How to check the serial number on a refurbished laptop

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There are a number of ways to identify refurbished laptops versus new ones. The most popular ways to do this include looking for obvious wear and tear on the outside (may be tough to find), but also include running the computer’s serial number against a know database. The former is by far the easiest way to do this; many manufacturers do keep a database of the laptops they’ve put out that have been refurbished; I know Dell does this, as well as the other large manufacturers like ASUS and Acer. If in doubt, go ahead and call up their help number and they’ll help you out. Generally refurbished systems will be “flagged” in the manufacturer’s computers as refurbished, but sometimes the company that did the reconditioning will append a letter or a number to the original serial number to show it as a refurb.  The former is probably the most common, though. Again, if you’re in doubt go ahead and call the manufacturer to see if they can’t help you out.

Sometimes you may run into a laptop where the serial number doesn’t actually give you a clue as to if it’s been refurbished or not. This is often the case if a third-party company actually did the reconditioning, though most of them are supposed to comply with the tracking requirements of the original manufacturer. If this is the case, there are a few other things you can check:

1. The first thing you can do is check to see if there are any wear marks or scratches where people would have been touching the laptop the most. Check the keyboard keys, LCD screen, etc. for any signs of prior use.

2. This was an interesting idea I just read about online: Check the small screws holding on the access panels on the bottom for any abnormal wear as well. When companies do their refurbishment they’ll take those panels off and do whatever they need to do to bring that laptop back up to solid working order. If you see wear on those screws, there’s a good chance the laptop has been opened before.

3. Use your nose and smell for an industrial-style cleaner odor. This is tough to describe but the best I can say is that you’ll know it when you smell it. It certainly does make the laptop smell differently than new laptops that haven’t had that treatment done.

Those are the three that seem to work the best. Of course, if you can get the company to run the serial number, that’ll be your best bet. Good luck.

Shopping:

ASUS G71GX-RX05 17.1-Inch Refurbished Laptop - Black/Red
Panasonic Toughbook CF-29HT 13.3-Inch Silver Rugged Laptop (Refurbished)
Dell Latitude D610 Laptop Wireless Computer (Refurbished)
IBM Lenovo : T30 Laptop - Refurbished
Acer Aspire AS7540-1284 LX.PJD02.024 Refurbished Laptop PC - AMD Athlon X2 Dual Core M300 2.0GHz, 3GB DDR2, 320GB HDD, DVDRW, 17.3" TFT Display, Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, Blue

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