[SGVLUG] Cast-off laptop?

[Dustin Laurence]

Hi, luggers. I have an elderly friend whose laptop is more or less dead 
(the power socket and plug both seem to be damaged enough that I don't 
think it's possible to get contact anymore, though she ordered a new 
charger to try). Even if we manage to get power to it, it's really 
beaten up and isn't going to last long no matter what. She doesn't have 
much money for a new one, but it's her lifeline to the world, so I'm 
looking at inexpensive Windows laptops for her. (She is afraid to change 
from Windows Home to Pro, because she thinks the latter will present her 
with a dashboard like the shuttle, so running anything but Windows is 
simply not going to work).

I can get something with better specs than the old one for about $250 at 
Wal-Mart, so that's my baseline for comparison. Suggestions for other 
cheap sources welcome, though. Alternatively, if anyone has an old but 
functional Windows laptop gathering dust that they'd like to quit taking 
up space, LMK. Performance doesn't seem to be an issue, since she thinks 
she'd prefer another of what she had and that has specs that look more 
like a fat microcontroller: 
https://support.hp.com/ee-en/document/c06617062 . Basically she only 
needs the basics: email, web for paying bills, and so on. Zoom for her 
telemedicine and social groups is probably the most resource intensive 
thing she does.

She is pretty hard on a laptop physically, so if it weren't for the cost 
factor I'd go looking for hardened laptops for construction sites. :-( 
But I think that's not realistic.

Dustin