Tech

REPAIR, UPGRADE OR NEW?

James Flynn, Milborne Port Computers

Avery important topic currently is the cost of living and quite honestly this problem isn’t going to go away for the foreseeable future. As you may know I am all for reusing, recycling and repairing, but I also believe sometimes we have to accept that the time has come to upgrade or buy new.

So, what is worth repairing/upgrading and what is not? Many of these decisions are made on the age of the computer or laptop and its specification. Generally, the newer the computer the more it is worth repairing and in my opinion the better the processor the more likely you will be able to have it repaired. By this I mean that manufacturers of computers make lots of the same computer, which all have the exact same parts apart from the processor which can vary significantly depending on the power of that processor, which will dictate the price of the computer/laptop.

The next decision is based on what is wrong with the computer. For laptops, the most common things that go wrong and need repairing or replacing are the keyboard, touchpad, charging port, screen and hinges, and of course, the hard drive is the most common for us to replace and upgrade. For desktops, generally it’s power supply units, memory upgrade, hard drive upgrade or graphics cards.

Next to consider is how easy it is to replace the broken part, which will determine how much labour time it will cost. There are some parts which are very easy to replace on some laptops and there are others that are not so easy on different laptops. When brought into us we would take this into consideration when quoting for the repair and as always I give my honest opinion as to whether I think it’s worth repairing or not.

One of the hardest decisions is whether to replace the broken keyboard in a laptop. You only have to go back a couple of years and you could quite easily remove the keyboard with a couple of screws, or no screws at all, and pop a new one in for less than £35. The issue we now have is that most of the keyboards are built into the top unit of the laptop, which can sometimes require the entire laptop to be dismantled and the touchpad to be replaced as well – quite a difficult decision if only one key doesn’t work. The average cost for this is around £100 including labour!

The other issue we see surprisingly quite a lot of is water damage. The reality is that even laptops that have spill-resistant keyboards fall foul once water (or most of the time red wine!) has entered the computer and corrosion will start to take place instantly with the parts on the motherboard. How quickly the corrosion takes over depends on the amount of liquid and for some internal parts this can happen slowly or very quickly. Generally our recommendation is that any computer that has had water damage should not be used in the long term as its reliability cannot be guaranteed.

If in doubt about the condition and repairability of your computer, remember it is always worth bringing it to us for a diagnosis, which will cost you nothing. No work will be carried out if it’s not deemed economical, and one thing you can rely on with us is an honest opinion.

As ever, if in doubt, you know where to come!