I was previously contacted by a customer who had bought a reconditioned PC via an Amazon seller. I was asked to setup and configure the PC for email and printing etc.

The customer had bought the PC online for under £100 - which at first glance may seem to be a fair price. It was a Dell 3020, small form factor with a fresh Windows 10 installation, but nothing else.

When did the problems start? 

Immediately. The system did start up ok and loaded the desktop, however the task manager was showing disk utilisation at a continuous 100% which did not let up. The system had been connected to the internet and was busy downloading windows and other updates. On a 4GB system with a SATA drive, things were taking an age.

After a couple of hours and with the realisation that it could take many more, I forced a shutdown of the PC and took it back to base where it could be worked on, away from the customer's premises.

Did things get worse?

Yes. After updates were finally installed, it failed the Windows 11 readiness check. In addition, the system had a soft restart issue which was highlighted and unresolved on Dell's website forum by multiple owners. In short, the system was obsolete.

After further checks it was found that the PC had a fresh Windows 10 installation in the early part of 2024, but had seen service in 2022 and it is likely it was a post pandemic system, whereby older and perhaps already retired systems were put back in use by businesses to enable home working and then subsequently sold off as staff went back to the office.

Things to check before buying

If you are thinking of buying a reconditioned PC or laptop, check with the seller before payment is made. Windows 10 will be end of life on 14th October 2025, so ensure your purchase is either running Windows 11, or is ready for the upgrade. 8GB Ram is a minimum and SSD drives are much more responsive than the older SATA disk drives. If your pre-purchase questions fail any of those 3 requirements then you should avoid buying.

When purchasing reconditioned systems it is very much a case of buyer beware. They may be offered at little cost, but in the main they will bring major headache.