How do you test a used laptop for functionality/problems?

[dud]

I just purchased a used Dell laptop on ebay. The unit arrived in what appears to be the same/similar condition as advertised in the seller's auction BUT ... the seller, for whatever reason, decided to go on the cheap for packing material. The laptop and 1/4" of bubble wrap on took up about 1/3 of the volume of the shipping box! This allowed the laptop to shift/flop within the box ... all the way cross-country. The seller showed an almost total disregard for the laptop when packing it ... and I want to ensure that (if I decide to keep it) the laptop is performing nominally and has no problems.

My question is what techniques/software do you or would you recommend for doing a total assessment of a used laptop like this? I plan to push a fresh OS on the machine but want to fully test everything out, multiple times before deciding not to send this thing back. My hope is that the laptop checks out and I keep it ... it is in that good of a condition.


Thank you all ...

 

[lakedude]

Best thing to do is use it like you are going to.

You can do a visual inspection of the outside which is the most likely to be damaged.

Display solid colors on the screen to check for bad pixels.

Check for rattles (broken stuff on the inside).

Make sure it charges and that all the ports and parts work. Play a disk, use all the holes, USB etc.

There are tests you can run from "Ultimate Boot" that will torture test various parts of your PC, like RAM and the hard drive.

There other tests you can run from a program like OCCT or FurMark that burn in your CPU or GPU.

 

[jana519]

Test the keyboard, trackpad, and all the I/O ports.

Test the battery and charging jack to make sure the battery can charge and hold a charge.

Test the CPU/GPU with benchmarking software that runs them on high. Make sure the fan and temps are in correct range.

Last, do a visual inspection for any cracks or chips in the casing. Usually any damage in shipping is visual from the outside.

I've had a $400 laptop shipped in utterly crap packaging (one loose piece of styrofoam in a box) and it worked fine for the time I owned it. I've also had a $20 RAM stick shipped in a bubble mailer that was crushed and destroyed. Packaging matters but the more important thing is how the package is handled during shipping.

 

[you2]

Test the ram (esp if the ram is solder onto the motherboard as it won't be replaceable). I typically use prime95 for stress testing memory - but be sure to configure it to use all free ram without paging. This will also test temp - i typically run it overnight - 12 to 18 hours on a new computer build. This is imho far more reliable than memchk or similar software for checking ram it also does a good job of stressing the cpu and checking for heat issues (though haswell refresh is expected run very hot when utilizing certain instructions).

 

[UsandThem]

Since it's a Dell, you should be able to use the service tag to run a full hardware diagnostic on it (the several hour extended option), and if that doesn't return any issues, I wouldn't worry about it.

http://www.dell.com/support/article...ems-on-your-dell-pc-tablet-or-servers?lang=en

Really no need to run other programs (unless you really wanted to for whatever reason). You could simply start using the laptop, and see if there is any odd behavior.

 

[dud]

So much useful information ...

Thank you all. Will do!