Repair or replace? Which upgrade pays off? Is the slowdown fixable or is it time? Plain-spoken maths and honest guides for everyday PC problems — type your question and get a straight answer in seconds. The full detailed report costs less than a coffee: $2.95.
A used PC is either the best value in computing or a money pit, and the difference is decided before you pay. This checklist turns the pre-purchase inspection into an ordered routine: the three specs that actually matter on a used machine, the battery report that exposes the hidden cost of a used laptop, and the five-minute on-the-spot tests — boot, keyboard, screen, ports, Wi-Fi — that catch most real faults. It is equally clear on the red flags that should end the sale on the spot: no charger, no testing allowed, a password you cannot see past, or a price that is suspiciously low. Refurbished business machines get their honest due as the sweet spot of the market.
A practical pre-purchase checklist for used and refurbished PCs — what to verify, what to test on the spot, and the red flags that send you to the next listing.
Three things: an SSD rather than a spinning hard drive, 8-16 GB of RAM, and a reasonably recent CPU — an 8th-gen Intel or Ryzen 3000-series or newer is a sane floor in 2026. Everything else is secondary and fixable; those three define the experience.
Ask for a battery report: on Windows, open an admin terminal and run 'powercfg /batteryreport', which gives real design capacity versus current capacity. It is the single most useful test on a used laptop, because a worn battery is a hidden $40-150 cost.
No charger included, a refusal to let you test it, a password you cannot see past, obvious physical damage, or a price suspiciously below the market. And always agree a returns window in writing — even 48 hours protects you from faults that take a day to appear.
Every tool answers instantly from our own knowledge and calculators — no AI wait, no account. Honest maths and plain guidance, always educational and never pushy about buying new gear: repair, upgrade, backup and security decisions explained in language a human actually uses. Results are estimates and guides, not guarantees, and nothing you type is stored. Want the deeper, personalised version? Each has a $2.95 full report.