T510 Why so many refurbished on market

[keithsketchley]

Nearing the end of 2018 there still are many refurbished T510s in stores and on the Internet.

OS offered range from Windows 7 Pro through Windows 10 Pro.

Seems to be an old design by now - why so many on the market?

[MikalE]

I would guess because it was the first generation of Lenovo laptops with the i series of Intel processors. Businesses bought them up and leased them like wildfire. I have two myself and they are generally cheap on fleabay.

I bought one with an i5 processor and another came standard with an i7 processor. Both were off-lease refurbs.

[TonyJZX]

I consulted at many businesses that kept even T61s T400s as test bench machines and the like...

Many businesses didnt even buy desktops any more... older laptops worked fine as desktops with an lcd kbd mouse.

However even so, a 1st gen machine is basically worthless.

I think 3 or 4yrs ago I bought a pair of 410s, one nvidia and one intel as shells, sans hdd but complete, no charger for under $30 usd.

They are functionally too old for most businesses now.

Look at it like this... currently we're 8th gen.

3rd and 4th gen are still workable machines with good speed versus power use.

2nd gen tips it too much to power consumption with even people here complaining about T420 performance.

1st gen is a relic. Sorry but it is... they were ok like 4yrs ago running Win7 but these days... T400s even worse.

I feel like the 410 510s are basically laptops that need to be DTRs ie. the batteries arent great even when new so at best they are chained to a wall with mouse kbd etc.

Even now I feel like 2nd gen machines sans USB3 are getting to the point that they are well under $100 ie. junk status. Go to Dell or HP and you see stuff like Dell 6420 and that gen under $50.

Lack of usb3 sucks.

[Saucey]

Yeah, there was over 700 T420 ThinkPads that were sold on eBay.

Perhaps the Intel Meltdown & Spectre made companies retire their older computers when they found out it'll tank their performance if they update their systems.

[keithsketchley]

Indeed, old computers can be used as test mules, provided they are not connected to Internet and access is restricted (because much AV SW does not run on older os).

One fool bureaucracy was claiming that engineering departments had two PCs per employee. Well of course the departments said, there are lab mules and the extra computer many SW engineers had to run special SW. Though even then the suspicion was that people had not told financial people when a computer was scrapped.

[keithsketchley]

T430s are showing up in similar deals (refurbished, Windows 10, one year warranty – one store sold some for C$239.)

[HamBoy]

Can someone please tell me how to find an Operating Manual for a T510?

Thank You. Hamboy

[dr_st]

Hi HamBoy,

What do you mean by 'operating manual'? If it is the hardware maintenance manual that you seek, check the "HMM" link at the top of the forum.