Technology Is my computer as good as dead?

[akpete]

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Hi. I have a 6-year old laptop. For the past few months, the screen has been flickering with movement and dims/brightens back up constantly. A few times the screen has gone black and I have to restart my computer. Recently this has gotten worse, but not consistently. For example, yesterday, my screen went out/wouldn't turn on at start up 11 times. But today, no problems (yet).

So is this something that would be worth fixing on a 6 year old computer? I'm assuming it's probably more expensive to fix than the computer is worth, but I'm not sure.

If I'm not going to fix it, at what point do I decide the computer is dead and I have to buy a new one - which would be on credit card, so I don't wanna buy prematurely.

Thank you very much.

 

[southerndoc]

Wow! 6 hours out of a laptop? That's pretty good! The average lifespan of a laptop is 3-4 years.

 

[Shroom]

Wow! 6 hours out of a laptop? That's pretty good! The average lifespan of a laptop is 3-4 years.

6 hours?

 

[southerndoc]

6 hours?

Oops!

6 years. Sorry!

 

[deleted59964]

Hi. I have a 6-year old laptop....... at what point do I decide the computer is dead and I have to buy a new one.

3 years ago

 

[Shroom]

3 years ago

Agreed. My 3 year old laptop just bit the dust. Good thing I had my other system.

 

[akpete]

I can't believe it lasted this long, but other than the screen it pretty much works okay. But it's a money issue unfortunately. I don't want to buy new if the other one will last for another year or two. But I suppose the odds of that happening aren't too good. 🙁

 

[Mr. Awesome]

Connect it to an old external monitor. Heck, you can get used ones for $10-30 (or free) and still use your laptop (just not the LCD on the laptop, which is the problem).

 

[DudeManBro]

im not an expert or anything but i think it might be time to start shopping around for something new. www.tigerdirect.com and www.newegg.com are good places to start. built my own desktop using those sites. they're pretty cheap considering the alternative retailers. hope this helps!!🙂