Repairing Vs Buying New

My laptop needs keyboard, CD ROM drive, and battery replacement. The laptop also needs a cooling pad because it had over heating problem. Which one is better repairing the laptop or buyin a new one. I have been using this laptop since 6 years and there is no any problem with performance.

 

Even though cost-wise it may seem wise to simply replace the keyboard, drive and battery. But, the fact is that it would be far more convenient and wise to simply go for a new one. There is a lot that'll go wrong with the laptop over time, so its better to buy one that comes with a warranty and which will give you peace of mind.

I remember I used to have a laptop that had all of the problems you mentioned and more. It was a gift and had sentimental value, but eventually I just had to sell it and buy a new one. When I bought a new one, it was such a relief, because I had grown tired of playing repairman on my laptop.

So, try to get a new one if you can.

 

Keyboard costs approx $15
A used laptop cd/dvd drive you can look on ebay $12
Battery ebay approx $22 or less

All the above can be easily replaced look on YouTube for a video

The keyboard IS THE HARDEST TO REPLACE but still easy.

Only one screw holds in the cd/dvd drive

The battery you will know how to replace it.

 

If you don't need a powerful computer and it costs this much to replace the components, it's worth while repairing it.

 

It depends on how ld your hardware is. I f you have a pretty new hardware with a good CPU you can't go wrong with replacing the spoilt parts. If you have a very old Laptop with an old CPU, your best bet would be to get a new one. By going through your post I think you might have an old hardware and I suggest upgrading to the next best thing. Here's the thing about buying a new computer, only buy a new one if you can afford for something which is better than the one you have, otherwise it is wise to keep what you have. Also check if all the required spare parts are available for your computer. Good luck.

 

For me it depends on how old the laptop is. I had to take a similar decision not so long ago, my laptop had several issues and it was kind of old, so in the end I figured out it was better to just buy a new laptop. Fixing it would have been more expensive for me in the end, plus the thing was old and heavy!

 

You have a few options. You can either keep the old laptop, add a usb keyboard to it to overcome having to replace the built-in one, and add a box fan or something else to cool it as a way to have it as a backup PC or desktop replacement, or you could try to replace parts cheaply.

Another option is that you can part it out and sell it for parts individually or as a whole unit on ebay and to repair technicians who need the parts your laptop still has which are good for building or repairing older systems, especially if the ram, motherboard, or lcd are harder to find or order for them.

You will be doing them a favor by providing them with parts they need and can still use today, while getting the most value out of those parts still to put toward a new system or a used laptop in good shape that has stronger specs to give you more power as a user.

You mentioned that the system was still a good laptop for you and has no issues, so if you really like it, you may want to just make it a backup unit instead of selling it. Repairing it would be the next cheapest option.

If you are strapped for cash but can back up or save the data from the hard drive (and be without a laptop for at least a week or two), and can reformat it to sell...you could get a decent amount to put toward a new or used system to where you don't have to fix anything and it already has more features than what you use today to secure you for the future.

It's up to you.

Personally, if it's a really old laptop to where people wouldn't pay much for the parts or it's sentimental to you, then I'd just keep it as a backup or repair it. If it's still a popular model, you could get more.

You can always use ebay or other sites to find out how much people are paying today for parts-only systems of your exact same model and specs to see if it's worth selling it or not. I would be careful using ebay for selling, tho. Might be best to just use it as a tool to see how much it's worth, then post to classifieds or exchange if going that route. Some computer stores will give you a direct exchange value for trade-ins too, but it's usually not anywhere near as much as you can get for it by selling it online or to a repair shop directly.

 

I like the idea of selling it for parts. I see this all the time on Amazon and Ebay. Parts are sometimes more valuable than the whole. But, if you have sentimental value or something, I would simply go and sell it to some college kid who'll know how to fix it up and will have some use for it.

 

sorry but 6 years old is quite antique in terms of technology. It will simply not cut it, not to mention it will have a hard time supporting the latest Windows 10. On the processor side Intel has gone through sandy bridge-> ivy bridge-> Haswell-> Broadwell-> Skylake. You must be having a Intel dual core Pentium so anything you can even below 500$ in today's market will handily beat your laptop. Not to mention you must have a DDR2 ram which is not at all enough when DDR4 has come out. I think the best thing is to do is buy a 500$ laptop if you are just a casual user.

 

This is a tough one and I am pretty sure that you could have caught me at different times in my life saying two completely different things, but as of now I would have to say that I am on the side of buying new. The last computer that I had I attempted to get repaired and after doing it twice the original problem came back the second time, which was weird, and so I just had to give up. This very well might change, though.

 

Yeah, technology has become so cheap that its better to buy a new one than to get the old one repaired. Of course, if you can't afford to or simply love your old machine, you should stick with it.

 

Pardon me but it looks like your laptop can be compared to a dilapidated car. With that plenty of repairs required, I guess you can still save money by having it repaired. However, when repaired, that laptop is still the old one. So I suppose it is best that you buy a new one as a replacement. At least it is of a newer model.

Our desktop had a busted power supply which was repaired. The amount spent was minimal, all right. But when another breakdown occurs, I had an agreement with my husband to buy a new one instead of going for repairs again.

 

I understand you. However, since I did not have budget to buy a new laptop, I was considering to repair it. Since hard ware is old, repairing could not work for a long time, however, I was thinking to use the laptop until I had budget to buy a new one.

 

I would say that if it's that far gone, just go for a new one. The laptop I have right now could easily be upgraded to cooling after a decent cleanup and have a memory/vid card swap, but I am still going for a new one. That should put into perspective how much I think it's worth it to go with new.

 

Personally, I would buy a new laptop to have a few years without worrying about it breaking down! Even though it might be cheaper to replace all the components that you needed, the overheating with time will cause you trouble anyway with a cooling pad. I had this issue with overheating, bought a cooling pad, used it for a while with my laptop, but in the end, my laptop came to a crawl.

 

This might not be the best way to go, but if I want to have a faster setup, I'll buy a brand new rig. I never upgrade components. Specially with laptops, I think it's best to just buy a new one, since you don't have that much customization options compared to desktops. If I don't have the money to buy a new one, then I'll just wait til I have enough! But of course, if my laptop needs repairing, then I'll definitely give it attention and fix it. I took it to a service center before to have its CPU and GPU thermal paste replaced. It worked wonders with my load temperatures.

 

Yes, buying is a better option compared to repairing it. My laptop could work after the repair,however, we cannot be certain about the life of the laptop, after all it is the same old laptop with few parts changed. Even cost wise, buying is more profitable than repairing. I will be spending just about 25 percent of the price of the new laptop.

 

You don't mention the possibility of selling your old laptop, because maybe you should do both, repair and sell your old one and use that money to get a new one, you can sell it both as it is or after you repair it, you need to find a good technician that's honest enough to give you an estimated cost for the repairs so you can go to something like ebay and try to find out what others are asking for the same model of laptop in working condition and see if you are going to get your investment back. You'll be also be surprise with the amount of people that buy broken laptops either for the parts or because it is good business to spend a little on the machine repairing it and then selling it just like you do with cars. Shop around for these numbers, repair and final asking price to see if repairing the thing could be a good deal.

 

I would prefer to just buy a new one instead of trying to repair a laptop in the condition that you have just described. A new laptop has warranties but your old laptop may just be vying for a little time before it dies on you, with our without repairs. Perhaps you can just use it as a back up to your new laptop. You can buy an external keyboard, just plug it straight and it will be good to use for a short time work.

 

If money is an issue, this is what you can do. Get an external keyboard. Forget the CD drive because you don't really need it. Skip the battery, too, unless you have to use your laptop on the go. Just take out the battery and hook up your laptop to the mains. If you want more speed, put Puppy Linux on a USB drive, boot from the USB drive and your laptop can run like the wind again.