How can I tell if I need to replace my current 3-year old desktop computer? Works fine now, but...?

Question

It's an HP Pavilion. I'm concerned that as it ages, there is more chance for a major problem (disk drive, etc). Are there tell-tale signs I should look for?

Answer 1

As it ages yes, thats true;
However, how much use have you put into it ?
I have some DELLs that are way over 5 years and are still fine.
In the corporate area, they will have a 4 year replacement cycle.
Hard Drives have a maximum life of 2 years. But thats Corporate.
If it ain't broke don't fix it. What I would suggest is get a Backup unit, and use that. Replace the PC components as needed, and then assess what you need to do, knowing that the backup has you covered.
Thats the best thoughts I can offer

Answer 2

As a general rule of thumb, computers being a consumer product tend to have a life expectancy of 3+ years. This generally means after 3 years the unit can be expected to start to experience difficulties or failures. Since you aren't currently having any issues, you may not have to do anything in the immediate future but should be planning for something in the longer term. I see that it is a National brand model which limits just how much you can upgrade the unit. Off hand I'd say only memory, HDD and the CD/DVD could be easily changed out with any other newer version easily. The power supply and system board can only be effectively replaced with the same units from HP and the CPU may depending on what you have and what was made available on the model, may be upgraded to the fastest one your board will support for the socket set.
Clones, for all the negativity I heard about them, afford the greatest scale of flexibility and room to grow because they are more generic in form. If you feel you can do the work you may want to look at a custom built unit for your next model and try to stay up with technology as it changes on a year to years basis instead of being stuck in the past as you are now.
However, if you are happy with the status quo remember, if it isn't broke don't fix it.

Answer 3

Yes and no. I have had mine for 4 years and still going good. You really do not replace anything if the computer is running good for you. If you just use it for the internet and mail a computer 10 years old would be fine.

Send me your HP computer number. Mine is the HP Pavilion a300n. I can tell you what you might want to upgrade on to make it run better. On mine, I put the fastest PCI video card in. But when I bought it I did not know about PCI, or AGP cards at the time. Well PCI you can upgrade to a certain point, then AGP takes over from the point and you can REALLY upgrade more.

But before you send it to me IF you do (don't care about the 10 points. Now if it was $10 that would be another story. LOL), run Belrac first to see what you have for memory installed. Also if you have a graphics video card installed let me know which one it is. The program tells you everything. The other one is ok. But bookmark them both for future reference. I can tell you what you need to do if anything.


INFORMATION SITES
http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html -- info on computer inside
http://www.cpuid.com/cpuz.php
http://www.crucial.com/index.asp -- info and price on memory

Also list the memory, video card if any, the kind of drives on the computer, and that is it.

Answer 4

The sound is really the only thing that will give you a good idea of a component about to fail. But it is sometimes tough to tell, because most changes in sound are gradual so you don't notice it.

Listen closely to your Optical drives, Hard drives and fans. If your power supply fan is loud and clogged with dust, then your power supply life will be severly shortened. Same with the fan on your heatsinks for the processor and the video card if you have one.

If your hard drive sounds louder than normal, the mechanical parts are getting closer and closer to their failing points. This could be weeks or it could be years. But you still should back up your important data.

Other than that, you can check for blown capacitors, those are the little cylinders that are attached to the motherboard. If they are bulging even in the slightest (if the top is not flat.) it could be a sign the board is about to go. Though I have seen MB's with blown Caps run just fine.

Answer 5

At 3-years old, you are definitely at risk for hard drive failure. In my personal experience, hard drives are one of the most fail-prone pieces of hardware in your computer. Listen for unusual noises coming from the hard drive. Also, if your computer becomes slow and no steps you take seem to solve the problem, this can be a prologue to hard drive failure.

About all you can do is to make thorough, regular backups so that when it does fail you won't lose anything important. I would recommend a USB flash drive for this purpose since they are cheap, simple to use, high capacity, and easy to keep track of. However, if you have large amounts of data (such as an iTunes music library) you will probably be better off using DVDs to back up, which requires special software. A dual layer, double sided DVD can store several gigabytes of data.

Answer 6

Chances are that you wont see it coming one day it will just crash and not boot-up, if it has been crashing that could be a side of the HDD getting old, (end of the day you can 80GB HDD for under £50 so if your really worried get a new hdd a start from sratch
i have a 4 year old PC that my mum uses and that runs fine.
Like some one else said aint broke dont fix, good idea to keep a backup of all important data just incase.

Answer 7

Three years old and your ready to toss it. Me-thinks you are looking for an excuse to buy a new one.

Signs a hard drive is ready to go, squeaks, bad sectors found in scans, burning smell, flames when it finally goes.

Signs your power supply is about to go, smoke followed by flames and a lot of cursing.

There really isn't a way to predict what is going to happen to any of it,, all I can honestly say is that when it happens to you it will be at the most inopportune time.

That is after all what Murphy's Law is all about.

Answer 8

I've seen pcs used for over 10 years. Be sure to have norton installed so you can check out the hardware. And of course back up, even with a new system.

No real need to upgrade as much as we're used to doing. My pc is about as old.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

look at the motherboard see if any of the capacitors are swollen
or leaking they should be flat on top this is a surefire way to tell if the board is going bad,But some boards look fine and are still bad