Recently i purchased a cheap laptop and without a hard drive and i am buying that an then putting it in i was wondering if it was a good idea to keep doing it fixing computers has always interested me and what i am planning on doing is buying cheap laptops on eBay and then refurbishing them to make a small or larger profit , tell me what you think do you think that i should give it a shot or is it just a waste of time and money.

Is the hard drive broken? It could be replaced. And probably pretty cheap.
If you don't have to pay for the labour by doing it yourself, then that is better.

You might be able to get a good deal by looking on ebay for the wholesale batches of computers and buy several similar or at least compatible machines and mix/match components to get 2 or 3 working machines which you could sell to recover your costs while 'learning' and have the pleasure for enjoying a new Hobby.

For the learning value alone, I think it would be a good idea.

In my experience, and I've worked on quite a few computer devices in my time, I've found it not worth it to upgrade old laptops. Consider how old the laptop is. Consider how functional the device is. Does the processor match up to your needs? It not then it'd be a good learning experience to tinker around with it or to just have to play with for some older games or word processing needs. Things that have a low impact on memory and processor usage. I know some laptops are pretty upgradeable, alot of the parts being able to be switched and upgraded, but sometimes even they are some real trouble to deal with.

If you are going to be doing alot of things that you need done quickly or take alot of processor power to do, I would suggest getting a new one if it does not currently match your needs. But if all you need is a little hard disk space, sure swap it out. Good call.

Also it's great to have a spiffy new laptop under warrenty incase something happens to the screen or battery stuff. Not sure what else I could say to help you.

well as long as you have the technical know-how about fixing computers, then i think it's fine. for profit? even better. i personally would want to have my mom's laptop taken to the profs since it still has warranty, and besides they know how the laptop works better than i do. and did i say i suck at fixing stuff? i can't even touch the cpu of this computer that i'm using, that's why when problems arise, i end up freaking out

I dont think its going to be a good Idea. Its very risky, you may never know the real condition of the laptops in ebay. Some parts of a laptop are so critical that fixing that part of the laptop usually costs almost as much as buying a new one.

Whell there are some factors to consider;
- How old is it?
- Does the motherboard, and the rest of the structure allow the needed upgrades?
- How it looks?
- Is this a computer that is worth upgrading?
- How much would you profit of it when you add the hours of work it takes, the new parts, and so on. (make a budget)
- Where and who are the buyers, and how can you access them?

These are all factors you should consider before you start a project like this. Do some research, and find out which laptops you could use, set up a budget and do all wour homework. If you do this you might make profit out of it, but no garranties from me.

Good luck & have fun,
lihuyt

ok so alittle update if any of you care i just got the laptop to today and then i bought the hard drive its a 60gb hard drive and then i have 512mb ram and i plan on putting linux un it mostly becasue it is a lot cheapier than windows and i wanted to give it a shot but that all for now

Once upon a time that was what I was going to do. Hardware and software IT. It was my dream to work with computers. Then my mother got one. Then she started asking me questions about how to use. Then my brothers broke it. Then I had to fix it. Then it had more problems and my mother had more questions. It never ended. It was then I realised that I didn't have the patience for people's stupidity. And when it comes to computers, there's a lot of stupid going around. That's the only reason why I would recommend people to not get into the computer industry. But if you have oooooodles of patience and like helping people, then by all means give it a go. But be VERY cautious. Take into account that some of the computers you buy will be unfixable and therefore a loss. Don't overextend yourself and always stay within your limits otherwise you will end up broke and have a lot of angry people beating down your door.