Used Laptop Checklist: 12 Things to Check Before You Pay
Battery health, drive hours, hidden BIOS and company locks, dead pixels. The 12 checks a refurbisher runs on every used laptop, and how to do each one yourself in a few minutes.
A used business laptop, such as a ThinkPad, Latitude or EliteBook, is one of the best-value machines you can buy, as long as you check it properly. The problems that cost buyers money are rarely visible. A battery that shows 100% can last 20 minutes. A "new" SSD can have thousands of hours on it. And a laptop can work perfectly until the day you reset it and a company login screen locks you out.
These are the checks we run on every laptop before it goes up for sale. You can do most of them in front of the seller in a few minutes.
Shortcut: our free Reforge Inspection app runs most of these checks automatically on any Windows laptop (battery, drive, processor under load, graphics, screen, keyboard and licensing) and gives you a report you keep. It's one file with nothing to install, so you can run it from a pen drive at the seller's place.
Battery and power
1. Battery health, not battery charge. 100% is the charge level, not the health. A worn battery charges to 100% of a much smaller capacity. Open Command Prompt and type:
powercfg /batteryreport
It saves a report and tells you where. Open it and compare Design capacity with Full charge capacity. The further apart they are, the less runtime you'll get. The report also shows the cycle count on most laptops.
2. The charger. Check that it's the right wattage for that model, and preferably the original. A weak charger can make a laptop throttle or charge very slowly.
Storage and performance
3. Drive health. Install CrystalDiskInfo (free) and look at the health status, power-on hours and total data written. A drive sold as "new" with thousands of hours on it isn't new.
4. SSD, not hard disk. In 2026 a laptop that boots from a mechanical hard disk will feel slow whatever its processor is. Check in Task Manager → Performance.
5. RAM: how much, and whether it's soldered. 8 GB is the practical minimum for everyday work. Ask whether there's a free slot for upgrades; on many thin laptops some or all of the memory is soldered and can't be upgraded.
6. Processor under load. Run something heavy for a few minutes and watch the temperature and clock speed. A laptop that gets very hot and slows right down usually needs cleaning and fresh thermal paste, at the least.
Screen, keyboard and body
7. Dead pixels and pressure marks. Open a full-screen white image, then black, then red, green and blue. Look for dots that stay one colour and for patchy bright areas.
8. Every key. Open any online keyboard tester and press every key, including Fn combinations, volume and brightness. Check the trackpad's left and right click.
9. Hinges and body. Open and close the lid several times. A loose or stiff hinge, or cracks near the hinges, will get worse.
10. Ports, Wi-Fi, webcam and mic. Plug a pen drive into every USB port, connect to Wi-Fi, and record a short clip with the webcam and microphone.
The locks nobody mentions
11. BIOS passwords and company management. This is the one that catches people out. Ex-corporate laptops can still be registered to the company's device management. The laptop looks fine on the day you buy it; then you reset Windows and it asks for the company's login, and you're locked out. Some also have a BIOS supervisor password or anti-theft tracking left switched on.
Before you pay:
- Restart, enter the BIOS setup and check that it opens without a password.
- In Windows, open Settings → Accounts → Access work or school. It should be empty.
- Ask the seller to show you that a fresh Windows setup gets past the first screens without a company login.
12. Windows activation and the bill. Check Settings → System → Activation. Then ask for a bill. A refurbisher selling "with warranty" should give you a GST invoice and the warranty in writing.
Used vs refurbished
"Refurbished" is often just a word in the listing. A real refurbished laptop has been tested, had its worn parts replaced, been graded honestly and comes with a written warranty. If the seller can't tell you the battery health, the drive health and what was replaced, it's a used laptop being sold under a better name.
Every laptop in our laptop section goes through this inspection with the readings published on the listing. See how we grade cosmetic condition and what our warranty covers.