Laptop life expectancy
Discussion
My 7yr old Dell Inspiron 17 (also HDD-SSD upgraded) is still fine. Now that I've switched to webapps, it's fast enough, too. (I did try Blender on it, and that worked albeit slowly.)
I get a feeling that the fan comes on more than I remember - especially in the recent heat, but that's to be expected with dust build-up. And just maybe a few times I get a double letter (ff) when typing (f) and it seems to affect keys in the centre of the keyboard. The trackpad 'click' sensitivity is perhaps is a bit more sensitive, not sure. But still working as expected.
I get a feeling that the fan comes on more than I remember - especially in the recent heat, but that's to be expected with dust build-up. And just maybe a few times I get a double letter (ff) when typing (f) and it seems to affect keys in the centre of the keyboard. The trackpad 'click' sensitivity is perhaps is a bit more sensitive, not sure. But still working as expected.
I have a 12 year old MacBook Pro which still works fine, though the newest operating system that it will run on is well out-of-date meaning it won't support the newer browser versions required to maintain security. I've hung onto it as it has an optical drive, firewire, and all sorts of other bits that modern ones don't which I find useful every now and then.
Replying on a 10 year old MacBook Air. On it's second battery, but other than having fallen off the OS upgrades, works just fine, and it's not had an easy life!
Depends on the laptop and the way it's treated. A well built machine that's looked after should last a long time. A cheap Argos special that gets abused - not so much. And all variations in between!
Depends on the laptop and the way it's treated. A well built machine that's looked after should last a long time. A cheap Argos special that gets abused - not so much. And all variations in between!
We have two 9 year old (almost 10) Asus N55SF laptops. Both have spend 99% of their lives at home, so not been lugged about in rucksacks etc. Both work very well, and I can still play pretty recent games etc on them without too much issue. Only upgrades on both have been increasing the RAM to 16GB and 8GB, switching harddrives to larger ones, and OS to Win10. Admittedly the were the i7 chip models.
No reason a windows laptop cannot last if its looked after.
No reason a windows laptop cannot last if its looked after.
It's the dust that usually kills them in my experience. Well not so much the dust itself, but because many of them now are completely sealed units and/or can't easily be cleaned without disassembling it into 3000 pieces with a very high risk of snapping the plastic cable connections and retaining lugs unless you're extremely careful. Most people don't have the time or experience for it so stick it on ebay and just buy another one.
If you can keep it clean inside and upgrade the RAM/CPU/HDD to keep up with technological advancements then there's no reason for it to ever die.
If you can keep it clean inside and upgrade the RAM/CPU/HDD to keep up with technological advancements then there's no reason for it to ever die.
It's not so much the laptop, but the operating system.
I 'upgraded' to Windows 10 from Windows 7, and most of my software would not work. Windows 10 is so bloated with stuff you can't remove there's almost no memory left for anything else. Tried to go back to Windows 7 and ended up doing a low level erase on my hard drive because Windows 10 is harder to get rid of than a urine soaked mattress.
Installed Linux Mint and never looked back.
I 'upgraded' to Windows 10 from Windows 7, and most of my software would not work. Windows 10 is so bloated with stuff you can't remove there's almost no memory left for anything else. Tried to go back to Windows 7 and ended up doing a low level erase on my hard drive because Windows 10 is harder to get rid of than a urine soaked mattress.
Installed Linux Mint and never looked back.
We are still using a 1996 Gateway 2000 laptop with a Pentium 90 running windows 98 to map my brothers DTA engine management system on his racecar.
The battery died years ago but it still works absolutely fine and even has the original hard drive. The only reason we use it is it has a serial port and I had no luck getting it work on a modern laptop with a usb/serial converter.
My everyday laptop is a 7 year old Fujitsu. I replaced the drive with an SSD and it boots in 10 seconds.
The battery died years ago but it still works absolutely fine and even has the original hard drive. The only reason we use it is it has a serial port and I had no luck getting it work on a modern laptop with a usb/serial converter.
My everyday laptop is a 7 year old Fujitsu. I replaced the drive with an SSD and it boots in 10 seconds.
So looks like I should hopefully be OK for a few years yet. I don’t use it much at all and if I do it’s typically for light browsing and watching videos/films. I never take it anywhere. It’s running the latest version of Win 10 and I try to keep up with Updates and whatnot.
I’ve never been able to justify the eye watering prices for Macbooks though I guess it’s a case of you get what you pay for in terms of their longevity and design. One day maybe..
I’ve never been able to justify the eye watering prices for Macbooks though I guess it’s a case of you get what you pay for in terms of their longevity and design. One day maybe..
CubanPete said:
Vacuum on the fan ports to clear the dust to keep it running.
If you're doing this, vacuum the inlet side, or blow into the exhaust side with compressed air. Ideally use a bic refill or similar to stop the fan being spun up by the air flow.Sucking on the exhaust side tends to make the clogging more solidly embedded into the heat pipe fins.
NMNeil said:
Installed Linux Mint and never looked back.
Good man! Been using Linux since 2002, I did dabble with a 2010 MBP for a few years but now have a Dell XPS Ubuntu Edition as my laptop, I've switched from Ubuntu LTS versions to the latest ones though. Also got a LG Chromebase desktop which stopped getting OS updates from Google so now runs Elementary OS. If you carry it around I find the screen hinge tends to go and the battery health smoothly deteriorates to the point where it’s not useful. Another point of wear is the power cable socket.
I say if you like the machine, there’s no problem with replacing the battery.
Tightening the screen hinge and fixing the power socket depends on whether the laptop was designed for easy servicing.
I say if you like the machine, there’s no problem with replacing the battery.
Tightening the screen hinge and fixing the power socket depends on whether the laptop was designed for easy servicing.
AJB88 said:
Good man! Been using Linux since 2002, I did dabble with a 2010 MBP for a few years but now have a Dell XPS Ubuntu Edition as my laptop, I've switched from Ubuntu LTS versions to the latest ones though. Also got a LG Chromebase desktop which stopped getting OS updates from Google so now runs Elementary OS.
Even Microsoft are starting to use Linux.https://build5nines.com/linux-is-most-used-os-in-m...
We may never see the blue screen of death again
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