I bought mine refurbed from Ubid. It's tough because you are bound to get dead pixels. My vaio had one on arrival, which wasn't too bad. I have a lithium ion battery in it too, which at least to my knowledge is memory free and should at least hold a decent charge, but instead it drops in chunks of 20% every couple of minutes. It also doesn't wake up from standby mode correctly. 🙁 But hey, every case is different. I'd say since laptops are so cheap now, just keep an eye out for one of those HP deals with the multiple rebates and score a new 500 dollar laptop for the peace of mind. Good luck brother.