good value

It has served me well the few weeks I have had it now. The wi-fi is keeping me connected as I'm typing this from a hotel room. The processor is nice and fast. There are four high-speed USB connections. The unit is solidly built (perhaps a mite heavy).



My only criticisms are as follows:



The screen resolution doesn't look quite as sharp as on my desktop monitor. I'd say maybe 85% as sharp so it's usually barely noticeable. The other thing is that the soundcard doesn't have all the mixer capabilities you might expect to find in a desktop. I don't know if this is common in laptops and I sort of stumbled upon the issue. But I got around it by purchasing an external mixer from the Guitar Center.



I initially intended it only as a travel companion but have since begun using it in my recording studio (with Cakewalk Music Creator). Oh and to play SimCity (which doesn't work on Vista!) All in all I am quite satisfied with it.



The seller shipped it out immediately and it arrived by FedEx or UPS (I forget which) in a matter of days (two or three as I recall -- it was quick).More detail ...

Non-transerrable XP License

I bought one of these laptops two months ago. It has been working just fine. Today Microsoft told me that the license is not valid. It has a valid certificate of authenticity on the back but does not have a second "refurbished" CoA. When I look at the internal System Properties/General tab it says "XP Corporate" which means it was covered under a volume/site license which can not be transferred or sold. I will probably have to buy a fresh copy of XP ($150) and re-install.



Before I made the order I checked to see that the advertisement specified "Genuine Windows XP". I also checked the CoA when it arrived. When the Microsoft updater offered to run "Genuine Advantage" to check the authenticity I confidently thought "sure go right ahead." Now every time I restart I get a big message that says I am a victim of software piracy. I expect the operating system will eventually simply stop running.More detail ...

I'm writing this review from it...

HIGHLY SATISFIED!!! I bought my refurbished from MawishInc for about 5 months ago and it has been amaizing. I'm surprised that the price on this item just keeps on getting lower and lower. I got mine with 1gb of ram but I upgrade it to 2gb and it's a super fast computer. Much faster then any of my vista computers with more ram and ghz. The monitor is small on today's HD stuff but the graphics card is amazing. Mine can go up to 1920x1200 with no lag on any monitor. With my shipment I got this item with the charger and all the slots in this item worked and still works... (thank you MawishInc). I recommend this product. (maybe not used but professionally refurbished).More detail ...