My Toshiba laptops have never done me wrong.
Toshiba got out of the PC biz a few years ago. They are coming back though with the name Dynabook I think.
Am a long time Dell guy myself.
Absolutely no HP/Compaq.
“My Toshiba laptops have never done me wrong.”
Ditto that.
Never Toshiba
They are on my Banned For Life List.
Walmart
Costco
HP works.
Be prepared to change out certain cabling with perhaps new peripheral gear or adapters for the old cabling as the connectors have changed. There are other options such as touch screen and some hard drive options with a flash type of Technology employed rather than a moving parts hard drive of older technology, which is also available if that is what choose.
I would go up and look at Computer World online and read some fresh articles on the subject. You can get in for half of the cost of higher ends and still have a very proficient laptop.
I think a goal of maybe five hundred bucks Max would probably suit your needs very well. I got an HP a couple of years ago for 350 on sale at Costco and it’s much more than the gamer that I lost to a lightning strike and I’ve been real happy with it.
As with any computer you need to back your files up at least monthly and you can do that now on flash drive technology they have sticks that probably hold all the information that you actually have on your computer with the exception of programming but that changes anyway within any new computer as some of the older programming is no longer compatible and companies are not back engineering their software for more complex operating systems.
Hope that helps, by the way, somebody mentioned TigerDirect... I have dealt with them on several occasions and they have refurbs that are work great and I’ve been happy with the two refurbs I have purchased in the past.
I have noticed that computers for me and my family generally run about 10 years so I just treat them now like washing machines & dishwashers and just make sure my data files are backed up and stay backed up.
No matter what brand,type,features that you decide on, I recommend a separate laptop cooling fan. Mine powers off the USB port.