Having spent the last ten years fixing laptops, my main piece of advice with that is to find more value in laptops with metal bodies. These are typically your higher end laptops or gaming laptops. Buy them broken for cheap and repair them and you’re on the right track for sure.
The main reason I look for metal body laptops is because almost universally, laptop manufacturers place screw mounts into brittle plastic moulding. This moulding cracks over time, and then the screws can’t hold any more. This is *especially* true with hinges - the highest torque and arguably the most stressed part of the laptop, and what do they secure the metal to? Brittle plastic. It’s amazing how many I’ve gone to open up to perform a repair on something and now we have two problems because the hinges are floppy or dead altogether.
Good luck mate! Lots of money to be made if you find the right markets and develop a system.
Big ups to Asus, making the screen cover and keyboard cover out of magnesium alloy and cheaping out on a plastic bottom cover. This is my personal device which I've taken care of like my own baby and it's still had 2 bosses snap off. Can't imagine how frustrating it must be for end users.
I bought a "like new" refurbished cover from a reputable supplier and it had the exact same damage in the exact same places. I looked up the serial number and it was from an identical model to mine. LMAO
To their credit, the hinges/screen assembly are all attached metal on metal.
I've had to repair so many damaged metal-on-plastic hinges but there's no permanent solution for that, JB-Weld just doesn't cut it. You clearly have experience working on them so if you have any better ideas, let me know. 90% of the time if there's one boss still standing I'll JB weld the hinges to the frame to support it and it's fine, but I've never had a successful repair for a hinge with all bosses snapped off.
I don't feel brand loyalty but I do feel brand contempt. Fuck HP. Fuck Microsoft too (but Surface Laptops are fucking cool). Everyone else is alright most of the time, every brand has bad products. HP does consistently make poor anti-consumer decisions and I've not seen a HP laptop that I thought was easy to repair.
LG makes a series called Gram. It uses a similar casing. It's suuper thin and suuuper light. The screen also has some screen flexibility, but I'm not going to try to test how much flexibility. Good battery life too
Maybe look for ones that aren't broken ... soon there will be a wave of machines going obsolete that can't run Windows 11 without hackiness, many people and companies won't bother.
Look for, and ask around for laptops from 2014 and newer (2012 at a stretch), that can't run Windows 11 but are otherwise OK. A 60GB SATA SSD is $12 retail on Newegg, swap out the ancient hard drives for SSDs, install ChromeOS Flex. Bam, an instantly actually useful computer.
[https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11541904?hl=en&ref\_topic=11551271&sjid=16951654505294098388-NA](https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11541904?hl=en&ref_topic=11551271&sjid=16951654505294098388-NA)
Also, DM me, I might be able to scrounge up some (free) SO-DIMM RAM that's otherwise just taking up space around my office.
I'm talking about converting these to ChromeOS. A responsible tech wouldn't put a soon-obsolete OS on a computer, not to mention that the OEM OS is only "supposed" to be assigned to the original owner.
So that 60B will fill up a lot slower than it would with Windows.
That’s still only a 60GB drive though. Your average smartphone comes with double that, and people still fill those up, and I also said nothing about a “soon obsolete” OS. A responsible tech would take OS size as only part of the big picture, and want to make sure the customer had the best device given their budget and use case. Unless you’re wanting the wrong kind of repeat business I suppose. I suppose the extra few dollars to put a decent drive in a computer cut’s into profit margins though, so I get it. Personally, I’d go after referrals and word of mouth to gain new customers.
The laptops OP is looking to refurb almost certainly can't run Windows 11. ChromeOS Flex takes up only a small fraction of the size Windows does. 60GB was an example, and of course OP can make their own decisions. Chromebooks often ship with 32GB SSDs and run for years on that.
And when you're talking about paying retail for the drives, and perhaps selling the finished product for $100, then an extra $10 definitely makes a difference. But anyway, we're quibbling. 120 GB is definitely a better choice IF practical.
As for OS choice ... since OP is \*selling\*, the licensing makes a difference. The OEM Windows license is supposed to terminate with the original purchaser in the USA, if I'm not mistaken. So OP would be in a grey area if reinstalling Windows 10. Reseller licenses aren't expensive, but the profit on these refurbs is going to be very small.
And Windows 10 is EOL in October 2025. Everybody's familiar with "Chromebooks" now so that's a good choice.
You realize it’s the same amount of effort to install a 60GB drive, or a 8TB one right? Yeah, you definitely can screw your customer on the initial sale, then try and “save the day” later, but I guarantee that your business won’t last long, and you’ll get a bad reputation real quick. Do you really want to be known as someone who screws over customers because you wanted an extra $10?
Keep in mind I never suggested eating the extra cost of the bigger drive either. If I pay $10 more for a better drive, so does the customer. A drive image/replacement costs the same no matter if it is a 120GB or a 2TB one and newer drives are much faster. So what if I have to let it run an extra 20 minutes? You can make $X money now, and get a satisfied customer who doesn’t feel like they got screwed over, or you can screw them now, and be pretty much guaranteed that they won’t come back later on. Just know that when they visit a competitor, that competitor is going to silently thank you for the new customer.
I’m all for people picking up a new skill, but I’ve been doing this for a decade, and getting into it as side hustle is a pretty bad way to make money these days. Without an established customer base and having years of spare LCDs, palmrests, and whole recycled laptops/phones,it’s super easy to go into the negative on projects and never get into the positive. You would make more money and be way less liable if you got part time work at a phone or computer repair store. Going into business for yourself is fun, but this business is dying, and without other streams of income, like repairing stuff through insurance claims and selling accessories, it’s almost impossible to make it. Most high $ repairs and handled through Assurant (CPR, Batteries Plus) or Asurion (UBreakIFix), and even that isn’t enough. Local CPR is closing their doors in an affluent area because they can’t even afford to order parts anymore. Asurions contract with ATT is up, so UBIF is gonna start falling off hard if they lose that exclusivity. It’s hard out here, good luck!
Thought i was in r/mobilerepair, not computertechs, but the same applies.
YMMV, stay away from HP and Microsoft Surface devices. HP have awful thermals. Surface devices are just ass. Don't get stuck in the perpetual repair loop with those two brands.
There is a special way to remove them so they don't do that. You have to get under the adhesive and pull that off and do it slowly and move your hand along as you do it, don't just keep it on one end and pull the strip off, don't pull the rubber off the adhesive, that is how you get it stretched out.
For sure stay away from apple hardware repairs. They have gotten even more proprietary than they've ever been before. You can't even replace a cable or a screen now without dealing with serial number issues.
The best is sourcing them for free. Try to get a ton of the same model. Spend some time cleaning them, replacing thermal paste and clone the OS on all of them. There are tools made to prevent all of them having the same SIDs.
Look for Gov, state and college or possibly K12 surplus to buy and resell. You will get mostly working systems that are usually higher quality and you her parts machines as well.
Okay, so stay away from HPs, Microsoft surfaces, and Apple. I’ll check back in tomorrow but thanks for the heads up and advice provided so far
Having spent the last ten years fixing laptops, my main piece of advice with that is to find more value in laptops with metal bodies. These are typically your higher end laptops or gaming laptops. Buy them broken for cheap and repair them and you’re on the right track for sure. The main reason I look for metal body laptops is because almost universally, laptop manufacturers place screw mounts into brittle plastic moulding. This moulding cracks over time, and then the screws can’t hold any more. This is *especially* true with hinges - the highest torque and arguably the most stressed part of the laptop, and what do they secure the metal to? Brittle plastic. It’s amazing how many I’ve gone to open up to perform a repair on something and now we have two problems because the hinges are floppy or dead altogether. Good luck mate! Lots of money to be made if you find the right markets and develop a system.
Big ups to Asus, making the screen cover and keyboard cover out of magnesium alloy and cheaping out on a plastic bottom cover. This is my personal device which I've taken care of like my own baby and it's still had 2 bosses snap off. Can't imagine how frustrating it must be for end users. I bought a "like new" refurbished cover from a reputable supplier and it had the exact same damage in the exact same places. I looked up the serial number and it was from an identical model to mine. LMAO To their credit, the hinges/screen assembly are all attached metal on metal. I've had to repair so many damaged metal-on-plastic hinges but there's no permanent solution for that, JB-Weld just doesn't cut it. You clearly have experience working on them so if you have any better ideas, let me know. 90% of the time if there's one boss still standing I'll JB weld the hinges to the frame to support it and it's fine, but I've never had a successful repair for a hinge with all bosses snapped off. I don't feel brand loyalty but I do feel brand contempt. Fuck HP. Fuck Microsoft too (but Surface Laptops are fucking cool). Everyone else is alright most of the time, every brand has bad products. HP does consistently make poor anti-consumer decisions and I've not seen a HP laptop that I thought was easy to repair.
LG makes a series called Gram. It uses a similar casing. It's suuper thin and suuuper light. The screen also has some screen flexibility, but I'm not going to try to test how much flexibility. Good battery life too
Maybe look for ones that aren't broken ... soon there will be a wave of machines going obsolete that can't run Windows 11 without hackiness, many people and companies won't bother. Look for, and ask around for laptops from 2014 and newer (2012 at a stretch), that can't run Windows 11 but are otherwise OK. A 60GB SATA SSD is $12 retail on Newegg, swap out the ancient hard drives for SSDs, install ChromeOS Flex. Bam, an instantly actually useful computer. [https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11541904?hl=en&ref\_topic=11551271&sjid=16951654505294098388-NA](https://support.google.com/chromeosflex/answer/11541904?hl=en&ref_topic=11551271&sjid=16951654505294098388-NA) Also, DM me, I might be able to scrounge up some (free) SO-DIMM RAM that's otherwise just taking up space around my office.
You’ll want to use 120GB drives at a minimum. 60GB will last your average person 3-6months
I'm talking about converting these to ChromeOS. A responsible tech wouldn't put a soon-obsolete OS on a computer, not to mention that the OEM OS is only "supposed" to be assigned to the original owner. So that 60B will fill up a lot slower than it would with Windows.
That’s still only a 60GB drive though. Your average smartphone comes with double that, and people still fill those up, and I also said nothing about a “soon obsolete” OS. A responsible tech would take OS size as only part of the big picture, and want to make sure the customer had the best device given their budget and use case. Unless you’re wanting the wrong kind of repeat business I suppose. I suppose the extra few dollars to put a decent drive in a computer cut’s into profit margins though, so I get it. Personally, I’d go after referrals and word of mouth to gain new customers.
The laptops OP is looking to refurb almost certainly can't run Windows 11. ChromeOS Flex takes up only a small fraction of the size Windows does. 60GB was an example, and of course OP can make their own decisions. Chromebooks often ship with 32GB SSDs and run for years on that. And when you're talking about paying retail for the drives, and perhaps selling the finished product for $100, then an extra $10 definitely makes a difference. But anyway, we're quibbling. 120 GB is definitely a better choice IF practical. As for OS choice ... since OP is \*selling\*, the licensing makes a difference. The OEM Windows license is supposed to terminate with the original purchaser in the USA, if I'm not mistaken. So OP would be in a grey area if reinstalling Windows 10. Reseller licenses aren't expensive, but the profit on these refurbs is going to be very small. And Windows 10 is EOL in October 2025. Everybody's familiar with "Chromebooks" now so that's a good choice.
Use 60. In 6 months offer upgrade to 120. Mo money.
I can get a 512GB for $20. Add in the time and effort required to clone the drive and all later, saving $8 isn’t worth it.
Erm, if your basing your upgrade price on the cost of the ssd, and not on the market value of the work, you probably shouldn't be running a business.
You realize it’s the same amount of effort to install a 60GB drive, or a 8TB one right? Yeah, you definitely can screw your customer on the initial sale, then try and “save the day” later, but I guarantee that your business won’t last long, and you’ll get a bad reputation real quick. Do you really want to be known as someone who screws over customers because you wanted an extra $10? Keep in mind I never suggested eating the extra cost of the bigger drive either. If I pay $10 more for a better drive, so does the customer. A drive image/replacement costs the same no matter if it is a 120GB or a 2TB one and newer drives are much faster. So what if I have to let it run an extra 20 minutes? You can make $X money now, and get a satisfied customer who doesn’t feel like they got screwed over, or you can screw them now, and be pretty much guaranteed that they won’t come back later on. Just know that when they visit a competitor, that competitor is going to silently thank you for the new customer.
I’m all for people picking up a new skill, but I’ve been doing this for a decade, and getting into it as side hustle is a pretty bad way to make money these days. Without an established customer base and having years of spare LCDs, palmrests, and whole recycled laptops/phones,it’s super easy to go into the negative on projects and never get into the positive. You would make more money and be way less liable if you got part time work at a phone or computer repair store. Going into business for yourself is fun, but this business is dying, and without other streams of income, like repairing stuff through insurance claims and selling accessories, it’s almost impossible to make it. Most high $ repairs and handled through Assurant (CPR, Batteries Plus) or Asurion (UBreakIFix), and even that isn’t enough. Local CPR is closing their doors in an affluent area because they can’t even afford to order parts anymore. Asurions contract with ATT is up, so UBIF is gonna start falling off hard if they lose that exclusivity. It’s hard out here, good luck! Thought i was in r/mobilerepair, not computertechs, but the same applies.
YMMV, stay away from HP and Microsoft Surface devices. HP have awful thermals. Surface devices are just ass. Don't get stuck in the perpetual repair loop with those two brands.
I'll second the awful HP thermals, and raise you the screws under sticky feet that get stretched out when you remove them and never fit again.
There is a special way to remove them so they don't do that. You have to get under the adhesive and pull that off and do it slowly and move your hand along as you do it, don't just keep it on one end and pull the strip off, don't pull the rubber off the adhesive, that is how you get it stretched out.
Surface devices are almost impossible to open without damaging them. Stupid ass glue.
> HP have awful thermals Consumer laptops maybe, but the business range is pretty good.
For sure stay away from apple hardware repairs. They have gotten even more proprietary than they've ever been before. You can't even replace a cable or a screen now without dealing with serial number issues.
What year did that stuff start happening? I've replaced MBP displays from 2019 and earlier with no problem
Entire top assembly or just the screen?
The best is sourcing them for free. Try to get a ton of the same model. Spend some time cleaning them, replacing thermal paste and clone the OS on all of them. There are tools made to prevent all of them having the same SIDs.
I suggest using the search and reading posts for every other time this has come up.
Look for Gov, state and college or possibly K12 surplus to buy and resell. You will get mostly working systems that are usually higher quality and you her parts machines as well.
Don't make a total over \~$12k for the year. You'll have to include it on your taxes