Why do laptops seem to only have around 2.5 yrs lifespan?

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    watty on 29/04/2015 - 21:19

    +1

    More like we are addicted to trend and the experience of getting something new. We see businesses shoot out the same thing over and over with higher or lower numbers and it gets re-badged to justify the 'new' tag. Innovation has been changed from making something realistically better to large corporations using it as a medium for profit.

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      DrPayne1990 on 29/04/2015 - 21:35

      Yeah, that too. The whole iPhone range is a perfect example of that.

      But I see it nearly everyday… people upgrade their shit just because it is running "too slow", only to find that they have filled it up with all their crap. So instead of deleting some of their data, they prefer to get the newest thing and complain about how slow the old product was working.

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        Davros on 29/04/2015 - 22:41

        I have a relation who does that and I love it as I take his throwaways, get rid of the bloat, add SSD and more ram and have a better than original machine.
        I keep showing him how easy it is but he just keeps buying new gear and filling it with sh*t
        He is the epitome of a fool and his money

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  windbox on 29/04/2015 - 21:18

  My Dell D600 (Intel Pentium M 1.4 GHz/ 512M RAM / 80G HDD) is still functioning, brought in 2003, although I did change the LCD Hinges and harddisk :)

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  GordonR on 29/04/2015 - 22:28

  +1

  My experience over quite a few years is that the RAM is an obvious weak spot, as both the OS (whatever flavour) and applications seem to make increasingly heavy memory demands as time passes.

  What seems like more than enough RAM on purchase seems merely adequate two years later, and positively skimpy four years later.

  So I try to prioritize RAM over, say, disk space, when configuring a new machine.

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    Mobe1969 on 30/04/2015 - 07:50

    Yeah that is definitely true. And if on top of the OS you have anything that installs services or startup processes it eats into it even more.

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  ceebee on 30/04/2015 - 01:04

  Short answer: They don't. It's just really your perception based on anecdotal evidence of the computers in your household. All tech is different, really. Sometimes parts just fail.

  Long answer:

  I have an Dell Inspiron 1720 that I bought eight years ago, and it was top of the line at the time — it's still going pretty well even now. Intel Mobile Core Duo 2.60ghz, 4GB Ram, GeForce 8600M GT. It's pretty smooth, but does overheat at times. But I can open tons of tabs, I can game with some older games still, play some mmos on low graphics, watch youtube, photoshop, most movies, etc. I can still use it for all my web development too— although I have recently ordered a new laptop.

  The only thing is that I've had to do was upgrade from Vista to W7 (not the laptops fault), and replace was the DVD drive after about four years. But I find the DVD drive seem to always fail after about that time with any technology I have. And last year I had to replace the keyboard because the contacts went (not an issue had I decided to use a usb keyboard with it, but I primarily use the laptop keyboard. It was really easy to replace). And of course the battery is not as good as it once was.

  All in all a good run, considering.

  Lately it's been showing more issues as I recently had to do a clean reinstall. I feel that one of the HDs is a bit iffy and the comp in general is just getting old. It's been overheating a lot more, and on 1080p movies, (my res is 1920x1200) it's not liking it as it once did; this summer I had some warping with movies due to the heat. However, it still works fine and I can watch most things full screen as long as the laptop stays cool — unfortunately it's really really hard to take the bottom off to clean the fan properly, it just isn't designed well in that way. Still, considering I've never taken it apart to clean the fan I got good use out of it.

  Prior to this I had a custom built laptop made in the US which lasted a good long time. Probably at least 5 years, until the HD failed, and by then it was becoming osolete anyway, so I bought this.

  By comparison, my mother's 3 year old Asus with specs similar to mine, and a 3 year netbook Acer with slightly lower specs, are both terrible compared and feel like wading through molasses when I browse, look at youtube, etc. And that's even with a clean install of her Acer. Her monitor failed within a year, so did her DVD drive. The new monitor isn't doing too great either, and has gamma issues. And though my little Acer Aspire is doing ok, it has network card issues already, and is ridiculously inefficient compared to when I first got it.

  So no the two year thing hasn't been my experience. I got my first PC when I was 8, (I'm 33 now) and I've had a ton of computers in my family since. I can't even remember tem all. But I feel PCs and laptops can be hit and miss, and even in 'good' trusted brands, you can just get crap manufacturing runs sometimes. All it needs is one crappy part. It really depends. I had a good run on my Dell, but my boyfriend has a Dell Alienware Desktop (I know, I don't like them either, but he got it just before we met) and the HD has just shat itself all over the place after like two years last month (just out of warranty). I am loathe to say, 'they don't make them like they used to!' Like some old woman, but I do feel that in an effort to make money, the quality of modern laptops just aren't as good as they once were. That said, though, I really feel that computer/laptops and parts are a bit of a crapshoot, sometimes. Either you're lucky and you don't get issues, or you get a bunch of issues. I don't really feel Mac is exempt from this but for the price difference, they better have better quality control.

  And though I don't really like laptops as a general rule since they're hard to upgrade easily— I am going to build my next desktop so I can get longer use out of it— I do need a laptop for traveling and such. I am buying custom again, as I feel it was the best value for money compared to specs and I wasn't happy with the name brand offers out now. Even if parts fail, they seem easier to replace, and some of the gaming cases are designed nicely, and with better fans for cooling than some of the brand name laptops. That said, will it last? Who knows. Hope so.

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  bs0 on 30/04/2015 - 15:39

  2009 macbook pro 13" still going strong. Used it everyday through high school for work + games. Only problem is that battery life is less than an hour now. have an macboook air now, so i use the pro as a home 'desktop'.

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  ozeebee on 30/04/2015 - 17:06

  I have a Dell XPS 15inch bought in October 2010.

  It's still relatively in good working order, still able to play most games and handle all I need from it.

  My only issue is the backup software is not working for whatever reason. I've tried everything including doing a backup on a external HDD but it always fail partway during the backup process.

  Does anyone have any tips or advice on what I can do? I'm fearful of the day it finally gives up and I don't have a backup available…

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