Programming laptops

[[527]phil]

I've recently been receiving numerous requests on AIM by other teams. About 95% are looking for a cheap laptop (Pentium 2) and don't know where to get one. I've recently purchased a Pentium 2 laptop (dell latitude CPI-r, 500 mega hurts, 192 MB ram, and 13 GB hard drive) for $200 (after shipping and purchasing a wireless card). I got the laptop off of Ebay. I'm posting this to try and stop all the Private messages I've been receiving, but if you have any questions you can IM me at Phillysteak527, But if you are PLEASE tell me who you are before you start asking questions. I also wanted to try to help you from getting riped off.

1. Before bidding read EVERYTHING!!!!!! on the advertising page

2. Check the sellers feedback, If there are numerous problems with their items DO NOT BID!!!

3. If your going to buy a laptop without an operating system ( The one I got didn't come with an operating system) Make sure you have a windows xp startup disk (from another computer you own, I used my uncles CD because he has a dell desktop.) because you will not be able to access the CD drive though DOS.

4. Check to see how much shipping is going to be BEFORE you bid, a lot of the laptops I almost bid on we're going to cost 50-70 dollars for shipping

5. Be POSITIVE you can fix any problems that are stated in the description (mine was missing the battery holding clip on the bottom, I just had to swap it out with a broken laptop my cousin had).

6. When you find a laptop your going to bid on, wait until there are about 1- 1 1/2 minutes before bidding, this way someone won't win the bid by a dollar or 2 (happened to me about 5 times already). If you bid too early you'll probably lose because someone will be waiting to Bid snipe you.

7. Make sure the laptop will run the programs you need it too, I'm using mine for programming the FRC robots and also for programming My own robots so it's necessary to run MPLAB and other compilers.

8. If your account is NEW and you don't have any feedback MAKE SURE that the seller doesn't require contact from you. You might have to send him an e-mail confirming that you have a paypal account (if you don't have one get one or use your parents account because most sellers require paypal). If the seller requires the confirmation and you fail to do so, he can cancel your bid even if you win the laptop.

This is the guy i got my laptop from, I guess i kinda trust him because it came as he said it would, but if you look around you might find a better deal. good luck. getgoing stores.com

you can also e-mail me at phil@familyaffairdist.com, DO NOT put my name in the subject field because it will get put in the junk folder (which i don't look at)