I have two Dell Notebooks: XPS M1530 and a Lattitude D620. The battery on the XPS M1530 is shot; the battery on the D620 is going (lasts about an hour or so); additionally, the D620 probably has a bad HDD or stick of RAM. My girlfriend has an HP Pavillion (DV6000, I think), and the screen is about to fall off (broken hinge).

In present condition, are these worth anything? If repaired, do I get my money back out plus some?

My girlfriend needs a new/better laptop for going back to school and as her sole leisure computer. I don't really need a laptop; just the option to go mobile with it, all for leisure. I was hoping if the three laptops we have amount to something, it would help pay for her to get a new laptop, I'd get/build (don't know anything about this though) a decent desktop, and I'd get a tablet for mobile use. Is this the most efficient and affordable route? Brands, specs, etc?

Girlfriend's needs: music (iTunes), browsing, academics (MS Office), etc. - must be mobile
My needs: music, streaming video (possibly), browsing, MS Office - would like some mobile solution

I'll get specs on the 3 laptops tonight.

Thanks

12/11/2012 9:09:19 AM

Old windows laptops are a dime a dozen, you'd be really lucky to get even close to $100 on craigslist, which doesn't cover the cost of repair. The only computers you can sell are new windows computers (at a substaintial loss) or any Intel Mac.

As far as your new ones, what's your budget?

12/11/2012 10:35:51 AM

what is your budget?

12/11/2012 11:40:18 AM

Well, I was hoping to be <$1,200 thinking that I could get around $500 for my current 3 machines (minus repair costs), thus only $700 out of pocket. I haven't bought a computer in a while, so I don't know prices/specs/etc... these numbers were just pulled out of my ass.

12/11/2012 1:30:36 PM

XPS M1530 looks like it has decent specs, and obviously an above average build quality. I'd buy a new battery for $30ish: http://tinyurl.com/bmuna3q, and bump up the RAM if needed (probably cheap), install an SSD, and install Windows 7 or 8 on it (or at least a fresh Vista install). Granted that's some work, but as long as you can find a good deal on the OS (or re-suse Vista) the end result will be a very capable machine for not much $ (outside of the money for the SSD purchase, which depends on how much space you need).

D620 seems older, and not worth screwing with. Though I probably would mess with it at some point just for the fun? of it.

For the Pavilion you can buy new hinges very cheaply: http://tinyurl.com/beapfc6

12/11/2012 1:50:44 PM

Yeh, I'm pretty sure I've already upgraded both my Dell's HDDs and RAM sometime in the past. I got W7 on both as well. I guess the gf could use this one; my concern is the battery though. I've been through 2 OEM and 1 off brand battery. I guess I can just buy several and maybe she'll have some luck with it.

The D620 ran fine up until about 6 months ago and it's just damn slow now. Like I said, it's probably a bad HDD or stick. W7 ran fine, but it was damn good with XP on there.

We've looked into repairing the HP, but she needs the hinges and monitor casing (cracked to hell now) and she's likely done some other damage to the cables, etc. (it's been a while), thus we were looking at a complete screen replacement.

[Edited on December 11, 2012 at 1:57 PM. Reason : .]

12/11/2012 1:56:56 PM

I'd strongly suggest that you visit ebay and your local craigslist to see what other people are selling theirs for before you start chasing good money after bad. Replacing the battery often just screws up the new one if the problem is in the power adapter or the DC plug.

12/11/2012 2:25:40 PM

Good advice thus far. I'd sell the HP as scarp on ebay as a parts laptop. No sense in repairing it. Shit just part it out and see if any takers need the logic board or cpu. Everything else is trash.

12/11/2012 2:37:05 PM

Quote :

"We've looked into repairing the HP, but she needs the hinges and monitor casing (cracked to hell now) and she's likely done some other damage to the cables, etc. (it's been a while), thus we were looking at a complete screen replacement."

I think I saw a complete screen assembly for $50ish on ebay. Do some poking around. If nothing else fix and sell. Here's one - http://tinyurl.com/d3vhq4v

For the XPS, maybe get a new adapter in addition to the battery just to be safe.

12/11/2012 4:06:46 PM

Yeh, I might fix all 3... if I find good deals, I'll get some money back out of them, or at least have 3 non-broken laptops.

12/12/2012 9:00:26 AM

So for shits and giggles, I just reloaded W7 on the D620 and it's running much better... but I'll give it some time to see what happens. Though, I'm thinking I should have just loaded XP back on there... ?

12/14/2012 8:28:07 AM

win7 has a far smaller kernel than xp and with options like aero and such turned off, it should be faster than xp, assuming you have proper drivers.

12/14/2012 12:14:19 PM

Ah, didn't know that

So after 1 day, the HDD light is constantly on and things are slowing down quickly... (same symptoms as before). Would it make sense for this to be a bad HDD? chkdsk returned all systems go.

12/14/2012 5:56:57 PM

sounds more like you're paging (running out of ram)

12/15/2012 11:06:00 AM

thanks. it's reading 1.5GB RAM... I thought I had more than that, but maybe not (it's been a while). I guess it's time to take it apart to see (thanks for putting RAM under the damn keyboard).

12/15/2012 2:28:21 PM

nope; it's 1.5 GB DDR2.

I increased the paging size. been running fine today.


I'm thinking about just getting a battery for the XPS, a screen for the HP, and selling all 3.

Just don't know what to go with for new systems...

12/15/2012 3:22:26 PM

The D620 should be able to run Win7 without issues, even with only 1.5 GB RAM. Could have been the paging thing, or your HDD could be going (have you run a chkdsk on it to check for surface errors/bad blocks?) If it has discrete graphics you should be able to leave Aero on.

The M1530 would be a pretty nice machine if you went to 4 GB RAM and put a fresh battery in there. Of course, if it's burned through other batteries, you have to consider whether it's the adapter not charging them properly, or if there's an issue with the power circuitry. If you can get a replacement adapter with a new battery, and you still have the issue, you might be able to sell the adapter separately for about what you put into it, or just sell the laptop with two adapters as a sellilng point.

12/17/2012 10:51:37 AM