Bust laptop – stick or twist

Aka, pay for repairs or just buy a new one?

My (personal) laptop is bust. Repair guy thinks the main board needs replacing and is quoting between £100-£200 range to fix (I’m assuming that’s parts and labour…)

Laptop is around seven years old and was only mid-range at best anyway (Lenovo Z710) but is blessed with lots of USB ports. I’ve upgraded it to W10 but it’s too old/not powerful enough for W11.

However, it’s only really used for media streaming these days and light Office work. 

I’m out of touch with laptop prices these days and I’ve no idea what to look for but is spending up to £200 just wasting money?

[The wrinkle is that I can’t be sure all the data is in the cloud but I’ll take a hammer to the laptop to extract the HDD if needed! (I’ve got a hard drive caddy somewhere….)]

is spending up to £200 just wasting money?

On something that old, yes.

It does sound like quite a lot to spend on a laptop that is 7 years old.
You could get a decent refurbed laptop for £200.

If you do need to get data out of the old HDD, then they’re normally easy enough to remove & stick in a caddy, so you can just plug it into something else & copy over what you want.

What’s up with it?

From a swift google of the model number it’s got a 4th gen intel processor and ddr3 ram.

https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/Lenovo_Laptops/Lenovo_Z710/Lenovo_Z710_Spec.PDF

Get a new one, that’s a bit more than 7 years old if it’s one of those.

7 years is a good innings, I’d treat yourself to something new. Should be able to get something much better for around £500.

“What’s up with it?”

It won’t boot up. Apart from a brief flash of a random LED next to the screen, you’d think the power supply had failed as it seems completely dead…

Look like I need to waste time researching a new laptop then. Expect more stupid questions…

Ok, assuming I need a new laptop, what minimum specs/features should I bo looking for?

It’s only used for media streaming and browsing plus some light Office duties. I’ve got old (local install) versions of Photoshop and Lightroom but I don’t use them much these days, plus around 200Gb of old photos and about 80Gb of MP3s (which are backed up to an external HDD).

It’s also mostly hooked up to a 4k TV as display so a 4k display and HDMI connectivity are the only hard requirements. I generally keep stuff for a long time, so some degree of future proofing is desirable…

Have you tried powering it up with the battery removed?

I’ve had a look at the maintenance manual.  I’m not seeing any “random LED” next to the screen, can you be more specific?

On the upside, getting at the HDD is a piece of piss if you need to take it out.  The motherboard is a considerably bigger job.

https://www.dell.com/en-uk/shop/laptops-2-in-1-pcs/inspiron-15-laptop/spd/inspiron-15-3535-laptop/cn33508sc

I bought this Dell a few yrs ago so maybe mine is a slightly lower spec, but for same price @£299. It’s been brilliant, feels solidly built for price point, fast start up, fast shut down and will certainly do the simple stuff you want one for. That’s just a start point, there currently appears to be a number of good deals at whatever spec/price point you desire.

“Have you tried powering it up with the battery removed?”

That is a good shout. Knackered battery may well stop it booting up even if plugged into mains.

If you need any inspiration have a look at refurbished business grade laptops on eBay. They’re usually a few years old and in pretty good nick. Once they’re out of warranty business’s tend to get rid i think. Laptops such as Dell Latitude or Lenovo Thinkpads. My dad picked up a Lenovo T14 gen 2 last week for £300. I think it’s around 3 years old. Has an i7 CPU with 16GB ram and it’s in mint condition. Plenty bargains out there if you go second hand.

you’d think the power supply had failed

Are you sure it hasn’t? I’ve just replaced the brick for my old Probook, it was doing just what you’ve described. There was just enough residual juice in the battery after it had gone flat to flash the led when I pressed the power button. A new ps was less than a tenner on eBay.

The laptop has been taken apart and tested by a tech. I presume they’ve checked all the more obvious stuff and they concluded the motherboard is f**ked but I’ve just got it back and it doesn’t power up when the battery has been removed.

I’ll take a look at Dell. I’m not so sure about second hand via eBay though! Don’t know whether I could be bothered with any potential delay or hassle…

Personally I would just buy a refurb. A 7 year old laptop is pretty worthless.

Although if you can get a replacement motherboard then it’s a pretty simple repair.

Laptops are modular and Lenovo have all the service manuals online.

Nothing wrong with eBay!  You’re buying refurbed laptops from a business (usually)  who just sell through eBay at end of the day.

For 300 quid I picked a refurb dell lattitude with 16gb RAM and an 11th gen i5. It’s a 2021 model and more than up to most things I chuck at it.

No way I’d spend 200 quid trying to fix a seven year old machine.

Is there a website you can put in relevant laptop details (processor and RAM?? Or anything else??) and Microsoft determine whether it can be upgraded from W10 to W11?

IMO, If the mobo is shot, then it’s an economic rightoff, realistically, especially at that age. Even if you spend £200 on repairs you still still have an old laptop.

I’d get a refurb lenovo as per the official STW consensus, or if you want something brand new, I’d look at something like this:

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-v15-g4-amn-ryzen-5-7520u-16gb-ram-256gb-ssd-15.6-inch-82yu00hxuk/version.asp

Or this

https://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/lenovo-v15-g4-intel-core-i5-12500h-8gb-ram-512gb-ssd-windows-11-home-laptop-83a100h9uk/version.asp

Just as a for instance, I’m not saying thats the best value as I only checked that website.