Question Windows locked, safe to buy this laptop?

Discussion in 'Windows - General discussion' started by joegeek, Sep 11, 2018.

  1. joegeek

    joegeek Member

    Joined:
    Jan 18, 2008
    Messages:
    87
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    16
    My buddy has a nice older Dell Studio, he turned it on and it showed this

    https://imgur.com/QGQIb03


    I have an old Windows 7 disk I have used several times, do you think buying this laptop is safe. I mean 50 bucks is such a deal
     
    joegeek, Sep 11, 2018
    #1
  2. aldan

    aldan Active member

    Joined:
    Mar 24, 2007
    Messages:
    1,725
    Likes Received:
    46
    Trophy Points:
    78
    worth a try for sure.
     
    aldan, Sep 11, 2018
    #2
  3. scorpNZ

    scorpNZ Active member

    Joined:
    Mar 23, 2005
    Messages:
    4,266
    Likes Received:
    63
    Trophy Points:
    78
    Waste of 50 bux if it's stuffed. It's not the OS you should be concerned about. YouTube has numerous vids that he most likely already tried to no avail. Give him 10 bux instead at least you can get money back by selling it's ram & hdd for it's scrap value (i don't mean scrap value from a metal merchant i mean the value you can get for an hdd etc) Even then the hdd may be stuffed. Run a linux live cd on it that'll tell you what you need to know. Hardware is ok but hdd may be suspect or windows is corrupted
     
    scorpNZ, Sep 11, 2018
    #3
  4. Sophocles

    Sophocles Senior member

    Joined:
    Mar 1, 2003
    Messages:
    5,985
    Likes Received:
    77
    Trophy Points:
    128
    What is the laptop's hardware? If the hardware is decent then ask him if you can have it for a night to just to look it over. Since you can't really do any harm that hasn't already been done, try to do a system recovery, and if that fails, then a Windows install. Also look to see if the original Windows key is stamped onto it somewhere because that gives you a Windows license for a complete reinstall. Look to see what the laptop sold for when it was on the market. If it looks like good quality yesteryear stuff then it might be worth a look at, especially if you can knock a few bucks off of it.
     
    Sophocles, Sep 11, 2018
    #4
  5. TekPete

    TekPete Member

    Joined:
    Jul 27, 2003
    Messages:
    13
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    11
    It's probably a HDD failure. Although it could be anything (HDD, CDROM Drive, Memory etc). You can't rely on the accuracy of Blue Screen error reports from Micro$oft. A while ago I was installing XP on a computer - it failed near the end with a report saying there was a problem with the HDD, which I replaced - same problem, eventually it turned out to be a problem with the CD/DVD Drive.

    It's annoying that Windows doesn't diagnose properly and report what has actually failed.

    If the HDD has failed then you'll need to replace it and you'll then need to find/purchase an OS install disc (it might not work well with Windows 7).

    As I say it could be almost anything. It'd be helpful to know what the seller was doing when this happened; Did they just turn it on? Or were they (re)installing an OS?

    It's a gamble so if I were you I'd not pay more than $30. This could be a long-term project requiring some outlay of money.
     
    TekPete, Sep 12, 2018
    #5

Share This Page