We have this conversation several times a week, and we have talked plenty of people out of a repair. A shop that only ever recommends repairs is not advising you — it is selling to you. So here is the actual reasoning.
// Repair usually wins when
- ›The computer is less than 4–5 years old.
- ›The repair cost is less than 50% of a replacement's value.
- ›The problem is a single failed component — hard drive, RAM, power supply, or screen.
- ›The machine has sentimental value or specialised software that is hard to migrate.
- ›You have important data that needs to be recovered before anything else happens.
// Replace usually wins when
- ›The computer is 6+ years old and multiple things are failing.
- ›Repair costs approach or exceed the cost of a new machine.
- ›The machine cannot run the current operating system or software you need.
- ›Performance is so degraded that upgrades will not bring it to an acceptable level.
- ›The motherboard or CPU has failed — these are rarely worth replacing in older machines.
The one rule that overrides everything
If there is irreplaceable data on it — photographs, business records, the only copy of anything — recovery comes first and the repair-or-replace decision comes second. Do not let anyone reinstall an operating system on a drive holding the only copy of your daughter's wedding photographs. Get the data off, then decide about the hardware.
// The middle ground people forget
A machine that is slow but not broken often does not need either. Moving a five-year-old computer from a mechanical drive to an SSD is inexpensive and frequently makes it feel newer than a budget replacement would.
We recommend this more often than we recommend a new machine, and it earns us less. That is rather the point.
The short version
Bring it in and we will tell you which side of the line it falls on, with a real number attached, before you commit to anything. If the honest answer is that it is not worth repairing, that is the answer you will get — and we will not charge you for finding out.