When Is It Time To Ditch An Aging Laptop For A New One?

There is never a perfect time to buy a new laptop because the necessity to have one, dictates this, which often occurs during the most inconvenience time. As such, instead of waiting to be ambushed by a failing hard drive, suboptimal RAM or a dying battery, It’s best that you plan ahead. Laptops have a finite number of years in them, after which they’re reduced to mere paperweights.

The importance of owning a laptop hasn’t been more apparent than when the pandemic forced us all in doors. WFH life has made it an essential device for anyone who needs to accomplish office related tasks that can’t be done on a smartphone. But when is the right time to junk your old laptop and buy a new one?

Well, we are going to attempt to tackle these tough questions today:

It’s powered by an ancient processor
If your current laptop is powered by an Intel Celeron or non-Ryzen AMD chip, odds are that it isn’t suited for tasks that extend beyond spreadsheets or word documents. If you have an aging laptop with such a processor, and find the lack of performance inconvenient, then take that as a sign that a change is needed.

Try to purchase one with at least an Intel Core-i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 processor that is paired with a minimum of 8GB RAM. Though many sales people will argue about the adequacy of 4GB RAM, they’re wrong. If you’re running on Windows 10, 4GB RAM is the bare minimum needed, that’s why it would be best to double the memory to 8GB.

Dead pixels or cracked screen
If your laptop screen is riddled with uncooperative pixels or blank sections, it may be time to look for a new laptop. Now, broken displays aren’t very expensive to fix, but if you’re rocking an older generation laptop, it might be better to ditch it for a newer model with a better resolution screen that uses less power.

Dying Battery
Most laptop batteries last for at least 2- 3 years, but that depends on usage. If yours barely lasts for more than an hour, then it probably needs replacing. The problem with that is, for older laptops, replacement batteries can be difficult to come by. And to add insult to injury, new inexpensive laptops can offer about 7 hours of battery life. The more expensive ones tout 13 -18 hours!

A misbehaving motherboard
It’s rare, but a motherboard with an odd gremlin or two, can cause a considerable amount of grief to the WFH worker. Random restarts and app crashes can be infuriating, especially when you’re working on a tight deadline. If a simple bios flash can’t remedy the issue, and your local repair shop offers a less than optimistic prognosis, then it’s best to buy a new laptop.

A replacement motherboard can cost as much as a new laptop, due to the fact that the processor, RAM and other vital components are soldered on to it. That is why it isn’t advisable to purchase a replacement motherboard for older laptops. A new laptop offers better performance and consumes less power.

It has a severely cracked shell
If you’ve somehow managed to inflict some serious damage onto your laptop’s casing, causing the keyboard to flex or touchpad to malfunction, then this is a good reason to keep it as a back up and buy a new one. Sourcing shells for older laptops can be extremely difficult. And in addition to this, you’ll need to have it professionally replaced, which will cost extra.

Most common laptop problems can be rectified by swapping out an old part for new one. This is usually true for misbehaving RAM or a slow hard disk, but more serious issues require more effort and money. That’s why it’s always best to weigh all your options before deciding on what to do with an old laptop.