Is my old laptop worth repairing?
We get asked this every week, and the honest answer is that it depends far more on which part has failed than on how old the machine is.
Here's how we think about it before quoting.
Faults that are usually worth fixing
These are contained, predictable jobs where the rest of the machine is unaffected.
- Failing hard drive — replacing it with an SSD often makes the machine faster than it ever was
- Battery replacement, on models where the battery is a serviceable part
- Charging port or power socket repair
- Overheating from dust and old thermal paste — a service, not a repair
- Keyboard replacement on most business-class laptops
- Software problems: Windows corruption, malware, failed updates
Faults where replacement usually wins
Here the cost of the part approaches the value of the whole machine.
- Screen replacement on an inexpensive laptop that's already several years old
- Motherboard failure on anything out of warranty
- Significant liquid damage that reached the board
- Hinge damage that has cracked the casing around the mounting points
- Any machine that can no longer receive security updates for its operating system
The upgrade that fixes most 'slow' laptops
If a machine is simply slow rather than broken, the cause is very often a mechanical hard drive. Swapping it for an SSD and adding RAM transforms a five-year-old laptop for a fraction of replacement cost, and takes an afternoon.
It is worth doing this before concluding a machine is finished. Plenty of laptops written off as too old are perfectly usable with a modern drive in them.
The rule of thumb we use
If the repair costs more than about half the price of an equivalent replacement, and the machine is more than four or five years old, replacement is usually the better decision. Below that, repair — especially if the machine still does what you need.
There's also the environmental argument. A repaired laptop that runs for another three years is meaningfully better than a new one, and the cheapest computer is generally the one you already own.
Whatever you decide, sort the data first
Before any repair or replacement, make sure your data exists somewhere other than that machine. If the fault is a failing drive, this is urgent — every additional hour of use reduces the chance of a clean recovery.