Do Laptops have long lives?

[Londoner]

Just out of curiosity: How long would you expect a laptop like the Dell XPS M1710 to last? I mean, I got a budget gaming PC back in 1999 (ish) for about £500 (about $900) and it's only just really causing me hardware problems - I could probably replace the MB and carry on for a while with it yet. And I have this thing on day and night, and play high end graphics games on it and all sorts so it has been well-used.

So just from curiosity, do you get that sort of a lifetime out of a high end laptop like the Dell? Or do you end up paying out another pile of cash in a couple of years time?

[Iniamyen]

Generally, laptops will have shorter life spans than equivalent desktops, since the smaller platform makes it harder to cool the components, and also because they are moved around, bumped, crushed, etc... a lot more than a desktop which is sitting still most of the time. This is true even if you take really good care of it.

That being said, they can still last a long time if you take good care of them. Your desktop for example will probably last awhile longer. I have 10-15 year old computers which still run, although I haven't left them on day and night and used them that heavily. I assume if you get a laptop, you'll use it differently, and it won't be on all the time. I wouldn't let lifespan be the deciding factor--if it's a quality machine, it'll last longer, but nothing will last forever. I think by the time any quality machine dies (mobo, processor, etc...) you won't have much use for it anyway.

[XenaWP]

The laptops themselves can last a pretty good long time (I have one that's about 8 years old) ... however the Li Ion batteries start really degrading at 2 years from date of manufacture. And mfr'rs often stop making replacements after 4-5 years. Still, 3rd party "equivalents" are available.

[kev7555]

I have several lap tops that are from the Win 98 era and they are still going strong (most of them running XP too).

Don't buy a Dell laptop. They are the ones most often received in this shop for hardware repairs.

Toshiba Satellite. Excellent laptop.

-Kev

[Londoner]

Originally Posted by kev7555 I have several lap tops that are from the Win 98 era and they are still going strong (most of them running XP too). Don't buy a Dell laptop. They are the ones most often received in this shop for hardware repairs. Toshiba Satellite. Excellent laptop. -Kev

Interesting.

Actually, it was the Dell xps m1710 I was interested in, but your experience is that they have issues?

What about the HP Pavilion in my signature; do you have much experience of Hewlett Packards? I guess I was interested because I have been given the laptop in my sig because my desktop has died on me and I wanted to know if it was worth upgrading. And how.

I have another thread here:
http://forum.pcmech.com/showthread.php?t=164956
on that matter so I won't go into it here. Perhaps you'd like to post to that. I opened this thread just to hear about lifespan and I am releived to hear that so many people seem to have long lasting laptops - what about the screens? I remember once reading about how they can deteriorate.

[glc]

Kev, I've seen the exact opposite lately. Dells are reliable, Toshibas are plagued with problems. That said, I won't buy either for myself - I have a Thinkpad, but my laptop is a tool, not an entertainment device, and it's not my primary computer.

HP Pavilion quality and reliability is probably average at best. Their business line is a bit better.

We used to offer some decent CTO (configure to order) laptops based on AOpen kits, but our source went out of business. Right now we recommend Thinkpads, if the price is too steep for the customer we recommend Dell as a lower cost alternative.

[Josh1964]

I'm running a compaq armada that's a few years old now. Piii 700, 192m ram, 12g hdd. All on xp pro. Runs fine, but the batt needs replaced.

[Floppyman]

Just recently replaced a IBM Thinkpad 390X (PII 400). Was still going strong after all these years.

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

This is what happends to some dell laptops. So try something elce. (this is the best link with an actuall picture of what happend) there are plenty more with a quick 1mn search on google.com

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2006/07..._laptop_burns/

Just thought you should know, good luck with finding a sutible Laptop.

[freakitchen]

Chris, the exploding DELLs (which in my opinion has been blown out of proportion) are the result of Sony batteries, and not the machines themselves. The affected batteries are now subject to a massive recall, so I'd have no concerns buying a new Dell laptop.

FK

[Chris_Rootes_Wizard]

"Chris, the exploding DELLs (which in my opinion has been blown out of proportion) are the result of Sony batteries, and not the machines themselves. The affected batteries are now subject to a massive recall, so I'd have no concerns buying a new Dell laptop."

Yes, i know its the batteries, but i would at least wail longet before buying one at best, to give them enought time to recall ALL batteries, incase i were to
buy a dodgey one. (Well thats what i would do)

"Dell wouldn't be putting recalled batteries into their brand-new laptops..."

I mean give them enought time to recall the dodgey batteries. Nevermind, on with the topic please.

[thefultonhow]

Dell wouldn't be putting recalled batteries into their brand-new laptops...

With the M1710 the main thing I would worry about is the graphics card. When I had my Gen 2 (two models earlier than the M1710) the GeForce Go 6800 Ultras were hit-and-miss -- I personally got a bad one in my first laptop (it was replaced by Dell with a new laptop because of the problem) and many other people (although still probably a relatively small percentage of owners) reported the same problem: random reboots either under load, or any time whatsoever, depending on how defective the card was. I haven't heard if the card in the M1710 has had similar problems.

[GandalftheGrey]

Originally Posted by kev7555 Don't buy a Dell laptop. They are the ones most often received in this shop for hardware repairs. -Kev

could this be because they are also the most widely used laptops (or so i guess)?