Laptop help - get it fixed or get a new one

[bookthief]

Ds pulled our laptop down from a shelf (need to get a higher shelf...) and knackered the screen. Computer shop guy says £180 for a new screen and our insurance excess for accidental damage is £100.

It's a 2 year old bottom-of-the-range Dell and also has a dodgy network socket, v slow, we've had endless problems trying to get it set up with wireless.

So... do we:

a) Get it fixed, pay the excess and put up with it

b) pay £300 (max we can afford) to get another bottom of the range laptop from somewhere which will come with wireless and be much faster etc.

What would you expect the lifespan to be for a laptop? Will we just end up buying something new 12 months down the line anyway if we get this one fixed?

Anyone have an opinion? I need to get this sorted one way or another - I'm without MN for 4 days a week at the moment

If it helps I have claimed for a laptop recently thru insurance. They sent it off for assessment and said that it couldn't be fixed, was the pin at the back where the power plugged in had broken off. Anyway, they offered me a replacement, which was naff, so I asked if I could get my own. I sent them the receipt and I got a cheque back in the post!! It was for the lower of what I paid and the amount they would have paid for the replacement minus the excess. Turned out to be about £250. So you could put this to the £300 you can afford and get a quite decent one.

Hope this makes sense

Hmm, that's a good point. Maybe we should get the insurance company to look at it anyway and see what they say.

The problems with the network connection aren't to do with accidental damage really so what I'm worried about is that we get the screen fixed and end up having to pay to get the network connector fixed and in the end it would have been cheaper to get a new one.

Anyone else feel like they can't have any nice things because they just get trashed?

Insurance assessor should look at all the probs ( I always list everything that is wrong, tell them you think the network connector was done at the same time) Also tell them you have had it looked at and they say it cant be fixed As long as what it would cost to fix is more, or about the same, as it would cost to replace they will recommend replacement.