Is your old computer worth repairing? An honest way to decide

"Is it even worth fixing?" is the question behind half the calls we take. The answer is not always "buy a new one", and it is not always "fix it" either. We charge the same hourly rate whether we repair your computer or help you set up a new one, so here is the honest version, with nothing riding on which way you go.

Start with three questions

1. How old is it? Under about five years, almost any repair is worth considering. Six to eight years, it depends on what is wrong. Beyond that, the bar for spending money on it should be high.
2. Can it run Windows 11? If not, it runs out of security updates in October 2026 (see still on Windows 10?). Spending much on a computer with a hard expiry date rarely makes sense — unless it is a Mac, or it will never go online.
3. Apart from the fault, were you happy with it? If it was fast enough and did what you needed, repairing it is often the best value you will get. If it was already frustrating, fixing one fault leaves you with a frustrating computer that works again.

Usually worth repairing

• It has become slow, and it still has a traditional hard drive. Swapping it for a solid-state drive (SSD) is the most dramatic upgrade in computing — machines go from minutes to boot to seconds, and the part costs a fraction of a new computer. See why is my computer so slow?
• Not enough memory. On many desktops and some laptops, adding RAM is cheap and makes a real difference with modern browsers.
• A failed charger, battery, keyboard or fan. Common parts, normally straightforward to replace.
• A cracked laptop screen on an otherwise good laptop.
• Software problems — crashing, viruses, failed updates. These cost time, not parts, and the computer itself is fine.
• It's dusty and overheating. A proper clean and tune-up often cures random shutdowns and loud fans.

Usually time to replace

• A motherboard failure on an older laptop. The part alone can approach the price of a new machine.
• It can't run Windows 11 and you use it for banking or email.
• Several things are going at once — battery, hinges, screen and slowness together.
• The repair would cost more than about half of a comparable new computer. That is our rough line. Past it, the new machine's warranty and extra years usually win.

The part people forget: the data

Whichever way you go, your files need to survive the decision. A failed computer almost never means lost files — the drive can usually be taken out and read, even from a laptop that will not turn on. If you replace the machine, moving your documents, photos, email and settings across properly is what makes the new one feel like yours. Our backup and data transfer service handles exactly that.

How we handle it

When you bring us a computer, we diagnose it first and tell you what is wrong, what fixing it would involve, and what we would do if it were ours. If a repair doesn't make sense, we say so — you will never pay for a repair we would have advised against. Our computer repairs and laptop repairs are both charged at one flat $135 an hour, parts are quoted before they are ordered, and you are told before we go past the first hour.

Related guides

• Why is my computer so slow? — work out whether slowness is fixable first.
• Still on Windows 10? — the deadline that changes the maths for older PCs.
• Laptop won't turn on? — before you decide it is dead.