Cheapo Laptop

Hay guys.

I'm in search of a laptop. It doesn't have to be anything fancy like being able to run games or anything, just has to work. Basic stuff! Such as AIM, MSN, FireFox, Winamp, etc.
Since I'm pretty open-minded about this and not really picky at all (aside from price), I thought "Hey, maybe 4chan(?) will give a lead."
It can be used, which is probably the only thing my budget could afford.
So here's the requirements:
1. Budget price range (like, $100-$200 stuff o_O seriously)
2. Not a piece of crap that doesn't work.


Any help, links, and leads are welcome!

Do you want wireless, or are you going to do that surfing and chatting by hunting for an free ethernet port to jack into?

o_O
Well, actually, I would prefer it if I could just plug it into the router here. I don't think I'll be taking this thing on the road or anything, it's more so a secondary computer than a laptop. I'll be using the computer I'm using now for my main tasks, and then the laptop for secondary tasks, get it?
So, in other words, preferably to not be wireless. There were problems with the borrowed laptop regarding wireless connection anyways >.>

The whole purpose of a laptop is for it to be portable. Having to plug in the ethernet defeats that. And eitherway; wireless ability is a standard for laptops now, it's almost difficult to find one without it.

I came in here looking for one for my sister. It looks like Dell has the best prices of the bottom barrell unless you want to buy something out-of-production.

You can find reasonable PIII laptops on eBay for well under $200. Don't expect it to have a working battery, of course. Just stick Windows 2000 on it, and away you go. Try and get something with 256Mb of RAM or more. You won't find a laptop with wireless in that price range, but you can always stick a wireless PCMCIA card in it later, if you decide to go down that route. Get yourself an IBM Thinkpad or something, they're pretty durable - my old PII Thinkpad 600 is still going strong. Things to check for: ask if the CD-ROM drive is still working okay (they're hard to find cheap replacements for), ask if there are any bad sectors on the hard disk (though even a 20Gb replacement drive can be had for very little money), and watch out for ones where the screen hinges or catches have cracked or broken - Samsungs seem to be a particular bitch for that, in my experience. Really, there's plenty out there to choose from.

Yeah, I'm aware it defeats the purpose of the laptop, but that's what I'd use it for. Just saying.

Thanks for the tips though, to both of you. I'll write these down...

Any other help is appreciated.

I'd go with a Thinkpad 600. Pretty cheap, well built, semi-modern. Should be able to find one within that price range.

Hmmmmm!! That Thinkpad 600 looks pretty awesome and promising O: Thanks a bunch!
Do you have any suggestions on where to purchase from though? Of course I'm looking myself for some places, but I might as well ask here.

Go with Craigslist.  www.craigslist.org and find the one for the metro area nearest you.  They routinely beat Ebay prices, and best of all, when you meet up with the person, you can run a couple of checks and make sure it works properly before you hand over the money.