Doubts about my laptop’s life span started with blue lights and a black screen.
I had bought my HP Pavilion the year before and couldn’t believe it was broken already. I got it into service just before the warranty expired, but it got me wondering just how long my “new” laptop would last.
Maybe my point of view was skewed. My previous laptop, a Dell Inspiron, held strong for more than four years before I crushed the screen behind the seat of my pickup truck on a drive from Seattle to San Francisco. As it happened, I had a story due that Monday. Enter new HP Pavilion.
I’ve been three years now with my Pavilion, and since the battery’s totally dead (always a pain these days to fight for power in the café, the laundromat, etc.), I’ve had to make a choice between buying a new battery and getting a whole new laptop. The question, though, is just how much longer before the choice is no longer mine to make?
“I say about two years and my service manager says about three,” says Dan Wagoner, owner of Seattle Laptop. Since 1996, he’s been fixing laptops in Seattle and beyond.
The best laptops on the market, the ones that last the longest, said Wagoner, are the IBM/Lenovo Thinkpads. “They’re just far better,” he said. He does admit, though that the gap in quality between his favorite and other brands is shrinking. To sell a laptop for just a few hundred bucks, he says, manufactures have to cut every corner.
“Our whole society’s bent on one thing,” says Wagoner, “filling the landfills with cheap crap.”
Looking at how much a new machine costs, I’m trying to stay optimistic about how long I’ll have my HP, problems aside. The good news is there’s a lot of information on the web to give me the wide view.
Adam Guha posted an article at lowendmac.com, where he concludes essentially that if your laptop dies within five years, despite the drops, the overheating, etc., you pretty much got hosed. Across the discussion boards the consensus seems to be for a laptop to last anywhere between three to five years, you got your money’s worth.
I’m just over two years in with my HP Pavilion. The fan rattles some and lately I haven’t been able to get my DVDs to play. But that’s all right as long as the fundamental web surfing and word processing capabilities still work.
My personal solution?
I’m buying a new battery. When it comes down to it, it’s the financials that make the difference. As much as I’d love a new laptop (who doesn’t want a new anything?) I’d rather spend $80 to buy a new battery online than even $600 on a new laptop that’s better than this one, or even a used laptop for less. I figure, worst case scenario I’ll have to make a stop to see Wagoner. Even after the repair bill I’ll probably still end up ahead.
this story makes me happy that i went with the acer over the hp. i was worried that even though the acer had better specs (the most important one being the intel duo core processor) i worried that it wouldn’t hold up as long as the hp. but the hp brand is obviously no guarantee that the machine has longevity.
“Laptop” is a misnomer. These things are tiny little computers made of delicate little parts which are sole-sourced and expensive.
They don’t fit on your lap – too unstable – and I’ve yet to see a screen with low enough resolution to support the needs of a semi-senior citizen.
Truly the toys of youth, unfortunately youth treats them as toys.
They are expected to survive being walked down a hallway while reading your email, carried by the upper lip of the LCD and generally being slammed around in backpacks, on table tops, under the groceries in the trunk of the car – or maybe squished between the seats of a pickup truck.
The disk drive is fragile. The new blade servers using the 2.5 inch drive format have just as many if not more failures per thousand systems as those using standard (3.5 inch) technology. Take that same 2.5 inch disk and put it through all sorts of gyrations while it’s still spinning and the life expectancy drops significantly (note that Lenovo introduced a motion-sensor to park the heads and stop the drive when in motion).
How about spare parts? Sure, you can get them but unless you have the tools and knowledge it’s off to the shop for an expensive minimum repair charge.
Spill liquid on the keyboard? You just might have one of the models with drain holes but not likely. And that means the orange juice that merely made the keyboard sticky caused the motherboard immediately below it to short out in several places.
You are lucky if the battery is the first thing to go – and I’d highly recommend getting a spare battery at the time of purchase and swap them out periodically.
Laptops – another tool of the devil.
Just say no.