Audio file for listening instead of reading.

How many computers and laptops do you have in your home? In my home I have four. One is my primary laptop. The second is an older laptop that the hard drive crashed, and I replaced the drive, the third is a desktop in my workshop. Finally, my wife has a desktop she uses. I suppose I do not really need four computers at the same time. It just migrated that way. Now I have found a use for all of them.  

Back in 2008 I purchased new a HP2000 laptop to replace Dell laptop because support for the Windows operating system has expired and I did not want to just upgrade the operating system since it was about seven years old, and we all know how fast technology has changed. I forget where I bought the new laptop but that was the last new computer I bought. This laptop served me well for about nine years with no large complaints.  

This has been a good backup laptop for my primary computer. About a year ago the software sent out an alert that the hard drive was going to crash. How the software can predict that is beyond me. Anyway, I got a replacement hard drive for about 25 dollars and went to YouTube and got instructions how to replace the hard drive and keep all the information and operating system from the defective hard drive. After that I thought I might as well put it to use. So, I installed Audacity software which is an audio editing program and started adding music to thumb drives I can use in my vehicle sound system and make audios for podcasting. This is a good backup laptop if for some reason my primary laptop crashes.  

In 2016 we moved into a new home for us. After being in our new home for close to a year and the HP laptop was in service for me for about eight years and I decided to look for a replacement laptop. The problem I had was I didn’t want to spend the money on a brand-new laptop since the one I had worked fine. I read or heard somewhere that refurbished computers and thought I might as well give refurbished a try. In my search for a refurbished laptop, I found refurbished laptops on Office Depot’s website and purchased a Dell laptop for less than half the retail price, around 300 dollars. It arrived in about a week and has been working great. I upgraded from Windows 7 to Windows 10 since Microsoft offered the upgrade free and support should be available until 2025.  

As I previously stated we moved in 2016 and our new home had a workshop. Since I had such good luck with my Dell refurbished laptop, I started to shop for a refurbished computer to be used in the workshop. I found an HP desktop from micomp.com for one hundred dollars with prepaid shipping and a one-year warranty. They purchase computers from corporations when they upgrade their systems. And they are a Microsoft certified refurbisher. It has been working great since 2017. The only thing that went bad, the CPU cooling fan started to squeal, and I had to replace it. I also updated the operating system to Windows 10, free of course from Microsoft. I have CAD software on this computer and an electronic microscope to look at bugs. Also, I install questionable software on this computer to make sure it is safe before I install it on my primary computer.

The last computer we have is the one my wife uses. In 2022 we replaced an HP desktop with a Dell desktop for the same reason. The support for the operating system ended and it was time for a hardware upgrade. It was working fine when it was shut down for the last time. We got another desktop from micomp.com for $150 dollars, free shipping and one year warranty. It has been working just fine. 

In conclusion, I have had good luck with refurbished computers. I have been retired since 2006 and on a fixed income and I do not need a top-of-the-line computer. These refurbished prices fit well in my budget. I am not a computer expert, but I do have more technical knowledge than the average person and that could be a problem for some. The largest problem I have is my wife, she gets in a bind many times on the computer, and I must rescue her.