The Forestry Forum

Is it worth the cost to fix a cracked touch screen on a 4 year old lap top?

You need to do the math on this one. Hard to say without knowing the model / specs of the laptop. How much does the repair cost compared to a replacement?  Do you need a touch screen, considering the extra expense?

A 4 year old laptop is about ½ way through it's useful life. Figure 7-8 years before it becomes too old and slow to run a current operating system well. With Windows 10's update policies, it a challenge to not have the latest and "greatest". I am assuming it uses Windows 10. The battery, if not easily swapped, is starting to get old. The hard disk or SSD is starting to wear out.

If you are generally hard on your laptop; bounces around in the truck, used in a dusty environment, or lugged around a lot, then sway towards replacement. If it usually sits on a desk and the cat knocked it over cracking the screen then it may be more cost effective to repair.

Search on Youtube for the model and see how complex the repair is. Ifixit.com has repair guides for many models. If you think you can get the digitizer / glass / touch screen at a reasonable price, and DIY the repair, then the scale tips toward repair. If you are paying someone for the repair, that's a bit harder to justify.

If the laptop is otherwise working, it has some value on the used market - even damaged. Or it could be plugged into an external monitor and used as a desktop.

The last thing to consider is the pain of transferring all of your applications and files from the old laptop to a new one.

Good luck.

if you sell it as a used unit remove the HDD. it is amazing what you can get off a formatted HDD.