Can't you get a refund off the second hand dealer? He gave you a faulty product.

As long as you don't need the SD card reader a bit of duct tape does wonders.

in my opinion the biggest worry would be with the hard drive having received such a large impact,(hopefully the hdd is NOT seagate(also known as 'SHITGATE' or 'shockit it died WITH all the data and there ain't no way you can get the data back').

with laptops the main performance pointers is AMOUNT of ram(and speed of ram), then cpu mhz(ghz), number of cores, and screen size (and if it has a separate video chipset all the better, but most if not all laptop drives other than ssd are 5400rpm OR SLOWER. and the only thing I do NOT like about the thinkpads is the eraserpoint mouse in the middle of the keyboard.

harpo

I'm seriously considering getting the Thinkpad. No worries about the hard drive. It's not a Seagate. It's a Western Digital drive. I need something a bit smaller anyhow.

Keep it.  Just watch the HDD as harpo indicated.  If it looks like it is having issues, replace it. They are cheap enough.

If the components aren't exposed some cosmetic damage shouldn't affect performance. Obviously what you paid for it would be a factor in it's worth too. I've never owned a Acer product but I'm on my fourth ThinkPad in nine years and have had absolutely no problems whatsoever with any of them (IBM or Lenovo)...

What's the retail value?

In matters such as these, to trade, to sell or to keep, there is always one who benefits at the expense of another.

I say keep it.

You see, if you keep it, you won't lose any more money by selling it or trading it.

Further, by keeping it, you will effectively prevent any potential buyer from experiencing your concerns/worries, regrets and sense of loss.  So why pass on the misery?

And should you actually profit from this potential trade/sale, then you'd be just as sneaky as the seller who gave you this misery in the first place.

Keeping it will be the most honorable thing.

-.-

As obvious as the damage is, and since it by and large still forks fine, I'd keep it for the inherent theft deterant.  People are less likely to steal it if they see it's broke.  (Not saying they won't, but still.)

But, if you can trade it in for something you would get more use out of, then definitely go for it.

-Twilight Storm

Beats me why Acer wants $300 to replace the least expensive part of the machine.  You can buy plastic case parts (see here for example).  Of course, I can't say how easy it would be to do the fiddly work of fitting them, but it's a possibility.

I traded it in for a HP DV9000 notebook. Now I have to worry about a faulty video card. I wonder if this model had issues. Another question comes to mind. Should I get Windows Vista and suffer the yucky woes of that OS or use a pirated copy of 7 until I can get a copy from school...

Guys...you know the rules about discussing pirated software.

Kona, don't you have a copy of Windows 7? Try installing it with your CD key. The key resets every 90 days so if it's been more than that since your last install, you're good.

Run Vista ... The service packs fixed up a lot of issues with it (although I still use the CD to sit my coffee mug on), run it as raw as you can, get Win7 when you can afford it.

I had nothing but problems with Vista, but there are users who didn't.

I'm planning on staying. After all I've been here some time.

I will stick to Vista. seems to run just as fast as 7 on this setup and I'm all legit with this OS. Will look into how much my college sells 7 for.

Now I am still wondering if this model has any video issues like the DV6000 does. If so I may think about getting something newer sooner.