Recently I was in need of a laptop and decided to save some money by buying a used one from a private seller on Craigslist. Here are some of the things that I did to make sure I was getting what I was paying for.

1. Ask for the serial number and if the seller was the original owner. In my case, I was buying a used Dell Latitude D630. Most Dell products have a service tag number which can be traced back to the original purchaser. If the seller doesn’t want to give you this information – they may be hiding something and you should look else ware.
2. Verify the information. If you contact Dell support and give them the information, they will verify the purchaser with the service tag and product. With IBM and HP products this may be more difficult because they owner may not have registered the product.
3. Check the warranty.
   • For Dell, click here then click Warranty Information (on the left).
   • For HP, click here.
   • For IBM, click here.
4. Get pictures. If you want to verify it is in working condition, ask for a picture of it “working.” Make sure it doesn’t have physical damage.
5. Clarify with the seller if the system comes with or without the manuals and CDs. I recommend that you make sure you receive as much of the original packaging, documentation, and CDs as possible. Make sure you receive the CD(s) for Windows XP.
6. Pay with a traceable source of funds like a check or PayPal.
7. If you are not prepared to do these things – buy refurbished equipment directly from the manufacturer. It may cost a little bit more – but the peace of mind will be worth it.
   • Offical Dell Outlet Store
   • Offical IBM/Lenovo Outlet Store
   • Official HP Outlet Store

Happy Shopping!

If you have a full time employee who serves as your “IT Person” or you have an outside firm here are 5 things EVERY business owner should know about their computer system:

Read the rest of this entry

Like many people I know – I receive hundreds of emails per day. It is a challenge to manage the information included in them while at the same time, keeping your inbox free of clutter.

Read the rest of this entry

I have a new server for our testbed and I am installing Windows Small Business Server 2008 on it for the first time. I thought I would make it farther into my install before seeing my first error message.

Read the rest of this entry

According to an email received by InformationWeek from Microsoft – Microsoft will extend Windows XP downgrade rights to larger OEMs until July 31, 2009.

You can read the full article here. 

This means that companies like Dell can continue to offer a Windows XP “Downgrade” option on select new computer purchases. From what we have seen on Dell’s web site, this includes most of their business laptops (Latitude) and business desktops (Optiplex).

Our customers should keep in mind that an upgrade to Vista or whatever the next version of Windows is (Windows 7) the decision to upgrade is mostly unavoidable and you will have to upgrade SOMETIME.

We have been using Vista since its release in January of 2007. Despite some initial problems with drivers not working properly – we like it. Vista will work with most of your existing business applications if they are a current version. The only reason we would recommend that you NOT upgrade is if you feel the new operating system will create confusion for your less than tech savvy employees. Vista is better than Windows XP but there is a learning curve to understand the differences between the two.

For the record, we do not recommend that customers upgrade their computers which are currently running Windows XP to Windows Vista – but on new computer purchases, it is OK to purchase your new computers with Vista (make sure it is Vista Business).

Read the rest of this entry