refurbished laptop from Newegg; "HP could not identify your products"

[marma-lade]

I bought a refurbished laptop from Newegg. It's probably an Asian market one, as HP does not recognize it in the US. It looks new. I was afraid I would get no-name parts, but the RAM and SSD are Samsung.

The model name on the bottom sticker is 17-ca1xxx. When I entered the serial # and model # into HP's support webpage, I saw that the warranty was only good for one more month. When I tried to access the manuals for it, I was sent to a webpage with "Page Not Found." I played around with the URL and was able to access generic manuals, with that URL being:

https://support.hp.com/us-en/product/hp-17-ca1000-laptop-pc/26210380/model/38111938

The above webpage indicates that my laptop is an HP 17-ca1000 Laptop PC (5NB12AV), with it having an accurate photo.

Then I tried to have HP identify my laptop. I downloaded the utility and executed it, but I was told, "HP could not identify your products."

I'm not terribly unhappy, as I planned to install Linux. And I am fairly proficient with working on PCs.

Is this common with Newegg's refurbished laptops, which are really gray-market?

[Huffer · Accepted solution]

You'd have to ask Newegg. "Refurbished" has no set definition in ecommerce I'm afraid. HP does sell laptops that it has refurbished but they will have an R at the end of the serial number and do have a very limited warranty like 90 days rather than one year. The Manual you located is the correct one, not generic. HP issues Service Manuals for a model series not every specific model. If the price was attractive I think you got a good deal. Laptop was made on the same assembly line as others from HP just not entered into the warranty system as never actually sold by HP. 

[marma-lade]

Thanks for the reply.

Yes, refurbished is a meaningless term with respect to laptops. I really think this is a new laptop from another region, probably Asia given Newegg's Chinese connections. I downloaded and installed the latest BIOS, so BIOS appears to be the same between the US and Asia. And the thing I never expected is that there is a BIOS option to revert to Legacy Boot, just like HP offered years ago. The sticker on the bottom states that it's refurbished, but I'll bet it was placed there to replace the one written in Chinese.