I picked up an old ThinkPad from a thrift store in Austin for 40 bucks. The keys were sticky and had some gunk in the cracks. I Googled around and tried dabbing a little distilled vinegar on a microfiber cloth instead of using rubbing alcohol like everyone says. It took off that grime in one pass and the keys feel smooth now. Has anyone else found a random household cleaner that actually works for fixing up secondhand gadgets?
My friend Dave kept telling me to stop messing with settings and just buy a USB adapter for my old ThinkPad because the internal card was dying. I finally did it and my download speed went from 5 Mbps to 45 Mbps almost instantly. Has anyone else had a cheap dongle save a laptop from the recycling bin?
Picked up an Asus ROG from some guy last spring, thought I got a steal. Turns out the battery only lasts 20 minutes unplugged and the screen has a dead pixel cluster I didn't notice til I got home. Has anyone else had luck getting a refund on marketplace stuff or is it just a loss?
Honestly I thought refurbs were just someone else's junk with a fresh sticker on it. Then I grabbed a 2017 ThinkPad for $180 from a seller on eBay with 30 day returns and it's been running solid for over 2 years now. Anyone else had a refurb that surprised them?
I have this 2015 Dell XPS that would shut down after 20 minutes of playing any game. I read somewhere that stacking a few pennies under the rubber feet could lift it for better airflow. I put 4 pennies under each corner, two stacks high, and now the fans barely spin up. Has anyone else tried weird shims or spacers like this?
Picked up a T430 for free last week, guy said it wouldn't turn on. Turned out it was stuck in a boot loop from a bad RAM stick I didn't think to check first. Tried swapping the hard drive, reseating the keyboard, even pulled the CMOS battery before I finally just tried one stick at a time. Anyone else waste a whole afternoon on something that simple?
I needed a cheap laptop for basic stuff like browsing and spreadsheets. Picked up a 2019 ThinkPad T490 off Facebook Marketplace for $60, then my cousin told me to get a new $200 HP from Walmart instead. Honestly, the ThinkPad was built way better, ran faster, and even had a better keyboard. After 2 months the HP started lagging on Chrome tabs and the hinge got wobbly. Has anyone else had way better luck with old business laptops over those budget new ones?
Saw a weird haze under my desk lamp last week and a friend told me I stripped the anti-reflective coating with ammonia. Has anyone else accidentally wrecked a screen finish with the wrong cleaner?
I got a used Dell Latitude off eBay for $350 back in December. It ran quiet for the first week, then started making this grinding noise whenever I opened Chrome. I finally took the back cover off and found the fan blade was cracked. I swapped it out with a $12 replacement from Amazon, and now it runs smooth again. Has anyone else had a seller hide minor damage like that?
Bought a used ThinkPad T480 for $200 and couldn't even get the back cover off without drilling out three screws, has anyone else run into Lenovo using thread locker that makes zero sense for a user-serviceable part?