Refurbished HP ProBook

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Yesterday we took delivery of a refurbished HP – ProBook 14″ Laptop with an Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB Memory, and a 256GB Solid State Drive. It is Model is 640 G2 – 31211.

It cost $304 US delivered and comes with a one-year warrantee.

It was refurbished by Joy Systems a “Microsoft authorized refurbisher.”

The PC was delivered with only Windows 10 Pro – no other apps.

Setup went smoothly – including updating Windows and HP drivers.

We also installed an old copy of Microsoft Office Home and Business 2012 on the machine.

Did we make a mistake purchasing a “remanufactured” laptop?

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HP laptop located on Amazon at $229.02, new, says Windows 10 in header, Windows 11 in description, Home:

https://www.amazon.com/HP-Micro-edge-Microsoft-14-dq0040nr-Snowflake/dp/B0947BJ67M/ref=sr_1_5?crid=9MH0IPVAVH0D&keywords=windows+10+laptop&qid=1680102561&sprefix=windows+10+laptop%2Caps%2C147&sr=8-5

Apples and oranges?

Carpe Diem {with backup and coffee}
offline▸ Win10Pro 2004.19041.572 x64 i3-3220 RAM8GB HDD Firefox83.0b3 WindowsDefender
offline▸ Acer TravelMate P215-52 RAM8GB Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1265 x64 i5-10210U SSD Firefox106.0 MicrosoftDefender
online▸ Win11Pro 22H2.22621.1778 x64 i5-9400 RAM16GB HDD Firefox114.0b8 MicrosoftDefender

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I have purchases refurbished before with no issues.
What concerns do you have? There is a process vendors have to go through to be certified as a refurbished vendor.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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We have now purchased two refurbished PCs

• The HP – ProBook 14″ with a 256GB SSD and
• A HP – ProBook 14” with a 480GB SSD

We got the PCs to use as an experiment.

One of our staff will be hospitalized, a significant distance from their home, for an extended period and we want to set up one PC for use within the hospital environment and another for the employee’s spouse while staying blocks from the medical facility.

We had significant success during the pandemic equipping our employs with home based workstations.

This situation is different in that it will be for a limited amount of time and the employee will not be expected to work while under medical treatment. However, they can “call in” if they want.

Key apps we are looking to install on the ProBooks include:

• Microsoft Home & Business 2016 including Outlook,
• A VPN,
• Virus software,
• An ability to make phone calls and send/receive text messages directly from the computer,
• Watch cable television,
• Etc.

We wanted something that was more than a Android tablet or cell phone.

What we do not want is to have to service the PCs the while they are “in the field.”

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One possible additional requirement might be cellular communications for the hospital-based machine. If my experience from 2 years ago in a large Canadian hospital is typical, the WiFi service available to patients is quite poor and unable to sustain streaming.

Good luck.

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Kathy Stevens

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Phil F

We have not shared your experience with poor WiFi service at our local hospital but it may be the case at the facility where our colleague is going.  We will check. Thanks for the heads up.

An alternative may be a hot spot provided by our internet service provider.

We were hoping to break free of having to carry two devices, a computer and a cell phone.

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My stay was in an older facility, built long before the existence of Internet. If your colleague is going to a recently-built facility, the probability of better service will be enhanced.

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On the ATT and the Verizon site is a Lenovo laptop (my favorite laptop) that comes with built in LTE so you don’t have to have two devices.  You can buy it over time so the cost is reasonable.  But if you want to have a good laptop that is self contained, I highly recommend it.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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Kathy Stevens

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A pleasant surprise, the Refurbished HP – ProBooks came with Broadband wireless (WWAN).

Now I just have to learn how to set it up.

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On the ATT site you go to the “bring your own” section and rattle off the IMEI (as I recall).  You have to add another line, you may need a SIM.  You may have to call into support and be patient as they find you the right division.  On mine it’s a mobile share plan and I just add another device to my plan and off it goes.  Normally you have to buy a certain number of Gigs and it’s not unlimited.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady

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It looks as if internet phone services have apps that allow you to make phone calls from your PC.

One example is the Vonage Desktop Application.

“So, what exactly is Vonage Desktop? With this app, you can use your business phone system directly from your desktop computer or laptop and conveniently handle all your business communications right from the desktop where you get your work done every day. It’s included at no extra charge on you Vonage Business Communications account. The app lets you make phone calls and send texts from your Vonage phone number using the integrated softphone, look at your contact history with clients and colleagues, check for missed calls, listen to voicemails, and more.”

https://www.vonage.com/resources/articles/vonage-desktop-application-use-your-phone-from-your-desktop-computer-or-laptop/

Will check it out during the week.

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Just ran into the first negative associated with the recently acquired refurbished HP – ProBook – “This PC doesn’t currently meet the minimum system requirements for Windows 11″!

Will have to look under the hood to see if it has TPM2.0 or is capable of running TPM 2.0

Also just spent a couple of hours removing bloatware from the laptop. With a 256GB SSD we need all of the storage space we can squeeze into the thing.

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Now the “big box” store that we ordered the second HP – ProBook 14″ Refurbished Laptop (Intel Core i5 – 8GB Memory – 480GB Solid State Drive) has advised that its shipping has been delayed by perhaps two more weeks.

Also, the warentee on the ProBook 14” Refurbished laptop that has been delivered  (Intel 6^th Generation Core i5 processor, 8 GB RAM, and 256 GB solid-state drive) is different than what was posted on the vendors website.

We are now looking for a new vendor.

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geekdom

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While cleaning up the paper work for the refurbished HP – ProBook 14″ Laptops with Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB Memory, and Solid State Drives we purchased from BestBuy we discovered that the warranty period is in fact 1 year not the 90 days that we had assumed.

To date, all is well with the refurbished computers.

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We are now well along in setting up the two refurbished Windows 10 Pro HP 14” ProBooks we recently purchased including:

• One configured with an Intel Core i5, 8GB memory, and a 480GB Solid State Drive and
• One with an Intel i5 processor, 8 GB memory, and a 256 GB solid-state drive.

So far so good. We have:

• Updated the systems drivers and other HP software;
• Updated Windows 10 Pro;
• Installed Revo Uninstaller;
• Installed,
  • Microsoft Office Home and Business 2021 on one and
  • WordPerfect Office 2021 on the other;
• Installed Thunderbird on the PC with WordPerfect; and
• Installed Acronis True Image for Western Digital on both and cloned their SSDs onto external drives for safe keeping.

The next step is to install the Vonage Business Web/desktop app so that we can make calls and receive texts directly from the computers.

Then we will go in and finish removing bloatware using Revo Uninstaller.

Overall, despite earlier reservations, we are happy with the refurbished ProBooks.

Particularly since similar new ProBooks (on the HP site) start at $1,000 vs the $300 we paid for the refurbished PCs.

Our only regret is that the machines we purchased came with 90-day warranties vs a full year if we had purchased the refurbished ProBooks from HP.

Will we purchase refurbished machines again? It depends. The two refurbished units we have been setting up are for a special purpose and will used on a limited basis.

I doubt that we will purchase refurbished machines to support our normal business activities.

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Correction, the machines we purchased came with full year not the 90-day warranties described above.

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