What Is My Broken Laptop Worth? Sell It, Fix It, or Keep It Running

What Sets a Used Windows Laptop's Price

Our quotes come from four inputs: the model, its condition, what it resells for on the open market, and the cost of any repair we would have to do before reselling it. Below, those four broken out into what you can check at the kitchen table before asking anyone what your laptop is worth.

• Age and processor generation. Two laptops in identical condition can land far apart on this alone.
• A dedicated graphics card. On a gaming laptop the card can be worth more than the rest of the machine. With a working dedicated card it is priced as a gaming laptop; without one, as a laptop.
• Condition. Cracked lid corners, a loose hinge, worn keys, a charging port that needs the cable held at an angle. Each is a deduction. A charging port repair falls inside our $89 to $299 range for common laptop repairs; hinge, lid, and keyboard work is quoted after the free diagnostic.
• Screen. A large deduction, because whoever buys it absorbs a $150 to $400 repair. Standard 1080p panels sit at the low end; high-resolution, touch, and high-refresh panels cost more.
• Battery. A battery that lasts twenty minutes is a deduction.
• Whether it runs Windows 11. Microsoft's minimum is a 1 GHz or faster processor with two or more cores on a compatible 64-bit chip, 4 GB of RAM, 64 GB of storage, UEFI with Secure Boot capability, TPM version 2.0, DirectX 12 compatible graphics, and a 720p display larger than 9 inches. The PC Health Check app answers it in one click; what a fail means for the sale is in section 4.
• Whether it is locked to an account. A laptop still signed into a Microsoft account, or encrypted with BitLocker and no recovery key, can only be used for parts until the owner clears it.
• RAM and storage. More of both raises the price. On many Windows laptops both can still be upgraded, which is a reason to keep the machine (SSD $149 to $349, RAM $200 to $400), not a reason to upgrade it before a sale; the upgrade rarely pays back at the counter.

Fix Cost vs. What Replaces It, Charted

These are our published prices for the repairs that most often send a laptop toward the drawer, next to what replaces them: Microsoft's Windows 10 security updates, and a new laptop.

Every blue mark sits at a fraction of the new machine, which is the whole case for thinking before replacing. The orange dot near the bottom matters just as much. Microsoft's Extended Security Updates cost $30 one time, or nothing if you sync your PC settings, for security updates through October 12, 2027, so a laptop that cannot run Windows 11 is not automatically a dead laptop. The decision follows: fix what is cheap, keep what works, and sell what you were replacing anyway before it loses more ground.

The Three Paths: Fix and Keep, Fix Then Sell, Sell As-Is

The rule underneath these rows: a repair is worth doing before a sale only when it moves the machine from broken to working. Otherwise the repair belongs to the buyer. Because we repair in-house, the deduction is the cost of the repair we would do, which is one of the four inputs to the quote.

The Windows 10 Question

Windows 10 support ended October 14, 2025. In Microsoft's words, it no longer provides software updates, security fixes, or technical assistance to Windows 10 PCs. The laptop works as it did last year; what changed is that new security holes stay open unless it is enrolled in Extended Security Updates. That is the first thing to settle when deciding what to do with a Windows 10 laptop.

ESU is Microsoft's bridge for consumers: it runs through October 12, 2027, for devices on Windows 10 version 22H2, and it delivers security updates only, no feature updates and no technical support. Three ways to enroll: sync your PC settings to a Microsoft account at no additional cost, redeem 1,000 Microsoft Rewards points, or make a one-time purchase of $30 USD plus tax.

Whether the laptop can move to Windows 11 instead comes down to the minimums in section 1, and the PC Health Check app gives a pass or fail and names the item that failed.

For the sale: a laptop that passes sells to someone who wants a daily Windows laptop, which is most buyers. One that fails sells to a parts buyer or a Linux user, a smaller market that pays less and shrinks every year, so if you will sell a machine that cannot upgrade, sooner is better than later.

If you are not selling, $30 for those updates is cheap time. A Windows 10 laptop on ESU that still does what you need is a working computer until October 2027. Spend that time, then decide.

Gaming Laptops and Desktops: Part It Out or Sell Whole

Gaming machines break the usual rule that a computer is worth more whole than in pieces, because the graphics card often carries most of the value. We buy GPUs, CPUs, RAM, SSDs, and motherboards individually, so a gaming PC with a good card in an old machine is often worth more to us as parts than whole. Ask, and we will say which way the quote comes out.

A card that stopped outputting video is not necessarily finished: board-level repair runs $120 to $350, which can beat a replacement card. Our graphics card repair page covers what we fix, and the repair-or-replace guide covers when the repair beats a new card.

Desktops have one more path. A tower that never got past the power-on screen or died mid-upgrade is sometimes one failed or mismatched part from working, and build rescue at $129 to $349 exists for that case. Find out before selling it for parts: a working tower sells as a computer, a dead one as a pile of parts. Desktop motherboards are quoted after the free diagnostic, and a replacement board often wins. Details are on the custom PC page.

Why a Dead Laptop Still Has Value

Most places that advertise buying broken laptops buy the working ones and recycle the rest. A shop with a soldering bench sees a laptop that will not turn on differently: the fault is on the board, and the screen, keyboard, SSD, RAM, chassis, and battery around it may all be fine.

So a repairable dead laptop is worth something to us as a machine, and one beyond repair still carries parts value. We buy used computers and broken ones: water-damaged, no-power, cracked-screen, bent, and for-parts laptops, desktops, and gaming PCs.

If the dead laptop holds files that matter, say so before you sell it. Data recovery is a separate service with a free evaluation first; bring the BitLocker recovery key if the drive was encrypted; in-house recovery runs $149 to $349 for a logical problem (deleted files, a corrupted drive the computer still sees) and $399 to $799 for SSD and NVMe controller work. Once a laptop is sold and wiped, that option is gone.

What drives a laptop to zero: liquid that sat for months and corroded the board, a chassis bent enough to crack the display, parts that fit nothing still in service. A device with no resale or parts value is recycled responsibly, free, and we say so at the quote.

Before You Sell: The Prep Checklist

Ten minutes of prep protects your data and removes what most often delays a sale: a lock only you can clear.

1. Back up. Copy what you care about to an external drive or cloud storage and open a few of the copies to be sure. If the laptop will not turn on and the files matter, find your BitLocker recovery key first (it is saved to your Microsoft account, not the laptop) and keep it; an encrypted drive without it cannot be read. Then skip the rest of this list and tell us.
2. Sign out of your Microsoft and Google accounts. Sign the Microsoft account out of Windows and sign out of any Google account. A laptop still tied to an account is a parts-only quote until cleared.
3. Turn off BitLocker, or have the recovery key in hand. An encrypted drive with no key is unreadable, and the laptop is priced as locked.
4. Reset Windows from Settings. Unplug any external drive first, including the one you just backed up to. Then use Reset this PC, Remove everything, and when it asks, choose Only the drive where Windows is installed unless you mean to wipe a second drive too. We secure-erase every device we buy regardless, but resetting first means your files never leave your hands.
5. Bring the charger; for a tower, just the tower and its power cord. The quote is easier to give with the original charger in hand. A desktop needs no monitor, keyboard, or mouse. A tower you would rather not carry may qualify for local pickup as a higher-value device, so ask when you send photos.
6. Bring valid ID. We buy from legal owners only.
7. Bring proof of ownership for anything locked. A receipt or the original box. Without it we cannot buy a locked laptop.
8. Send photos and model details for the 24-hour quote. Photos of the laptop turned on, the lid, the keyboard, and any damage let us quote within 24 hours by text, email, or call. Or skip the photos and walk in at 18021 Sky Park Cir Suite H2 in Irvine.
9. Send bulk lots as a list. Old company laptops, leftover parts, estate cleanouts, school upgrades: send a list or photos and we quote everything together. Local pickup is available for higher-value devices and bulk lots in Irvine, Tustin, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa, Lake Forest, Mission Viejo, Santa Ana, and Laguna Hills.

Frequently Asked Questions About Selling a Laptop

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