Kick the Tyres First: The Used PC Checks Worth Doing Before You Hand Over Cash

There is something genuinely satisfying about a well-bought used PC. A two-year-old business laptop that cost £900 new can change hands for £250, and with an SSD inside it will still feel quick for everyday browsing, email and iPlayer. But the second-hand market is uneven, and the difference between a bargain and a headache usually comes down to twenty minutes of checking that most buyers skip because they feel awkward about it.

You should not feel awkward. Anyone selling honestly will happily let you look. Here is the routine we would follow ourselves, in the order we would do it.

Before you set off: ask these questions in the chat

Sellers who dodge simple questions are telling you something. Get answers in writing before you travel.

• What is the exact model number? A photo of the sticker on the underside of a laptop or the back of a desktop is ideal.
• How old is it, and did you buy it new? Do you still have the receipt?
• Is it the original charger, and is it included?
• Is Windows activated, and is it Home or Pro?
• Has the battery ever been replaced?
• Why are you selling it?
• Is there a BIOS password, or was it ever a work machine?
• Can I see it switched on and working before I pay? If the answer is no, stop there.

Set the meeting up sensibly

Meet in daylight somewhere public and busy — a supermarket car park, a shopping centre, a police station front desk if your local force offers that. Take a friend if you can. Ask to plug it in or, for a laptop, sit somewhere with a table and a socket. Allow half an hour and do not let anyone hurry you along. Bring your phone (for a hotspot and a torch), a USB stick, and a pair of wired earphones if you have some.

Check one: does it boot like it means it?

Time it from pressing the button to a usable desktop. Under a minute is perfectly normal. Three minutes of a spinning circle, a black screen that sits there, or a blue 'checking disk' screen are all signs of a tired drive — or worse. A quick machine usually means a cared-for machine.

Check two: the Windows licence question

Open Settings > System > Activation. You want to see that Windows is activated, which edition it is, and ideally that it is 'linked to your Microsoft account' as a digital licence. That licence travels with the hardware, so it will still work after you wipe the machine.

Be cautious if the seller has freshly installed Windows and hands you a USB stick 'in case you need to reinstall' with an odd-looking tool on it. Genuine reinstalls come from Microsoft's own media. A machine activated by something unofficial will often deactivate itself within weeks, and you will be buying a licence you thought you already had.

Check three: what is actually inside

Go to Settings > System > About for the processor and amount of memory, and compare it with the listing. Then open Task Manager > Performance > Disk — it will say SSD or HDD. In 2026, a laptop with a mechanical hard drive will feel slow no matter how good the rest of it is, so factor in an upgrade or walk away. Eight gigabytes of memory is the sensible minimum for Windows 11 with a browser open.

While you are there, look at Settings > System > Storage > Advanced storage settings > Disks & volumes, which shows a health status for the drive. Anything other than 'Healthy' is a polite reason to decline.

Check four: battery health in about two minutes

This is the single most useful test for a used laptop, and almost nobody does it. Open Command Prompt (type 'cmd' in the Start menu) and type:

powercfg /batteryreport

Press Enter. It saves an HTML file and tells you where — usually in your user folder. Open it and compare Design Capacity with Full Charge Capacity. If the full charge figure is below about 70% of the design figure, the battery is tired. A replacement is usually £40 to £90 fitted, so adjust your offer accordingly rather than being put off entirely.

Then do the obvious thing: unplug it and check it does not instantly die.

Check five: the parts that actually break

Work round the machine methodically. It takes ten minutes and catches most faults.

• Screen. Open a full-screen white image, then black, then a bright colour. Look for dead pixels, blotches, pressure marks and any flicker when you tilt the lid.
• Hinges. Open and close it fully. They should be firm, not floppy, and the casing should not crack or separate.
• Keyboard. Open Notepad and press every key, including the function row.
• Trackpad. Click it, drag, and try a two-finger scroll.
• Speakers. Play something at full volume and listen for rattle or distortion.
• Webcam. Open the Camera app and check the privacy shutter, if it has one.
• Headphone jack. Plug in your own earphones.
• Every USB port. Use your stick in each one, and check the SD card slot and HDMI if present.
• Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. Connect to the seller's network or your phone hotspot, and pair your earphones.
• Charger. Is it the brand's own, is the cable frayed, and does the machine actually charge?

Check six: heat and noise

Run a video for five minutes and listen. A fan that ramps up and stays screaming, or hot air blasting from a vent clogged with fluff, suggests it has never been cleaned. Not a dealbreaker on a desktop — it is a five-minute job — but on a thin laptop it can mean an awkward strip-down.

Check seven: other people's fingerprints

Before you pay, look at Settings > Accounts > Access work or school. If a company manages the device, it can be locked remotely and you will be left with a brick. Also check that the BIOS does not ask for a password on startup — restart and tap F2 or Del to see — and that no tracking software is installed.

The cleanest arrangement is that you perform the factory reset yourself once it is yours, using Settings > System > Recovery > Reset this PC, choosing to remove everything. If a seller insists on resetting it first, that is fine too, but confirm afterwards that Windows is still activated, since a digital licence is tied to the hardware rather than the install.

Listings that should make you slow down

• Stock photos instead of pictures of the actual machine.
• 'Sealed box, no receipt' — for a second-hand item, that combination rarely adds up.
• A price well below everything else comparable. There is usually a reason.
• A seller who will not do a demo, or who wants a deposit before you have seen it.
• 'Courier only, I am abroad' — a classic pattern in marketplace scams.
• Pressure to decide on the spot. Genuine sellers have other buyers; they do not need to rush you.
• A story that does not match the machine. Ask what they used it for, then check the drive and the ports for the answer.

Paying, and the paperwork

Cash on collection with a written receipt is still the simplest, safest route. The receipt does not need to be fancy: a note with the date, the model, the serial number, the price and both names is plenty. Bank transfer is normal too, but only once you are standing there with the machine in front of you. Avoid 'friends and family' payments, avoid deposits to hold an item you have not seen, and avoid anything that involves sending money to a courier.

Your rights, in brief

If you buy from a trader — a shop, a refurbisher, a reseller with a business page — the Consumer Rights Act 2015 applies. Goods must be as described and of satisfactory quality, and you have a 30-day short-term right to reject faulty goods for a full refund. Buy remotely from a trader and you generally get 14 days to change your mind.

Private sellers are different. They must still describe the item accurately, but there is no automatic right to return something that simply is not to your taste. So the checks above are not paranoia — they are your protection.

And finally: the calm walk-away

If something feels off, you are allowed to say 'thanks, I will have a think' and leave. You do not owe anyone an explanation, and there is always another listing next week. The best used PC is the one you checked properly before you paid.