Posted On 18 Aug 2020
It doesn’t matter how much you spend on a computer system, it’s a fact of life that ultimately they will become obsolete. Some companies and individuals take this as an excuse to simply upgrade their hardware every couple of years, but this can be uneconomical and unnecessary. If you monitor your equipment carefully and think about a number of warning signs (below) that your computer is starting to reach the end of its useful life, you could actually save money by only upgrading your hardware when it’s really necessary.
Software problems: If your computer doesn’t seem to be able to handle new software, i.e., it becomes intolerably slow or even crashes when new software is introduced, this could be a sign that it is time for a replacement.
Hardware failures: You may experience freezing problems with your screen, color interpretations, failure to recognize peripherals, etc. All of these things can be signs that your hardware is struggling to keep up and maybe at risk of imminent failure. Sometimes hardware problems can be repaired, but more often than not replacement will be required.
Noisy hardware: One sign that hardware is reaching the end of its life is when it starts making excessive noise. This can be manifested by fans getting noisier than ever, hard drives starting to make clicking or grinding noises. Again, it may be possible to implement repairs, but often these can be more expensive than actually replacing the malfunctioning unit.
Bootup errors: If your computer is taking an excessively long time to start up, or is displaying error messages such as “Disk Boot Failure”, this is certainly a sign that your hard drive is corrupted or failing. If this is happening, you need to deal with it at once before you experience the type of catastrophic failure that will result in total loss of your data.
Underwhelming performance: If your computer is working more slowly than usual, experiencing multiple crashes, or a lack of stability, there could be various causes. Viruses can affect performance, and an overloaded hard drive will inevitably work more slowly. However, if your system is getting on in years, it could simply be that it is wearing out or unable to cope with the demands of modern applications; once again, that’s telling you it’s time for replacement.
