Buy A New Computer – or Repair The One You Have?

If you’re like most consumers, your computer is now more than a year old.  You have come to love it, as you spend most of your wakeful hours working and playing on this machine.  You have become comfortable with the organizations of your browser favorites, like the shortcuts on your desktop, and fully enjoy the applications you downloaded and use every day.  But yes, the performance has slowed down, and yes, there are pop-ups and error messages now and then, even crashing and freezing has started to become more frequent – and in the middle of a chat session.

Could that mean the end of the road for my computer? What do you do:  Buy a new computer?  Or fix the old one?

When Buying a New Computer

If you buy a new computer, there are many factors to consider.  Besides the direct out-of-pocket expense for a new computer, there are major inconveniences and time factors that should be considered as well.  First, you will have to get used to an entirely new system, without all the personal conveniences that it took you so long to set up.  This may take up to one month before all of the buttons, gadgets, widgets and data are in the same place you’ve grown familiar to find.  Also, you will have to make sure you that you’ve backed up all of your old computer programs and files.  A complete backup can take up to eight hours, so be sure to leave yourself enough time for this.  Most of your personal programs will need to be reinstalled.  Make sure you have all software disks and registration numbers handy to re-enter and activate your reinstalled application on the new computer.  Try to save your browser favorites in order to have them available on the new computer.  Your passwords for protected sites (banking, memberships, social media sites, etc.) will not transfer to the new computer so make sure you have those written down somewhere in order to enter them again.  You may find yourself needing to create all new user IDs again if you can’t remember the passwords.  Also remember that all of your personally located Email data won’t move to the new machine by itself, saving your PST file and exporting your entire address book is also recommended.

Finally when your new computer is up and running, it may still take you a few weeks to get used to it and love it again.

When Repairing a Computer

When considering a repair option, you can choose between a technician that will most probably re-install your entire operating system, and an online repair tool that you can do yourself without any loss of data.  There are major advantages to an online repair, such as not having to unplug all the cables from the back of your computer (and remembering exactly where you disconnected them from).  Also, you don’t have to lug the heavy thing into your car, drive it to a shop, and pick it up days later.  What will you do without a computer for all those days?  Online repair can be very easy and very fast, there is no data loss, nothing changes in your settings, personal conveniences stay the same and automatic passwords still work.  Online repair can also cost much less; On average, online repair is 150% less than a technician, and 500% less than buying a new computer.

What To Look For In An Online Repair Product

When using an online repair product, make sure that all changes can be easily “undone”.  In other words, if you don’t like the outcome of the repair, then you can simply revert back to the previous state, before those changes were applied.  A free scan is always nice to have in order to see what the utility will actually fix.  Make sure the utility will take care of the issues you are frustrated with such as a slow computer, crashing and freezing, virus damage, and error messages.    Don’t forget support, you may need some support if the repair utility starts doing strange and unfamiliar things to your computer.  And most importantly, make sure there is a 100% money back guarantee.  This is also a good indicator of the integrity of the repair company, and that they stand behind their product.