Is it worth repairing?

HappyMJ

I have a Lenovo T61 had it for about 7 years and I've had certainly my money's worth out if it and now I'm thinking it's now at the end of it's life.

Is it worth repairing? It's an Intel Dual Core T7300 2.0Ghz processor with 3GB memory with the Intel 965 chipset. HDD is only 175GB but plenty big enough for my needs (it's only half full). I can remove that and keep the HDD for backup purposes. It did have a DVD drive but I've removed that to allow more airflow and never used it much in any case. I use USB keys to install things or for disaster recovery.

It has several problems....I think just too many now.

The LCD now has a yellow tint and has faded considerably since new. I've tried colour calibrating and several other things but compared to another laptop it just isn't anywhere near as bright and I'm now straining my eyes a little to read text on it....so a new LCD screen and/or inverter. The top right and bottom left corners of the plastic surrounding the LCD have small cracks in it (probably caused from being dropped at some point luckily it's roll cage prevented any damage to the LCD, although I don't remember dropping it-that's what they all say isn't it) and disassembling it would in my opinion cause it to break so the whole lid should probably be replaced during repair.

The hinge on the screen lid has worn out and needs replacing. The lid doesn't stay in one position very reliably any more. There is a lot (about 2cm) of give in the right side hinge. They are replaced in pairs which could be done at the same time as the LCD.

The fan finally gave up today so I can only use now for short periods on low power mode to prevent it from overheating. It's been making noise for quite a while and today no more noise and it's not spinning despite being very hot. So it needs a complete disassembly and new fan.

The touchpad buttons are also wearing out and aren't recognizing every button press. There are buttons at the top and the bottom of the touchpad so it hasn't bothered me too much..I just now use the other button.

I've replaced the fan before about 4 years ago and I've added 2GB memory to it from the default 1GB to make it 3GB which made a huge difference to it's performance at the time.

I've already changed the HDD due to the previous one's sudden death. That was 2 years ago.

I've replaced the power supply twice. The first time very early on replacing the small 65W with a 90W so called genuine one as the 65W overheated due to heavy use and cut out to save itself too many times. I now just use it when travelling. The 90W one had to be replaced due to the connector at the laptop end shorting. I'm now thinking it wasn't really genuine.

I've also upgraded it from XP to Windows 7.

You can really spend a lot on these things....

It's in use a lot almost all of the time. I do all of my work on it.

I could buy a second hand replacement T61 for £150 from Ebay which will probably have these issues soon due to it's age, fix this one which I have no idea what that would cost...or buy a brand new laptop.

Does anyone have any idea whether it's worth fixing or not?

I use many flash applications on it and 7 years down the line performance is noticeably lagging on newer flash app's making me reduce the graphics quality from high to medium. I've been having to do that for a quite a few years. It's not too much of a bother but I would like to use them in high quality.

I match bet so have several screens open at once to back and lay bets and would like a laptop to be faster so that the delay in switching screens is minimal. Although it's less than a second it can feel like a long time when money is at stake.

I really don't want to be spending a fortune but everything new that I've seen that meets my requirements is around the £900 plus mark. Is that really what I should be looking to spend? It seems like a lot. I think this one cost me around £500 or so when it was about 1 year old. I would prefer a matte screen as this one has and I don't really want a number keypad. I want the touch pad to be central. It's so annoying when you get used to everything and now it's all changed. I've been shopping for one but just don't like anything that I've seen so far.

Sorry for the long post....if you got this far...

aerostar

With all the problems -it really is not worth repairing. You could keep the hard drive and get a carrier and turn it into a USB drive. You could also do the same with the CD drive you took out.

Big_Graeme

To be honest, get a new one, you can pick up a decent laptop for around £300, you are looking at either a new LCD or an inverter board, a new lid and hinge (you can buy them singly), a system fan and a new top cover. Just for parts you are looking at £80-90 on the cheap end but you still need to have them fitted.

Stoke

If it was just the inverter I'd say do it, but add all the other issues and it just isn't worth it tbh.