prev gen laptop recommendations?

My son spilled tea on his laptop rendering it useless ( we've tried everything ).

Just wondering, as I have never looked into laptop tech, are there certain things to avoid / seek with regards to chipsets etc? I don't have a clue what processors/ addons are out there.

Like the title says I'm not looking for a new-generation machine, all it's going to do is wrod processing and net surfing really, so anything from the past 3 years or so will be fine. I don't want to fall for a deal on a known bad piece of hardware though.

I have a strict personal rule against buying used or older machines, I did, however, have an HP a few years ago that I was quite pleased with.
If it's just for word processing and surfing than you might consider getting him a netbook or something smaller and cheaper.

for example; I have a friend who is quite pleased with this - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152138&cm_re=msi_wind-_-34-152-138-_-Product

haymaker said:
I don't want to fall for a deal on a known bad piece of hardware though.

Then read this sentence and listen well: STAY AWAY FROM HPs. For a living I do laptop repair, i've seen more HPs fail in 1 yeah to 1 year an 6 months than any other brand on the market. HPs are just the worst computers in existence. If you hear any stories about people who have HPs that they've been happy with, its because they got lucky. From working on them so much I can tell you they feel like a circuit board in a plastic casing with an LCD screen screwed on to the case. Honestly HP has no quality to it. Also stay away from Gateway -> Just as bad as HPs

Some brands that I think are good to buy used or refurbished are the Dell Inspiron/Vostro series, the XPS's are expensive as shit, and they have a higher failure rate (Dell tries to fit hot processors/graphics cards in tight spaces with XPSs).

Thanks for replies guys.

Too bad it wasn't easier just to build one component-style like a PC

Omega, I would avoid DELL, ever since they bought up Alienware they have been the shit. I prefer HP's to be honest.. had one problem once, and they had a box out to me in 3 days and once returned to them the system was fixed and returned in 4 days. So a weeks worth of time to repair something. They are fast and easy to work with. I agree with Gateway, avoid like a plague.

Muhnay said:
Omega, I would avoid DELL, ever since they bought up Alienware they have been the shit.

I guess its a matter of preference. I will say this: I see more Older/newer dells come into the shop that are repairable and are in good condition (mostly just virus infections). However, newer HPs have the worse stuff going on with them (Motherboard failure, LCD hinge breaking, LCDs going bad, Fans gone bad, plastic casing easily cracking, Wireless cards screwing up, and audio speakers blown out).

Yeah their alienware (aka: XPS) is pretty shit (they're cramming too much into those small things). But Vostro series are built strong, they're business grade computers. Inspiron is O.K. for consumers. Dells are very easy to take apart and repair as well. Plus I like their warrantys that basically covers all hardware for a yeah, HP is O.K. on that.

Besides man, how can you diss your own home company ?

My aunt got a couple Dells, and she has had nothing but problems with them. But they are tough.. I have to admit that. And when one had a few keys missing and a cracked screen they sent the parts and a tech out to repair the machine. Thought that was pretty cool. So yeah guess its a preference thing. Glad we agree on the XPS side of things. =)

I am extremely happy with my asus that I got this summer

actually I suppose I should mention that a friend of mine has had the same compaq laptop for five years now and is only replacing it because it's outdated, works like a charm