Repair it or replace it? How we decide

The rough rule

If the repair costs more than about a third of a comparable new machine, and the machine is over four years old, replacement is usually better value. That's not a formula so much as a starting point — a three-year-old laptop with a cracked screen is worth fixing; a seven-year-old desktop that needs a drive and a power supply is not.

Repair is the right call when

• One specific part failed and everything else is fine
• The machine is under about four years old and still comfortably fast
• It's a screen, battery, keyboard, drive or memory job
• It still receives operating system updates
• You need it working tomorrow and can replace it properly next quarter

Replace when

• It's slow at everything, not slow at one thing
• The operating system is out of support and can't be upgraded
• It's the second fault in twelve months
• It still has a spinning hard drive rather than an SSD
• The repair needs parts that are hard to get for that model

Budget for it instead of reacting to it

The most expensive way to buy computers is one at a time, urgently, because one died. A three or four year replacement cycle with one or two machines a year is cheaper, more predictable, and means nobody is working on the last surviving old laptop while they wait for a delivery.

We keep an asset list for plan clients with age and warranty status, so the conversation happens in a quarterly review rather than on a Tuesday morning when something has failed.