Laptop Dies after only two years

rsykes2000

Jakg wrote: »

You bought one of the chepeast laptops available at the time - I would expect 2 years is a reasonable life expectancy.

I would agree with that. Laptops of around £400 and under will be lucky to last 3 years nowadays due to low-quality construction IMO. I would be irritated if mine only lasted 2 years (cost 350) but I wouldn't be overly surprised.

neilmcl

woody01 wrote: »

Just because you say a laptop should last 3 years, do you really think everyone else feels the same?

From experience, a laptop is actually past its usefullness after that long.

Being past its usefulness, out of date, no longer up to spec etc is not the same as physically lasting a certain period of time which a lot of posters seem to be confusing. This is the test, whether the item should physically last for X number of years and one would argue that a laptop breaking down in such a way after only 2 years is not acceptable nor reasonable.

[Deleted User]

Guys, where do you get your information from? Laptops should last longer than 2 years, end of. These are not super-tensed Formula 1 racing cars. They're laptops!

Surely you are covered under the SAD FART rules? It should work for a reasonably length of time. 2 years is not a reasonable length of time for a laptop.

Take it back and stand up for your consumer rights.

p.s. one consideration is whether you've frazzled your battery by always using it plugged in and with the battery in...that does happen, but then that's your fault, not the manufacturers.

ses6jwg

conceptus wrote: »

4 years for an HP laptop, that's lucky. I had one die on me after 18 months. I foolishly bought another one, thinking if I spent £900 when there were £300 ones on the market, I should be getting reasonable quality.

After two months, it was returned and had the hard drive and RAM replaced.
After eleven months, it was returned as the left mouse button had broken
After twelve months, the left mouse button has broken again (started to give the day after return from repairs), the power connector has become loose and audio has become glitchy (one of the problems that led to the RAM being replaced first time around)

Fortunately I have a two year warranty but am currently trying to suggest to HP that my machine was clearly not fit for purpose and that they should offer a replacement.

I have a Pavillion DV5201eu and tbh I have been quite impressed with it.

Build quality is MILES better than my girlfriends Dell which feels like its made from melted down bin lids.

Jakg

Deleted_User wrote: »

Guys, where do you get your information from? Laptops should last longer than 2 years, end of. These are not super-tensed Formula 1 racing cars. They're laptops!

Where do you get YOUR information from? Laptops are incredible complex bits of kit, and if you chose to buy the cheapest one you can get you can't expect it to last 5 years or whatever.

neilmcl

They're not that complex, no more so than most pieces of home electronic equipment. For someone whose computer equipment incl laptops are an essential tool of his trade I would also have to say that a 2 year life is not acceptable and certainly not seen as reasonable.

Having said that, it all comes down to what exactly is the fault, once the OP can establish that then we can decide whether a free repair is fair or not.

[Deleted User]

Jakg wrote: »

Where do you get YOUR information from? Laptops are incredible complex bits of kit, and if you chose to buy the cheapest one you can get you can't expect it to last 5 years or whatever.

The fact I work in IT support and have owned around 40 laptops over the past ten years, all of which are either still working or were when I got rid of them (except one, which I dropped!).

Yes, laptops are complex, but no more so than other electronics equipment. They are designed to last longer than two years. I could expect a few problems after that time: maybe a dodgy screen or a few pixel problems, drives not loading etc, but not even turning on?

smcaul

woody01 wrote: »

From experience, a laptop is actually past its usefullness after that long.

And where did you get that from!!!!

I currently have 2, 3 yr old laptops that get used and abused daily by both myself, my other half, a 6 year old and a 1 1/2 yr old, not to mention the kids my other half child minds for using them. Both work fine, neither are slow, my one handles photo processing using Photoshop and Nikon Capture NX running both at the same time without an issue. Neither cost more then the OP's laptop either.

I am sorry, but you and the others who say it is past it's sell by are talking out from where the sun don't shine.

Any laptop should easily last 3 years if not longer, for the work the majority of people do on them (word processing, surfing and emails) even 5 and 6 year laptops are still very capable machines.

I have two older laptops (IBM Thinkpads) that are 7-8 years old, they are sat quite happily next to my printer, one is running as an email server, with 6 domains and about 20 imap accounts running on it, never had a problem, never crashed on me yet. The other is a web server which has about 8 websites served from it - again, not a problem for it.

Now, are you able to qualify your statement?

neilmcl

Well said. :beer:

reuben23

If the OP uses your advice, they will be a bigger mess. The ONLY person that might help is the manufacturer.


And here is someone else quoting SOGA that has no idea what they are talking about.
SOGA would only come into play if the OP proved the fault was inherent in the machine at purchase.
Impossible in this case

Previous post contained useful information for the OP to proceed with, obviously the OP will need to read the ENTIRE post........
A laptop should last for X years, X being down to personal opinion. But if the OP reasonably thinks X is not enough, then he should persue the retailer for resolve.