Replacing Old Tech Is a Nightmare

Replacing old tech can be a bit of a nightmare. I’m currently staring at my old TV. It still works, but I know it’s only got a couple of years left in it. Trying to guess how long something lasts is impossible — how long is a piece of string? I normally don’t replace stuff unless I absolutely have to, but I’ve been considering a monitor as the next step.

Features I need:

• A display that fits the space — with enough height or clearance for everything under it.

• 60Hz or higher.

• USB-C ports.

• Built-in speakers.

• Budget-friendly(ish).

That puts me in the 24″–28″ range, maybe 32″ at a push. Profile matters too, so height clearance is a big deal. Ideally, I’d like 1440p.

And here’s where the headache starts. TVs are better on some fronts, but most are stuck at 1080p. Monitors give me 1440p, but then they ditch the speakers and USB. Pick one feature, lose two others.

The deeper you look, the worse it gets. Need a riser? Oh, that won’t work. Adjustable height? Maybe — until you measure again. Will it even fit? Great, now that’s a new problem. Shopping platforms rarely provide useful details. Reviews contradict each other. Google has somehow gotten more useless over time.

I’ve found a TV with speakers but no USB. A monitor with 1440p but no sound. A smart TV with everything, but it won’t fit in the space. And why does everyone want massive TVs for tiny living rooms? I just want a decent in a small form factor. 

Then there’s the price, which hits my wallet hard. Welcome to my nightmare.

And it’s not just this one purchase. It made me think about upgrading old hardware in general — how awkward it is to make sure everything else still works with it. I’ve still got an old, now retro, games console. It looks awful compared to modern kit, but if I upgrade the display, that console probably won’t even work anymore. That’s the trade-off: solve one problem, create another. Sure, I could emulate it — better performance, easier to use — but then you hit the legal grey zones, or the cost of extra hardware to make old consoles look decent on modern screens.

And this is the real issue: upgrading tech isn’t just about replacing one thing. It’s about breaking something else. Parts stop being made. The knowledge to repair it fades. Sometimes it’s not even designed to be repaired. Big institutions know this — change one part of a system and the whole chain can fail. For regular people it means nostalgia gets harder, preservation gets harder, and just finding a product that works the way you need becomes a chore.

So yeah — this isn’t my usual content, but I needed to vent. If anything, this little adventure has taught me two things: search engines are worse than ever, and upgrading tech is less about “progress” and more about wrestling with compromises.