Worth the money?

[iPROTechman]

My friend's just got a new laptop for xmas.


He has a HPG6000 which he said he'd sell to me for £100.

Only problems is it overheats (probably needs a clean out and maybe a cooler)
The battery is dead.

Is this a good price?

It's AMD Athlon X2 1.9GHZ Dual Core
Built in webcam
2GB RAM
Nvidia something card
120GB HDD
15.4inch
No cosmetic damage

Think it's worth it? I'd be putting XP or W7 on it rather than vista. Would be using for college work mainly, instant messaging, just portability really and maybe a bit of runescape

 

[JeffO]

- uses nVidai instead of the plain Intel
- big screen
- adequate hard drive for mobile computing
- enough RAM for Vista or Win7
- and an energy-efficient dual-core, but 1.9GHz is a little slow for Vista or Win7. XP should be fine, if you don't try to do power-computer on it. I wouldn't want to try any gaming on that, unless its a very old game like Total Annihilation.

I'm guessing that it would be worth it even with no OS. If it has a legal copy of Windows, that would increase the value.
A new battery can be bought for ~£50.

The dead battery is unusual. That laptop doesn't seem that old.
A new battery should be charged for a full 24hr, even if the battery reads fully-charged in an hour. The first drain should be complete before charging it the second time.
Some people have said that Li-on batteries don't have memory. That's wrong. They don't have nearly as much as ancient NiCad, but they still have some and need to be charged/drained properly the first time to guarantee a long life. Batteries that are "dead" in a few years were never "conditioned" properly.

 

[DoubleHelix]

If it overheats badly, there's some serious hardware problem or damage involved, and I wouldn't waste my money.

 

[Lexluethar]

It is a gamble, could be overheating because of a hardware failure which would cost money to repair. On the other hand it may just need new thermal compound put on the processor and a good cleaning. A new battery you could get for 80 bucks.

I would get it, try cleaning it with air. If that doesn't fix it then you'll have to take the entire laptop apart, scrape off the old thermal paste with a razor and apply new paste.

If it were me, i would get it. But i'm comfortable with taking apart laptops.

 

[iPROTechman]

- uses nVidai instead of the plain Intel
- big screen
- adequate hard drive for mobile computing
- enough RAM for Vista or Win7
- and an energy-efficient dual-core, but 1.9GHz is a little slow for Vista or Win7. XP should be fine, if you don't try to do power-computer on it. I wouldn't want to try any gaming on that, unless its a very old game like Total Annihilation.

I'm guessing that it would be worth it even with no OS. If it has a legal copy of Windows, that would increase the value.
A new battery can be bought for ~£50.

The dead battery is unusual. That laptop doesn't seem that old.
A new battery should be charged for a full 24hr, even if the battery reads fully-charged in an hour. The first drain should be complete before charging it the second time.
Some people have said that Li-on batteries don't have memory. That's wrong. They don't have nearly as much as ancient NiCad, but they still have some and need to be charged/drained properly the first time to guarantee a long life. Batteries that are "dead" in a few years were never "conditioned" properly.

So i can try and drain and charge it fully ? he said it only lasts around 3 minutes. It also had legit windows Vista ultimate.

**Note it's also just under two years old**

It is a gamble, could be overheating because of a hardware failure which would cost money to repair. On the other hand it may just need new thermal compound put on the processor and a good cleaning. A new battery you could get for 80 bucks.

I would get it, try cleaning it with air. If that doesn't fix it then you'll have to take the entire laptop apart, scrape off the old thermal paste with a razor and apply new paste.

If it were me, i would get it. But i'm comfortable with taking apart laptops.

I've got my college tutor who'd take it apart for me, I'll clean it and possibly do you think buying a laptop cooler would be worth it? Even if it dies or whatever, Its not like it's alot of money.. Only £100.

Thanks for your replies -Josh

 

[Lexluethar]

No, if the computer dies within a few minutes (like less than 10) you have a major heading issue and a little fan blowing extra air into the PC won't help.

You will need to take the entire PC apart, clean everything with air, take off the old thermal paste and reapply new thermal paste.

If the PC only lasts a few minutes more than likely this is a CPU overheating and you'll need to address that with the above suggestion (hopefully it will work).

As you said, it is only 100 euros, but realize you may not be able to get it in working condition.

 

[iPROTechman]

No, if the computer dies within a few minutes (like less than 10) you have a major heading issue and a little fan blowing extra air into the PC won't help.

You will need to take the entire PC apart, clean everything with air, take off the old thermal paste and reapply new thermal paste.

If the PC only lasts a few minutes more than likely this is a CPU overheating and you'll need to address that with the above suggestion (hopefully it will work).

As you said, it is only 100 euros, but realize you may not be able to get it in working condition.

The guy said it overheats like after a hour or two's use, he normally has it on his knee though so air flow is restricted, and doesn't overheat much on his desk he also said its when hes multitasking so i reckon it'll be fine after a clean and everything hopefully, thanks for your replies by the way? could you check out my other thread in the PC section?

Here: http://www.techist.com/forums/f75/upgrading-options-advice-222412/

Thanks!

 

[patonb]

Overheating could be the gpu, the 8* series gpus had some major issues.. I couldnt find the specs on the laptop, but if its a Nvidia and a recent laptop, it could be.

I'd also leave it as vista and just update to sp2, and it'll be fine.

 

[iPROTechman]

Overheating could be the gpu, the 8* series gpus had some major issues.. I couldnt find the specs on the laptop, but if its a Nvidia and a recent laptop, it could be.

I'd also leave it as vista and just update to sp2, and it'll be fine.

It's two years old and its an nvidia 6100 i think.

Is this one of them?

Also, i hate vista, it hogs resources windows 7 is much better but i will probably put XP on with SP3.


Thanks for your reply.

 

[patonb]

Hmm, not sure on the 6100.