Computers rarely fail cleanly. They get slower, then flakier, then they need a restart every afternoon, and somewhere along the way the business absorbs the cost without ever deciding to.
Here are seven signals that a device has crossed the line — and one of them is a hard stop regardless of how well the machine seems to be running.
1. It cannot run a supported operating system
This is the non-negotiable one. Windows 10 reached end of support in October 2025, and Windows 11 requires TPM 2.0, Secure Boot, and a supported processor. A machine that cannot upgrade is a machine that will never receive another security patch.
It does not matter how fast it feels. An unpatchable device on your network is a standing risk, a likely violation of your cyber insurance attestations, and a compliance problem if you handle regulated data. Replace it.
2. Startup and daily tasks have gotten measurably slower
Do the arithmetic rather than trusting your irritation. If a machine takes three minutes to become usable in the morning and hangs for ten seconds every time someone opens a patient record, add it up over a month. Then compare it to the cost of a replacement amortized over four years.
For a role that touches the computer constantly — front desk, billing, clinical — the math usually favors replacement much earlier than people expect.
One caveat: check whether the slowness is fixable first. A mechanical hard drive replaced with an SSD, or a RAM upgrade on a machine that is otherwise fine, can buy two more good years for a fraction of the cost.
3. It has started failing intermittently
Random restarts, blue screens, USB ports that stop responding, a display that flickers, a fan that runs constantly. Intermittent hardware faults are the beginning of the end, and they are worse than outright failure because they waste time repeatedly without forcing a decision.
They also tend to arrive together, because the components are the same age.
4. The battery no longer holds a useful charge
On a laptop that never leaves a desk, this is cosmetic. On a laptop someone carries between operatories or to client sites, it is the whole point of the device.
Check the battery health report — on Windows, powercfg /batteryreport gives you design capacity versus current capacity. Below about 80 percent, you are on borrowed time. Price the replacement battery and the labor against the age of the machine; on a four-year-old laptop it rarely makes sense.
5. It is out of warranty and out of parts
Once a machine leaves warranty coverage, every failure is a full-price repair plus downtime plus the risk that the part is no longer manufactured. Manufacturers typically support business models for around five years after release, and after that you are relying on third-party stock.
If a critical machine has no warranty and no available spare, the effective risk is not the repair cost — it is the days your business operates without it.
6. It cannot run software you now depend on
Software requirements move. A practice management system upgrade, a new imaging module, a browser-based application that assumes modern hardware — any of these can leave a working computer unable to do the job it was bought for.
This one tends to arrive as an emergency because the software vendor announces the requirement and the deadline together. Checking your vendors’ roadmaps once a year gives you time to plan instead of react.
7. Storage is permanently full
A drive running near capacity slows the whole system down and blocks updates from installing — which quietly turns into a security problem. If someone is deleting files monthly just to keep working, the device is undersized for the job.
Sometimes the fix is moving files to OneDrive or the server rather than buying hardware. Sometimes the machine simply shipped with too little storage and always will have.
How to decide
One clear sign is usually enough if it is the first one on this list. Two or three of the others together generally means replacement is the cheaper path.
The better answer, though, is not to be making this decision device by device under pressure. A planned refresh cycle means the question is settled before the machine starts failing, and the purchase happens at a sensible price on a sensible schedule.
If you would like an honest assessment of which machines in your office are worth keeping, ask us to take a look. We will tell you which ones to replace, which ones to upgrade, and which ones are fine.