Laptop life span?

[Lancman]

My Microsoft Surface Book with Windows 10 installed will be three years old come Christmas and I ‘m thinking of replacing it but what is a reasonable life span for a laptop of this sort? Do some makes last longer than others? What would be the advantage of replacing it with an equivalent or better machine? I’d be in a right pickle if it just FAILED. Or do I just want the latest gadget only because, for once in my life, I can afford it?

 

[skyscraper101]

My 2013 macbook air is still doing what I need it to with only moderate slowdown which for its age I'd say is pretty good going.

 

[Saul Goodman]

How long is a piece of string.
It all depends on how it was looked after during its life. Was it thrown about. Was it used in bed with the vents blocked... These things and many more could make the difference between a 1 year and a 20 year lifespan.

 

[platinumsage]

Surely you'd only repalce it if, after a reset/reinstall, it is annoyingly incapable of doing what you want it to do?

 

[MickiQ]

Based on personal experience Dell makes solid long lasting machines though HP and Acer aren't too bad
Mrs Q has a Surface Pro and it has been a right pain, the screen has had to be replaced twice

 

[Pickman's model]

My Microsoft Surface Book with Windows 10 installed will be three years old come Christmas and I ‘m thinking of replacing it but what is a reasonable life span for a laptop of this sort? Do some makes last longer than others? What would be the advantage of replacing it with an equivalent or better machine? I’d be in a right pickle if it just FAILED. Or do I just want the latest gadget only because, for once in my life, I can afford it?

I use a Dell I got from work just before the pandemic and it's fine even tho it's at least five years old. The battery had given out so I had to keep it plugged in to use it, fine for wfh. But a few months ago the battery started working again yeh it's a bit shit and as it's for work no gaming but it does the internet ok as well as your standard packages. I wouldn't bin a computer until it slows down intolerably or just won't work. But I hope work give me another computer before that happens

 

[souljacker]

Most things that start to fail on laptops are mechanical IME. My work laptop is an HP Elitebook. Had it for five years and still pretty powerful. However, the H and G keys are a bit flaky, there is a large dent on case and one of the usb ports is fucked. I do use it every day though and it's been badly mistreated due to being used on a few building sites over the years.

A 3 year old surface book should have a fair few years left on it I think.

 

[Sue]

My laptop is nearly three years old but I'm going to need to replace it soonish. The screen's on its last legs (and I always reckon three years is about the break even point in terms of replacing the screen) and the hinges have failed and the screen is literally attached by a single wire.

I think that's really poor going to tbh, especially as it's rarely left my flat so not like it's been exposed to being banged about particularly. (It's an HP Pavillion -- never again.)

 

[xenon]

I’ve got a seven-year-old Windows laptop which was quite high spec but it’s still going fine. Although it is stuck on Windows 7. If you buy near the minimum requirements for the OS, it won’t last long. OS update always adds bloat. or keep the one you got and stick linux on it.

 

[xenon]

Most things that start to fail on laptops are mechanical IME. My work laptop is an HP Elitebook. Had it for five years and still pretty powerful. However, the H and G keys are a bit flaky, there is a large dent on case and one of the usb ports is fucked. I do use it every day though and it's been badly mistreated due to being used on a few building sites over the years.

A 3 year old surface book should have a fair few years left on it I think.

We had some old HP elite books at work. The ones that were as heavy as a paving slab. They were still working, though slow, last time I saw them.

 

[xenon]

Well size and weight of a paving slab.

 

[Riklet]

I use a 9 year old Thinkpad and it works completely fine. The fans were noisy before but I updated some drivers and it's been great since. I got a new 9 cell battery off ebay and have 8 hours battery life from it too...

As far as I know, my 13 year old Samsung laptop I fitted with an SSD still works fine too. It's Windows 7 however and I cba to check.

Personally I wouldnt get rid of a 3 year old surface. Maybe reinstall windows and give it a bit of a clean up though... it should work fine for years to come.

 

[souljacker]

We had some old HP elite books at work. The ones that were as heavy as a paving slab. They were still working, though slow, last time I saw them.

Must be different ones. Mine is light and thin, almost like a macbook air.

 

[RainbowTown]

As long as it's working OK, I wouldn't bother replacing it. You're just wasting your money. If it suddenly "just FAILED" then I'm sure you'd have no problem purchasing something else within a day or so. For safety, just back up your favoured/essential files onto a memory stick/card or something similiar where they'd be easily retrievable.

 

[xenon]

Must be different ones. Mine is light and thin, almost like a macbook air.

Yeah they weren’t in active service for staff any longer. We use them for training clients. Even the power supply was a massive chunk. Our current work laptops, lenovo are pretty good. Very light. Although I use an external keyboard as can’t get on with the built in laptop one.

 

[MrCurry]

If you have the money to replace it with a new one and would gain peace of mind by doing so, then why not. Just don’t bin or hoard the old one - reset it to clear personal data then sell it second hand. Many folks would love to buy a three year old machine at a good price and could get many more years use out of it.

My laptop is over ten years old, but to be fair I rarely use it as I have an iPad for day to day use.

 

[beesonthewhatnow]

My 2012 MacBook Air is still going fine. Won’t take the latest OS anymore but still does everything I need it to.

 

[Numbers]

I still have a ThinkPad T42 I use for music, has XP on it but it’s offline so not a problem, still runs perfectly and it’s 15 years old.

Day to day I use an Elitebook I’ve had for a few years, very decent machine, runs W10 brilliantly.

I’m lucky in that I’ve never had to buy a laptop (perk of being in IT).

 

[farmerbarleymow]

The old Sony Viao is still going strong after about ten years. It's got an SSD now instead of the old HDD, and more RAM, and copes with Windows 10 OK. The only annoying thing is the fan is really noisy but that's to be expected given it's age. Don't use it for much these days though - everything is done on the new machine.

Well size and weight of a paving slab.

The viao is a bit like this though - although it does have a 17" screen so it's pretty hefty anyway. Thankfully I've never had to cart it anywhere.

 

[Lancman]

My thanks to everybody who helped me to make up my mind.

My wife bought me my first PC for my 60th birthday and I found great pleasure over the years in taking the cover off and improving and upgrading it, installing a new motherboard and processor, fitting a bigger power supply unit, an internal modem or a better graphics card or, frivolity of frivolities, a sound card. But that was very nearly 30 years ago and I now have an inaccessible slab of magnesium sitting in front of me, albeit a very capable slab of magnesium. That’s progress I suppose; aeroplanes went the same way.

My special thanks to MrCurry, I like your way of thinking.

 

[Carvaged]

If you have the money to replace it with a new one and would gain peace of mind by doing so, then why not. Just don’t bin or hoard the old one - reset it to clear personal data then sell it second hand. Many folks would love to buy a three year old machine at a good price and could get many more years use out of it.

My laptop is over ten years old, but to be fair I rarely use it as I have an iPad for day to day use.

How would you sell it? I know about ebay, but afaik pretty much all small scale sellers get scammed, at least everyone I know who uses it has been. I used to sell things through the ye olde magazines but they mostly don't exist any longer.

 

[MrCurry]

How would you sell it? I know about ebay, but afaik pretty much all small scale sellers get scammed, at least everyone I know who uses it has been. I used to sell things through the ye olde magazines but they mostly don't exist any longer.

I don’t know how ebay is these days, but personally I’d be selling on Facebook marketplace because the fees are zero, and of course not parting with the goods until cleared funds have been received.

 

[Carvaged]

I don’t know how ebay is these days, but personally I’d be selling on Facebook marketplace because the fees are zero, and of course not parting with the goods until cleared funds have been received.

Hmm, I haven't got a FB. Maybe I should set one up, that sounds like a good system.

 

[ddraig]

Mine is many years old (at least 6/7 years old), the HDD died and I put an SSD in, funnily enough went weird after reading this thread! not doing certain letters and putting an "9" every time I type "o" also couldn't put in the password just now, so turned it off and shook it about, left it off for a few mins

 

[MickiQ]

Mine is many years old (at least 6/7 years old), the HDD died and I put an SSD in, funnily enough went weird after reading this thread! not doing certain letters and putting an "9" every time I type "o" also couldn't put in the password just now, so turned it off and shook it about, left it off for a few mins

Ah someone who takes the high tech approach to problem solving

 

[MrCurry]

Hmm, I haven't got a FB. Maybe I should set one up, that sounds like a good system.

Probably every kind of selling platform is filled with scammers these days and where I live there are lots of people trying to scam sellers by getting them to agree to accept cash delivered by a courier who then takes the goods in return. The catch is you have to pay a courier insurance fee in advance (as per attached)

 

[sim667]

My 2013 macbook air is still doing what I need it to with only moderate slowdown which for its age I'd say is pretty good going.

My 2011 is still doing everything I need it to, except editing video footage on it from my GoPro. I can do it, but it’s painful!

 

[ddraig]

Mine is many years old (at least 6/7 years old), the HDD died and I put an SSD in, funnily enough went weird after reading this thread! not doing certain letters and putting an "9" every time I type "o" also couldn't put in the password just now, so turned it off and shook it about, left it off for a few mins

2015 Acer i3

 

[cybershot]

I've got a 2016 Lenovo IdeaPad 700. The only thing I did was add an SSD, On the day I purchased it!! It was £800ish and came with 16GB of RAM. It still seems difficult to get laptops off the shelf with that amount of RAM, and they seem to cost twice the price now. It's insane!

It still does everything I need it too, the only complaint I have now really is the screen. As I'm doing a lot more 4K video stuff, I have to move files to other things to check they look ok. It obviously takes a bit of time to render that sort of stuff in Premiere Pro too, so I think I will probably get something new in the new year as a workhorse. Either the new MacBook Pro, or something from that company UnderAnOpenSky posted in the lonely tech post, who can custom build a gaming/editing laptop with 8 core i7, fast 1TB Samsung EVO and 32GB fast Corsair RAM for £1500ish. My only concern is if it 'breaks' after several years, but getting anything off the shelf PC laptop wise at the moment is just mega expensive. The MacBook Pro seems competitively priced in the grand scheme of things, and will probably last longer and have better support! Decisions Decisions.

 

[Sunray]

Most electronic devices operate around the bathtub curve.

Modern silicon also has to contend with electromigration and this is so variable as has already been said. Good article if a little technical explaining this

What is Electromigration? – Complete Overview | Synopsys

Electromigration is the movement of atoms based on the flow of current through a material. If the current density is high enough, the heat dissipated within the material will repeatedly break atoms from the structure and move them. This will create both ‘vacancies’ and ‘deposits’. The vacancies...

www.synopsys.com

As things have got smaller and smaller this is a real issue. There are techniques to help but its physics. I'd say 5 years for a laptop is a good useful life, every year you get beyond this is great stuff. Things have got a lot better since they removed the mechanical hard disk. Very failure prone in laptops.