how do i know if my laptop is refurbished

[Famadeco]

How do I know if my HP Pavilion Notebook core i5, 12gb RAM, 1TB HDD is refurbished?

[WAWood]

@Famadeco

Hello;

Allow me to welcome you to the HP forums!

Apart from obvious signs of previous use (e.g., dirty keyboard and/or screen, scratches in the laptop surface, presence of other accounts in Users and Groups, presence of personal files on the drive)  there is really no way to know other than to check with where you purchased it

When I buy refurbished equipment from a national chain locally, the box clearly indicates that the PC has been rebuilt.

[Famadeco]

Thank you WAWood. But the truth is some laptops are actually refurbished, but they are returned to the factory to be made to look like brand new again. From the surface, to the screen, and every other part  you can see on the surface looks like new.

How do you establish that such new looking laptops are new?

[WAWood]

If it looks new, then the way I would determine if it was, in fact new, is whether or not HP offered the full-year warranty on it -- as most OEMs that sell refurbished units only offer 30-day or 90-day warranties.

IF they offer the same warranty as a new unit, and if they have replaced all the worn out and scratched parts so that it looks new, then what difference does it make at that point, if it is NOT new?

[Raul24]

Please check the Service Label on the back cover and determine the SKU / Product ID.

Generally the SKU with format "F2P75UT#ABL"(Example only) would have a "R" in the eight position, before the hashtag. This indicates a refurbished product.

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Additionally, as mentioned before in the post, the packaging (boxes, documentation, etc.) would have clearly indicated that the product is refurbished from factory.

I am an HP Employee.