computer help

[Liesje]

I have a laptop a friend is selling me. I have to look at it and decide how much it's worth. She doesn't know anything about computers, but she's a friend so I can't rip her off. I found a similar item on eBay, but it has days left so it's not an accurate estimate of worth at this point.

It's an almost 4 year old HP pavillion laptop, model zt1000 IB with a 15" display, CD-RW/DVD-ROM combo drive, 20GB HDD, ~1000 Mhz Intel processor, 256 MB PC133 RAM, NIC and modem but no wireless (she has a wireless NIC but I have to give it back). Includes laptop and power adapter and the battery lasts about 72 minutes. It has some big issues at the moment, but I can tell they are due to years of spyware infestation and that will be resolved once I reinstall Windows.

Any ideas on worth?

 

[Dalton]

Buy a mac.

 

[Liesje]

Funny

If Macs weren't $1300, I would.

 

[Techie2000]

I wouldn't pay more than $250. $200 would be reasonable.

 

[nbcrusader]

Consideing the computer you can get for $500 these days, I would say $200 is generous.

Based on the specs, it likely won't handle Windows XP very well.

 

[Liesje]

$200 it is

 

[MrBrau1]

Buy a mac.

You get what you pay for.

 

[Techie2000]

Consideing the computer you can get for $500 these days, I would say $200 is generous.

Based on the specs, it likely won't handle Windows XP very well.

I wouldn't worry about that. It's easy enough to slap another stick of RAM in most laptops, and if she does that, well my old 800MHz desktop handled XP without any problems.

 

[KhanadaRhodes]

Funny

If Macs weren't $1300, I would.

they make mac minis, you know

 

[anitram]

I actually want to get a Powerbook, but unfortunately Macs are still incompatible with some things. And then there are universities that don't allow you to take exams on a Mac (but they do on a PC laptop), so that's irritating as well.

 

[Liesje]

ok, so if the combo drive won't burn CDs....ho much would that take off the price? ($200) I don't know what the deal is. It reads CDs and DVDs and actually cleaned of a CD-RW, but no matter what program I use, it will burn but can't finish the CD. I tried 3 CD-Rs and one RW and it's the same thing everytime, just gives an error right at the end.

 

[jay canseco]

Make sure the drives have been flashed to the latest firmware if you haven't already.

 

[Techie2000]

ok, so if the combo drive won't burn CDs....ho much would that take off the price? ($200) I don't know what the deal is. It reads CDs and DVDs and actually cleaned of a CD-RW, but no matter what program I use, it will burn but can't finish the CD. I tried 3 CD-Rs and one RW and it's the same thing everytime, just gives an error right at the end.

I'd knock off about $10-$20. A new combo drive for the drive bay will set you back at least $100 but when you are dealing with used old stuff like that, you can't take off that much when the price is already quite low.

 

[BrownEyedBoy]

I actually want to get a Powerbook, but unfortunately Macs are still incompatible with some things. And then there are universities that don't allow you to take exams on a Mac (but they do on a PC laptop), so that's irritating as well.

Why won't they late you take tests on a Mac?

 

[Liesje]

update: after removing a TON of spyware and updating to service pack 2, the combo drive works again so now I can get all her crap off of here and reinstall the OS.