# Average lifespan for a modern laptop?



## jmurray01 (Oct 18, 2015)

I was just wondering what the general consensus was for this these days?  I know back in "the day" laptops were expected to last until they were only not usable due to performance limitations, however these days it seems to be a case of the hardware failing before anything else.

Mind you, back in "the day" laptops were also the size and weight of bricks!!  So changing that to the slim lightweight models we have today has to have some knock-on effect.

For example, I plan on maxing out the RAM on my Acer Aspire 5349 to 8GB, which would bring it up to a performance level where I would happily run it for over 10 years (replacing the battery as necessary), but I am not deluded and do realise that I will be lucky to get 5 years out of it before something major goes wrong such as overheating, screen or keyboard failure etc...

I know it is like asking how long is a piece of string, but I'm curious to see if anybody has an opinion on this.


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## strollin (Oct 18, 2015)

I regularly keep laptops 7-8 years and only replace them because I want something newer.  Never had a laptop fail completely on me and had to replace it because it no longer worked.

I've had all different mfrs too such as Fujitsu, IBM, Toshiba, Compaq, Acer and Dell.  I guess I'm not the norm but I don't understand why others have so many issues like failed screens, broken hinges, dead mobo, etc...

I bought a new Dell with Windows 10 about 2 weeks ago and fully expect to use it for 7-8 years or longer.


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## jmurray01 (Oct 18, 2015)

strollin said:


> I regularly keep laptops 7-8 years and only replace them because I want something newer.  Never had a laptop fail completely on me and had to replace it because it no longer worked.
> 
> I've had all different mfrs too such as Fujitsu, IBM, Toshiba, Compaq, Acer and Dell.  I guess I'm not the norm but I don't understand why others have so many issues like failed screens, broken hinges, dead mobo, etc...
> 
> I bought a new Dell with Windows 10 about 2 weeks ago and fully expect to use it for 7-8 years or longer.


It always seems to be the power supplies that fail with me.  I've never really had much luck with laptops which is why I ditched my last one in 2012 and stuck to the desktop until this year when I decided to try again.  

Fortunately this Acer and the HP (now being used by my mother) are both good running machines and I would expect them to last a long time, providing they don't follow in the paths of my previous laptops.  

I do quite a lot of typing and always get told I really "hammer" on the keys, so I'm surprised I've not had a keyboard fail yet, but I haven't!


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## ssal (Oct 20, 2015)

I think it has everything to do with who uses it, and how you use it. I personally had been yusing laptop for the paste 20+ years. I had had corporate issued (far more expensive than the consumer version) and consumer-grade products I bought bought personally. I probably had 8-10 of them totally and I had yet had anyone of them quit on me. And I am not the type who gives it my TLC. Every time I had to upgrade, I sold the old one on eBay so they become someone else's computer junk. But they were all working. Never had one that I need to toss away. I had a more expensive HP that the screen was developing vertical streaks. But I used it mostly with a hooked up monitor.

I think hardware wise, they are really well build, if you don't abuse them. The bigger danger is malwares. Particularly, of late, I had to recover or rescue them from image backup.

Other than that, I really had no complaint.


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## beers (Oct 21, 2015)

My laptop's about 10 years old now, still has plenty of life running Kali (T7200, 4 GB 667, 120 GB SSD).

Was probably just going to use something else once it croaks completely.

Working in a PC shop for a while it was amazing at some of the abuse even 6 month old systems encountered.  Most commonly people either drop it while on (RIP HDD) or break the DC jack by too much tension on the power cord.


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## Shlouski (Oct 21, 2015)

Guys, can I ask how well the batteries are holding up in these older laptops?
I guess if you can't find replacements then there's probably somebody that can hack them for you and replace the insides.
When it comes to the lifespan of laptop I guess it depends how good it was when you bought it and what you use it for. It seems that laptops are becoming more and more popular and many people are switching from desktops to laptops, even gamers and I don't see beers laptop running the witcher 3 very well


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## strollin (Oct 21, 2015)

I consider the battery a consumable and they last 4-5 years.  You can keep them longer but the time they will power the laptop keeps getting shorter.

Up until about a year ago, I had an IBM PC Convertible 5140 in my collection.  It was IBM's first laptop computer, introduced in 1986.  At about 28 years old, it was still fully functional but the battery was long dead and no replacement was available.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_PC_Convertible


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## beers (Oct 21, 2015)

Shlouski said:


> Guys, can I ask how well the batteries are holding up in these older laptops?



It really depends on usage.  Cells with a lot if large charge cycles usually die more quickly, or even just average use of the laptop would influence the capacity.

The original battery on mine can keep it running for about an hour and a half or so still.


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## Shlouski (Oct 21, 2015)

beers said:


> It really depends on usage.  Cells with a lot if large charge cycles usually die more quickly, or even just average use of the laptop would influence the capacity.
> 
> The original battery on mine can keep it running for about an hour and a half or so still.



Wow that's pretty nice. I have a 2 year old samsung chronos 7 which is more or less always plugged in, but I did come to understand that not using a battery and always leave it plugged in is also bad for it. For this reason I occasionally use the laptop on its battery until is more or less complete empty and then I fully charge it again in one go. Even so my battery is ok but it will not fully charge anymore, also my mothers 1 year old sony has the same problem already . I do have an old acer laptop that has held up pretty good, which is about 7 years old, so maybe you can be lucky or unlucky with batteries.


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## jmurray01 (Oct 21, 2015)

With regards to battery life, I have a 1999 Compaq Armada 4120T which has the ORIGINAL batteries and both still hold about 45 minutes charge each.  And that thing only gets charged/used a few times a year.  Amazing in my opinion.


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## Shlouski (Oct 21, 2015)

To be honest I know little about batteries beyond amperage, wattage, voltage and the fact there are many different types using different chemicals. I assume that improvements in battery technology and improvements in laptop power efficiency have both lead to laptops being able to be powered for longer, but have the materials used changed over the years? Are we using batteries that are capable of supplying more power for long, that even charge faster, but at the cost of a reduced operating life?


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## ian (Oct 26, 2015)

I have a mac book pro which I think is about 4 and a half years old and still going strong.


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## speedyink (Oct 27, 2015)

I have a Macbook Pro (2009) which is working pretty good.  Not sure if it's the original battery(looks pretty original..), but I still get a good hour and a half of battery.  Two little quibbles though, the physical 'click' on the touchpad works shoddy at best, apparently this is normal after even as short as a year of use.  The second is the charger, I see the advantage to Magsafe, but this thing has become very finicky (I'm assuming it was much better new).  There's been tons of times where I come back expecting a charged laptop but the contact wasn't in JUST the right spot for it to charge, so it's dead.  I think that's about it, other than that it works pretty good.
My old Acer (in the sig) is still working despite its horrible life, someone did a number to it before I got it (hey, it was free).  Other than the SD slot being sketchy, the dvd drive not working, and the Chinese replacement keyboard being shite, it works great.  To be fair all those things were a result of soda getting spilled on it (Was a nightmare to clean) before I got it.  The battery still lasts and hour to and hour and a half.  The battery spent most of it's life sitting on a shelf, as I used this computer on a desk mostly.

I guess as long as you don't end up with a laptop with bad components (The Nvidia 8400GT Macbook Pro comes to mind) you should be ok for a long while, as long as you take care of your stuff.


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## Mark Messa (Nov 5, 2015)

jmurray01 said:


> Average lifespan for a modern laptop?


My experience with laptops

1999 - 2005: Compaq Presario
Besides the problem of cleaning all the software trash that comes from the manufacturer and finding the right drivers, the first hardware failure I had was batteries after 3 years. The ultimate failure was a motherboard issue with the power button.

2005 - 2012: Toshiba
Again, the first failure was batteries after 3 years. The ultimate failure was an issue with the inverter that cause the backlight to not work properly.

2012 - now: Gateway/Acer
No hardware problem up to now. Not even batteries decreased power.

ps: I'm very cautious with my laptops. My guess about this reduced lifespan is that all of them were designed for brazil. So, the quality ....


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