Guides: buying, checking, keeping
How to read a laptop specification, how to check a used machine before paying for it, and how to keep one working once it is yours.
9 pages in this sectionThese are procedures, not opinions. Each one is a sequence you can follow with the machine in front of you or the listing open in another tab, and each one says what a bad answer looks like so you know when to walk away.
Everything in guides
- Laptop Computer TipsEverything filed under Laptop Computer Tips, newest first.2 pages
- Why you cannot always swap a laptop's wireless cardSome wireless cards are complete radios. Some are only half of one, and the other half is in the processor. The socket looks identical either way.
- Keyboard layout codes on laptop listings, explainedThe two-letter code at the end of a laptop's part number decides the shape of your return key and where the at sign lives. It is not changeable.
- The panel lottery: how to find out which screen your laptop gotOne model, several panel suppliers, one marketing description. The panel identifies itself — here is how to read it and what to do with the answer.
- Where laptop drivers actually come from, and where not to get themThree legitimate sources, one order to try them in, and why driver-finder utilities are the wrong answer to a real problem.
- How to find a laptop's real age from its serial numberThe seller's word, the operating system install date and the box are all unreliable. The manufacturer's warranty lookup is not.
- How to find the exact configuration a laptop shipped withOne marketing name covers a dozen builds. The suffix on the model number, and the manufacturer's own lookup, resolve it in minutes.
- How to check a used laptop before you pay for itA single message to the seller, then a twenty-minute inspection. What to ask, what to photograph, and the three findings that should end the transaction.
Procedures are written to be followed in order; skipping the verification steps is how people buy the wrong machine.
Latest in Guides
Mechanism | Why you cannot always swap a laptop's wireless card
Some wireless cards are complete radios. Some are only half of one, and the other half is in the processor. The socket looks identical either way.
Mechanism
Spec sheet | Keyboard layout codes on laptop listings, explained
The two-letter code at the end of a laptop's part number decides the shape of your return key and where the at sign lives. It is not changeable.
Spec sheet
Procedure | The panel lottery: how to find out which screen your laptop got
One model, several panel suppliers, one marketing description. The panel identifies itself — here is how to read it and what to do with the answer.
Procedure
Procedure | Where laptop drivers actually come from, and where not to get them
Three legitimate sources, one order to try them in, and why driver-finder utilities are the wrong answer to a real problem.
Procedure
Procedure | How to find a laptop's real age from its serial number
The seller's word, the operating system install date and the box are all unreliable. The manufacturer's warranty lookup is not.
Procedure
Procedure | How to find the exact configuration a laptop shipped with
One marketing name covers a dozen builds. The suffix on the model number, and the manufacturer's own lookup, resolve it in minutes.
Procedure
Procedure | How to check a used laptop before you pay for it
A single message to the seller, then a twenty-minute inspection. What to ask, what to photograph, and the three findings that should end the transaction.
Procedure
How to buy Netbook?
The latest addition to the electronic gadgets is the Netbooks. These Netbooks are laptops that are designed for the user to surf the internet. They are small and light weight. They weigh…
Guides
How to buy Laptop?
Everybody requires a computer these days. This machine has become an integral part of every ones life. There are many things that we do with the help of the computer. Now-a-days laptops…
Guides
Why used, why now
The second-hand and refurbished market is where most of the value in laptops currently sits, and it is also where most of the misrepresentation sits. Listings quote the chassis name and leave out the configuration; sellers quote the original launch specification for a machine that shipped in six variants; "refurbished" means six different things depending on who refurbished it. The guides here exist because the specification archive on this site is only useful if you can match it to the machine actually being sold.
What we will not tell you
Which laptop to buy. That depends on what you do with it, what it has to plug into, and what you can spend, and anyone who answers it without asking is selling something. What these guides do instead is make the specification legible, so the decision is yours and it is an informed one.