and don’t understand why I would need to. Maybe I’m just not a Power Laptopper. I’m on my Dell eight hours a day, but I don’t game. Maybe that’s it? ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 7:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/39 "2026-05-12T07:21:44Z")
Any decent reseller will have already installed all the necessarily Dell driver stuff for you. I myself would never give you a computer with just a default install on it unless all the default drivers were better than the manufacturer provided ones. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2026, 9:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641/40 "2026-05-12T09:26:33Z")
> [@Toxylon](#): > > I did none of that with my refurb Dell, and don’t understand why I would need to. Maybe I’m just not a Power Laptopper. I’m on my Dell eight hours a day, but I don’t game. Maybe that’s it? It may well depend who you buy them from. The two laptops (sorry, it was 2 not 3; my latest was purchased new) and one desktop that I bought were from Dell Refurbished Canada. I don’t know why they choose to install only the basic vanilla OS but they do. I imagine that in the interest of security they completely wipe the drive and it’s easier for them to install a generic version of Windows rather than one that’s been specifically configured. No, I don’t game on any of these machines. My most recent laptop was purchased new (also from Dell) and of course everything was properly configured, but none of the others were. I just checked the folder where I had put the drivers I had to install on my latest refurbished laptop, and they included 6 hardware-specific drivers, notably an Intel chipset driver package which is required for USB 3.0 to operate and likely other functions, too, two different video drivers at least one of which is essential, and an audio chipset driver which may or may not have been essential. Without those drivers Windows runs in a minimal mode with basic graphics and only USB 2.0. > [@BigT](#): > > Any decent reseller will have already installed all the necessarily Dell driver stuff for you. What can I say? Then Dell Refurbished Canada is not a decent reseller. But under the right circumstances I’d buy from them again because all the computers were in like-new condition, even though I think they were all listed as “cosmetic grade B”. My last laptop was new only so I could get Windows 11 to minimize future end-of-support hassles. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/refurbished-laptops/1029641.md?page=3)