Selling tips: thoroughly checking a computer

[timswim78]

I have a Mac that I'd like to sell. I have not had any problems with it, but I have not had it that long. So, I want to make sure that it is in tip-top shape before selling it for two reasons:
- 1. I want my customer to be happy with the purchase.
- 2. I don't want to have to deal with any follow-up issues (of course, I am selling "as-is," but I do want to minimize any headaches for the buyer or me.

So, how should I go about doing this? Is Apple hardware test, run overnight in loop mode, the best way to go?

I've visually inspected everything. There are no bulging cap's, leaks, or anything like that.

The combo-drive was questionable, so I replaced it with a DVD-burner. How can I test the reliability of the burner, other than burning some discs?

 

[mandoman]

I would wipe the HDD clean in security mode (all 0's is
good enough) to 1) Protect yourself 2) Map out the bad
sectors on the disk.

Then do a nice clean install of the OS and run Software
Update several times to make sure everything is up2date.

That's probably sufficient if it seems to be running ok.

 

[timswim78]

I would wipe the HDD clean in security mode (all 0's is
good enough) to 1) Protect yourself 2) Map out the bad
sectors on the disk.

Then do a nice clean install of the OS and run Software
Update several times to make sure everything is up2date.

That's probably sufficient if it seems to be running ok.

Well, I am putting in a new hard drive because they are so inexpensive nowadays.

My concern is that although I have not had any failures or kernel panics, it is not uncommon for people to experience kernel panics and other random failures that only appear every few weeks or so. I'd like to be as certain as possible that what I am selling is solid.