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Tips for buying Used MacBook

     Apple's MacBook are stylish and most popular, but also come at a high retail price that may be too much for some people. Now a days Apple is offering discounts for refurbished systems. Another option is to purchase a second-hand system from someone who has upgraded their older MacBook.

While most of the refurbished Mac systems come with a one year manufacturer warranty including 90 days of free technical support. This is same for new products also, but this not likely in the case of a used system, so when you buy one you should make sure it is working properly.

Buying used computers is like a hit or miss situation, but there are a few things to ensure the system is working and is in good condition.

First you have to test the system before you purchase it, or buy in a dealing to return it if there is a problem. Also make sure the system has its recovery DVDs with it. DVD’s are usually gray discs that were sold with the system, If the system did not originally ship with OS X Lion. These discs contain a hardware checking test software which is capable to run on any used system, and also contain the OS version which is to be kept with them.

Take the following items if you can, when you go to see the system

A USB and a FireWire hard drive preload it with a fully updated version of OS, at least Snow    Leopard, but OS X Lion is preferable.

A robust drive management tool

    

            External Headphone

            External microphone

Movie DVD or a music CD

With the above listed items, you are capable to test most of the system's functions and check for problems. You can do this using the following steps:

Check its age

     Most of the Apple's systems should work fine for years. Most of Apple's systems looks quite similar, and therefore it is difficult to identify, that is a system from 2009 will physically look like one from 2011. Apple has a number of resources that will help you in identifying different Mac models. In general I recommend to avoid systems that are more than two and half years old, but these specifications depend on the user's needs and the prices being offered. 

Is there any physical damage

    Check the system again and again for physical damage. Check the screw heads that hold the cases together to see if someone has opened it, which indicate they were too rough on the system while replacing the RAM or a hard drive. Make sure the case isn't severely scratched or bent. The display lid match up to the bottom of the case. The system should not have any loose feeling components in it.

Does it boot

    Be sure the system boots up properly. The system must make a boot chime when you press the power button, and then it should boot in to an OS X installation. The speed of this process varies depending on the system, but it should finally load to an OS X desktop. If OS X is not installed in the Mac, then you can use your external hard drive with you

Firmware password set

     Apple's systems have a hardware based password, if enabled, it will prevent the system from booting to Safe Mode or Single user mode. The password can be reset on some systems by removing a hardware component such as RAM and starting the computer. This method is more difficult in its recent systems. So make sure that firmware password is disabled when you purchase the system. To check for a firmware password, start the system and immediately press the Option key after you hear the boot voice. If a boot menu with available boot drives and arrow buttons appear, then there is no password set; however. If it displays a password prompt with a lock icon then there is password already set.

Check the display

     Now open a word processing document so that you will get a white surface to move around on the display, it helps to check the screen to make sure all of the pixels are working properly. You can check each RGB component of the pixels by drawing a pure green, blue, and red box and moving them around on the display. If a pixel is damaged, then it shows a darker or different colored spot. Sometimes one or two dead pixels are unavoidable, if there are groups of damaged pixels then there is a big display problem.

 

Check the keyboard 

Now you can check the keyboard by using the same document to type each key character and make sure it is working properly. You can also use the system's keyboard viewer panel to make sure that each key press is properly identified, which work for non-character keys like the function, escape, and modifier keys.

 

Check the trackpad 

     Now check the trackpad and make sure that it makes a proper click wherever you depress it, and also that it tracks smoothly. Apple's multi-touch trackpads are made of glass, so they are a bit difficult to break, sometimes this can happen and result in a crack which can be easily identified. It is important tocheck the edges and corners of the trackpad.

 

Check the FireWire, USB, and audio ports 

     Attach the external hard drive to each USB and FireWire port on the system and ensure it is properly identified. Also check headphones and the microphone jack, to ensure they work and automatically switch the input source or output source when a device is attached (open the Sound system preferences to see these switch behaviors and test the microphone setup). In addition to testing an external microphone, test the internal one as well.

also

 

Test the iSight camera

Test the optical drive 

Check Battery health

Check Drive errors

Test system settings


Hardware tests