Looking to get a solid, cheaper, used laptop that could be a few years old. I have a friend (Oregon) who is diagnosed with cancer and she would like to get a laptop. She's emphasized that she doesn't want lots of bells and whistles. `Think she just wants to email her family in Indiana, surf, and maybe do some productivity with Office software. No gaming, etc. My big thing is that the laptop is reliable & has decent power for surfing, and she's not constantly coming to me for help because something's not working. If any of you could give reasonably specific recommendations (like the full model name/number, not just "Toshiba!" or "Acer!"), that would really be terrific to get me on track and not spend 6000 more hours going through eBay or other review sites trying to figure out what to do. Or other ideas. This is kinda my template for power & features, etc. It certainly doesn't have to be perfectly matched: 1.8+ GHtz processor 256MB (512MB would be nice) MB RAM 30GB+ HD DVD/CDRW Combo decent video card 14 in or + screen XP Home Office Suite would be nice Integrated Wireless 802.11b 56K modem Battery life last from 2+ hours USB 2.0 at least 2 hopefully the computer doesn't get too hot. I could probably spend up to around $400. please let me know your ideas & recommendations? Jim

Amazon.com is a good place to look for used/refurbed laptops. Here's a decent one in your price range: http://www.amazon.com/Dell-D600-14-...

Here's a couple of cheaper ones: http://www.amazon.com/REFURBISHED-L... http://www.amazon.com/Pre-owned-Del...

Jam, thanks for those suggestions. I didn't know those Dell's were out there. I'm fine with refurbished. They do fit in most all of my 'template.' My only concern is that many, not all, of the reviews there noted that those Dells had a lot of problems including becoming sluggish & the laptop heating up...? *** One laptop I ran into tonight on eBay was an: IBM Thinkpad 1.73 Ghz 1 Gig RAM Centrino M R52 http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dl... using the eBay "completed" feature, they seem to end up selling for right under $500 which is out of my price range a bit, but I looked at some reviews and they are very, very favorable. Have you or anyone heard of their qualities, etc? Jim

http://geo.craigslist.org/iso/us/or BTW, if you are willing to pay up to $400 for a used laptop you might as well pony up a couple of $100 & get something like this notebook. - Intel Pentium dual-core T2080 - 1MB Cache/1.73GHz/533MHz FSB - Genuine Windows® XP Home - 15.4 inch Wide Screen XGA Display - 1GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz, 2 Dimm - 160GB 5400 RPM SATA Hard Drive - 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) - DL DVD+R capable - 256MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 7300 TurboCache* - Dell Wireless 1390 802.11b/g Mini Card (54Mbps) - Integrated Audio - Media Direct 3.0 - 53 WHr 6-cell Lithium

I have both a Dell Latitude C610, and a Thinkpad T-21. The Dell runs faster, (more CPU speed), but I have had a problem with the cursor moving on it's own. Fixed with software though. But that's the only problem that I've had with it. The Thinkpad hasn't given me any problems what so ever. I can't believe that the Dell is going for that cheap!! Emachines T-2200, Sound Blaster live 5.1, ATI 9200se main comp Asus A7N8X, AMD 2500 Barton, 1 gig Corsair, Geforce 4200ti