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10 years old laptop - is it time to retire? (sh.itjust.works)
submitted 5 months ago by someacnt@sh.itjust.works to c/hardware@lemmy.world
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My dad has a laptop I used to use, which has been working well so far. Recently, he got frequent out-of-memory (RAM) issues - the computer freezes, forcing to restart. It is hard to diagnose, but it might be that 8GB RAM might be too small even for light workload these days.

So, I just checked when it is produced - 2015-10. So it is now 10 years old. While I am wary of producing e-wastes, maybe that was long enough life we got out of it. Perhaps it costs more in electricity than buying a replacement laptop? So, I want to ask - is it time to retire this laptop?

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[-] mycatsays@aussie.zone 3 points 5 months ago

It's not about the age of the device, hut whether it is still meeting (or able to meet) the needs of its user(s).

If it was fully functional, would it still be meeting your needs? If yes, it's worth trying to resolve the problem(s). There are some good suggestions here for things you can try.

If the laptop wasn't really meeting your needs, or the issues the laptop is having can't be resolved, then yes it's time to replace it. (And you may not need to scrap it: sometimes an older device can be repurposed for a new job, either with you or with someone else.)

this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026
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