... I have a laptop 6 years old that runs great but the battery is ruined because i always kept it plugged in. I read many documents about how to max battery life, like deep cycle it once every few months, but it doesnt seem enough. the battery now is slightly bulged and it's hard to justify a new battery for an old computer.
Do you ever use the laptop as a laptop? ie: move it from where it is?
Does the laptop do everything you want it to do, with no issues?
If the laptop does what you need it to do and you do move it around, then replacing the battery might be worth it (if it is cheap compared to replacing the whole laptop).
If you would like it to perform better and need to move it around, then replacing the laptop would be a good idea.
If you never actually move it around, you would be better of switching to a tower.
I personally have a tower and a laptop. I used to avoid getting a laptop, but eventually I had too many situations where I needed the mobility so I got myself a laptop.
I've always only gotten a few hours while unplugged, because the thing is a bit of a Defiant class starship (DS9 reference).
My tower currently needs upgrading (Phenom II), but it still does everything I need it to... so I can't justify the cost of the upgrade.
I would like to be able to play Bioshock Infinite... but that is the only thing my laptop can't do... of course, I haven't actually tried to play it on my tower yet... but I doubt a Phenom II based tower could beat an A10 based laptop. I do all my gaming on my laptop and the only troubles I have are Civ5 eating my battery and BI just failing (super video stutter even on lowest settings).
... sometimes causing your phone to act weird and rare cases, reboots.
Hahaha... my phone acts weirdly and often reboots. But it isn't a battery pack (don't use one) or such. My house is right on the edge of the cell network and, while inside, the signal is intermittent. This seems to result in my phone rebooting a lot. I've tested this by leaving my phone in locations that get signal, locations where there is no signal and locations where the signal is iffy. When my signal is iffy, the stupid thing just keeps rebooting... I've seen it reboot over 5 times in a 30 minutes span. I feel sorry for anyone who does call me while I'm at home because it often causes my phone to reboot. * ring.... rebooting tune *