I have an early 2008 MacBook pro that works very well, I have many very valuable programs on it as well as running off the newest OSX. I search the internet and I see laptops like mine going for around $400 more or less, claiming they are refurbished. Sometimes my laptop does get bogged down especially when trying to run to many programs at once. What can do to my laptop that would get it in the same condition these refurbishers would?
A 2008 MacBook Pro was only offered 2gb of ram from the factory. If you haven't done so, you can upgrade to 4gb (2x2gb DDR2 PC2-5300 sticks). 4gb is the most the laptop supports. While you have your laptop opened during the Ram upgrade, I'd recommend you clean out the internals of dust. This can be a major factor when it comes to performance because CPU temps with eventually go up affect performance and battery run times. You can also buy a new battery for your MacBook. Being 6 years old, the battery run times must be extremely low. When you're browsing for laptops online, it is important that you understand what the seller means by "refurbished". That said, many people do not say how it was refurbished. Whether or not the refurbished product is certified or not. Take a look at this article an eBay author wrote which I think is pretty accurate: