How long do you expect your laptop to live?

Red-Squirrel_2

So...I got my Macbook Pro in 2007, my first big purchase when I got my first real job after uni. Since then its served me well, but its also been dropped or otherwise injured several dozen times, had a fair few drinks spilled on it and had a DIY upgrade of the hard drive and memory about 2 years ago after it tried to die on me a bit.

Its now looking a bit battered and worse for wear, its innards are full of dust, the DVD drive and the USB ports don't work at all, and the battery has been warning me that it needs replacing urgently for about a year. I'm debating shelling out for a brand new model, but it pains me to replace something before it completely gives up the ghost.

I'm wondering how long other people expect a decent. reasonably expensive laptop to last and if you'd stick it out or try to keep patching it up? Is 8 years a decent lifetime? I can afford to replace it but I'm not rich enough that I wouldn't miss the cash!

Robisere

Sounds like you should have taken better care with it. We have an HP 17" laptop which has given 6 years of daily use, including being used by 3 grandbrats. It still looks as good as new, because we look after it and use it on a laptop rest upon a hard surface, keeping it cool and reducing the amount of dust ingress. I gently blow out the vents every week and clean the screen with the correct lens cleaner. Upgrades and backups are carried out regularly.

We do all that because it was an expensive purchase for us and a replacement would be even more expensive now.

joeypesci

Red-Squirrel wrote: »

So...I got my Macbook Pro in 2007, my first big purchase when I got my first real job after uni. Since then its served me well, but its also been dropped or otherwise injured several dozen times, had a fair few drinks spilled on it and had a DIY upgrade of the hard drive and memory about 2 years ago after it tried to die on me a bit.

Its now looking a bit battered and worse for wear, its innards are full of dust, the DVD drive and the USB ports don't work at all, and the battery has been warning me that it needs replacing urgently for about a year. I'm debating shelling out for a brand new model, but it pains me to replace something before it completely gives up the ghost.

I'm wondering how long other people expect a decent. reasonably expensive laptop to last and if you'd stick it out or try to keep patching it up? Is 8 years a decent lifetime? I can afford to replace it but I'm not rich enough that I wouldn't miss the cash!

8 years is good depending what you do on it. Apples are notorious for not lasting long. I may hate Apple because of how overpriced they are. You can get a Windows/Linux based laptop that would be more powerful and cheaper.

I'd say go for a non Apple laptop because we it starts to grind a bit you can always stick Linux on it to keep it going for longer. However, if you insist on Apple then I'd say don't expect them to last long. Not being able to easily upgrade and the heat issues put me off them totally. And the price.

Johnmcl7

The problem with a lot of high end laptops and increasingly many others is that they're difficult to repair, cases are more difficult to disassemble, ram is soldered onto the mainboard and batteries are glued into the chassis. That means when a part fails it's likely to be a lot more difficult and expensive to repair, if possible at all whereas I've been able to keep old machines going because it's been quick and cheap to replace the keyboard, the hard drive, the ram or another internal component that's failed.

John

pendragon_arther

Robisere wrote: »

Sounds like you should have taken better care with it. We have an HP 17" laptop which has given 6 years of daily use, including being used by 3 grandbrats. It still looks as good as new, because we look after it and use it on a laptop rest upon a hard surface, keeping it cool and reducing the amount of dust ingress. I gently blow out the vents every week and clean the screen with the correct lens cleaner. Upgrades and backups are carried out regularly.

We do all that because it was an expensive purchase for us and a replacement would be even more expensive now.

Ditto. My compaq too.

pointsguy

My Toshiba laptop, has still been functioning. I bought it last 2009. I got a new one today. Still Toshiba. I'm thinking 10 years.

fishybusiness

Same as anything else really, depends how you look after it, how much you use it.

Sounds like yours has had a good innings, and if there is plenty wrong, that you will need to purchase parts for, it may be time to move on.

We have a near 5 year old lappy, been dropped etc, much like yours, upgraded to SSD, new lid, new screen, next time it breaks it is going in the bin. Also have an older one, HP, DVD drive gone, was looked after before I bought it, its older than yours, still going strong.

Your Apple lappy, fairly easy to repair, plenty of parts around, have you added up what you would need to spend? Battery, USB ports are built in to a replaceable board (I think), DVD drive, could be £150 plus some time.......

Apples are notorious for not lasting long

Are they? As with everything, you'll hear the stories of unreliable machines, in general macbooks last as long as you would want to keep them.

colin79666

3-5 years if used daily on the road. 8 years is pretty good going.

custardy

Have a pristine Dell laptop thats probably pushing 10 years old now.
However its been a back up for all of that time.
If you can afford to replace it then I would strip it down and clean it out. See if theres any obvious hardware issues with the drive/ports.
Then see what happens

SailorSam

I've got a desktop about 8yrs old, but i have had a new keyboard and replaced the monitor.

bod1467

SailorSam wrote: »

I've got a desktop about 8yrs old, but i have had a new keyboard and replaced the monitor.

Why do I feel like this will descend into the computer version of Trigger's Broom?