[kwlug-disc] Refurb laptops & monitors - Eco-Tech Recycling?

[Charles M]

Actually refurbishers licenses ARE different from a retail OEM license. You
cannot for example take an OEM Windows 7 Home Premium and activate using
the refurbishers license key (at least with our Citizenship licenses).

I called Eco-Tech and the person I spoke to implied that they were just
selling the systems with the pre-existing Windows COA and a fresh install
of Windows. For us (as a refurbisher) this is a no-no. Licensing guidelines
for refurbished PCs are here:
http://oem.microsoft.com/public/worldwide/refurb/microsoft_refurbished_pc_licensing_guidelines.pdf

Microsoft would be seriously mad with us if we did this (yes it seems
crazy, if there's a COA you'd think you should be able to reuse it, but
it's not the "legal" case for us). We buy new licenses for every Windows
system we refurbish, regardless of what the license was before on it (even
Win 7) to keep in line with their refurbishing requirements.






On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 12:35 PM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca> wrote:

> Thanks Charles, good stuff here.
>
> Presumably I can just use my current Win CD if I need it, and the COA on
> the box. (?)
>
> Just thinking about laptops here, for the moment. Did 'cross-check'
> against Canada Computer before posting, trying to get a sense of prices /
> reality check. Thus my comments in it.
>
> Yeah, when I got my 2 quad core i7's (one since blowed up), particularly
> once I added an SSD it was pretty mind blowing.
>
> You sure notice when you move to another computer for anything.
>
>
> On 14-04-23 12:26 PM, Charles M wrote:
>
>> Canada Computers used to have a selection  of refurbished computers in
>> stock, but for the most part I think they're sold out:
>> http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=7_158&
>> bsort=0&brand=0&price=1&location=0
>>
>> They don't mention it on their web site, but I suspect Eco-Tech uses
>> Commercial versions of the Microsoft Registered Refurbisher license on
>> their systems. If the systems display a brown COA check for the text
>> Refurbished on the license. The commercial licenses normally come with a
>> DVD (as opposed to the Citizenship/Charity licenses available to
>> non-profits which don't come with DVD).
>>
>> Having used a Core 2 Duo with 2GB RAM for the past several years (on
>> Xubuntu, I don't run Windows on my machine) I can say it was an enormous
>> difference buying new. Here's what I bought: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/
>> 21wsB
>>
>> (except I bought 16GB of RAM, not 4GB)
>>
>> Most of what I do with the system is ripping my DVD/Blueray collection for
>> our media center (which is a Pentium D/older machine). The one thing I
>> noticed a huge difference on was the speed when loading 5-8 photographs in
>> GIMP.
>>
>> If you're looking strictly at laptops it gets a bit more tricky. We see a
>> lot of "serious" issues with older consumer-grade HP laptops. The one
>> Eco-Tech has listed looks more like a business-class notebook. About the
>> only laptop I'd stay away from is the Windows XP Dell.
>>
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Apr 23, 2014 at 11:43 AM, unsolicited <unsolicited at swiz.ca>
>> wrote:
>>
>>  I see a number of refurb laptops, computers, and monitors, at
>>> http://www.eco-techrecycling.com/refurbs.php (Found via kijiji search.)
>>>
>>> Anyone with any comments on the offerings?
>>>
>>> Seems to me:
>>> - anything with a trackpoint is a Lenovo business class laptop. More
>>> robust?
>>> - Core 2 Duo preferred over others?
>>> - More speed, the better.
>>> - More memory, the better.
>>>
>>> At one time refurb prices were so close to new that it wasn't worth the
>>> loss of warranty. Doesn't seem so at the moment - this level of hardware
>>> doesn't seem available at, say, Canada Computers. There you either go up
>>> a
>>> couple hundred for the next class of hardware (new, but Celeron), or down
>>> to a smaller screen.
>>>
>>> Comments, experiences?
>>>
>>
>
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-- 
Charles McColm, Author: Instant XBMC,
Columnist: Full Circle Magazine,
Project Manager: The Working Centre Computer Recycling Project
Web: http://www.theworkingcentre.org/cr/
Blog: http://www.charlesmccolm.com/
Twitter/Identica/Google+: @chaslinux
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