I would not junk the laptop unless otherwise unsatisfactory. Clone the HDD instead. I replaced the HDD on my dodgy Sony Vaio with a Crucial 240 GB SSD for about 35 USD - admittedly I had a suitable USB - SATA adapter to enable me to clone the old HDD to the new SSD before doing the changeover and Crucial provided suitable cloning software. Plenty of information available from the suppliers and generally on the web forums though for that task or else an adept teen will do it for you!
Interesting story from Cincinnati. My daughter is ex Trinity and is in San Francisco doctoring and my son also ex Trinity is in engineering management in Australia. So we still travel the world!
Good luck with the laptop