MacBook second hand purchase checklist

kenn0

Hey all

I am hoping to buy a secondhand Macbook. It was bought in March 2010. I have only used a Mac in a shop. I am looking for a checklist of what I need to check before I hand over my Euros. I will be meeting the seller in Dublin city centre. I have a mobile broadband dongle I can bring. All advice welcome.

Thanks in advance Kenno

savina10

Hi, was thinking of buying one second hand too. How much are you paying for it?

Third Eye

Here's some good advice from Macworld magazine...

1. Check the battery life (laptops only)
As any road warrior knows, laptop batteries don’t last forever. One day you may find that the nearly three hours of charge you used to get has dropped to under two. So how can you check to make sure the battery in the laptop you’re considering is still good? Test it.

When you go to look at the prospective laptop, take a copy of Christoph Sinai’s free coconutBattery () on a thumb drive with you. Pop it in the drive to check how much life is still left in the battery. What you’re looking for is cycle count—that is, how many times the battery has been charged and discharged during its lifetime. According to Apple, you can typically only charge a battery 300 times before it stops holding an 80 percent charge.

If coconutBattery tells you that the computer’s cycle count is over 250, consider skipping that machine, or ask for a discount so you have money left to buy a new battery. Replacement batteries typically cost $129 from the Apple Store. That said, you might want to budget for a new battery in any case.

2. Ask if it’s still under warranty
Some of the worries that a lot of buyers of used Macs have (including me) come down to two questions: “How reliable is this Mac?” and “If the logic board breaks tomorrow, could I buy a replacement?” New Macs come with a one-year factory warranty that guarantees the reliability of all of the Mac’s parts. If anything from the RAM to the display dies within a year, you can get a replacement part for free (although you may have to wait a day or three for your local Apple Genius to order and install the part.)

Fortunately for you, some sellers of used Macs get rid of their gear before that year is up. Ask whether the Mac in question is covered and, if so, when the coverage expires. If the warranty is still valid (even if it’s in its last week), you can buy AppleCare, a two-year extended warranty. (The price of AppleCare depends on the type of Mac you purchase. See the AppleCare Web site for details.) That way, if the machine turns out to be a lemon or to have a defect, you’re covered.

If you do buy the Mac, be sure to have the prior owner transfer the warranty to you as soon as possible. A simple phone call to AppleCare, at 800/275-2273, should do the trick. He or she will need to give your contact information to the representative.

3. Check the optical drive and get the discs
Bring a DVD with you so you can verify that the optical drive works. Also make sure to get all of the computer’s installation DVDs. These discs tend to sit idle until the one extremely stressful day that you really, really need them. If your Mac’s software is on the fritz, those DVDs are probably going to be the first thing you look for—an entire OS reinstall can fix many a problem

Third Eye

You could also meet somewhere with wifi and the mac should connect so you can check serial number on Apple site to get the exact age of laptop. The serial is located by going to Finder(desktop) and clicking on Apple symbol (top left corner)> select "about this mac". Click the "more info" button. Serial will be last entry on pop up page.

Copy and paste to this website ...http://www.chipmunk.nl/klantenservice/applemodel.html

It's dutch but the answer comes up in English.

A bit long winded but I hope that helps!

conor.hogan.2

Download and check coconut battery, I have a macbook that is over 2 years old with over 1000 charges and the battery last for over 3 hours and can get up to four on it still (plastic white one thats not unibody)

Liameter

You don't say which model you want but, when I bought mine off eBay, I made darn sure it was the one (white not unibody) that has a Firewire port, airport card, 2.13GHz processor, Superdrive and at least 160GB HDD and at least 2GB SDRAM. (The SDRAM is least important because it can be swapped.)

My MacBook is the Sept 2009 model BTW.