Laptops Lasting 3 Years?

suziewongxxx

suziewongxxx

New Member
I read in a PC magzine that it is common knowledge that a Laptop lasts about 3 years. Does that mean I would have to buy a new Laptop after this period or does it merely mean I would have to have a new hard disk installed. I would be very disappointed if I would have to discard the laptop shell. Look forward to your comments.
 
I think what they mean is that the components will start to become outdated after about three years. That means you may not be able to run the latest software or games after those three years, which is of course an estimate. My brothers laptop was purchased a little less than three years ago, and it keeps up just fine.
 
Yo-Yo said:
I think what they mean is that the components will start to become outdated after about three years. That means you may not be able to run the latest software or games after those three years, which is of course an estimate. My brothers laptop was purchased a little less than three years ago, and it keeps up just fine.
Click to expand...

I agree, I have had My Toshiba Sat since 2000 and the only thing I have had to replace was my RAM and I use it close to 7 hours a day 7 days a week.
 
I'd say a combination of components dying and being out-dated... Laptop hardware is more prone to failure than desktop, but this is not to say they don't last that long. I've had mine for 3-4 years and it's still running very well. I can tell the battery life is getting shorter, but nothing too bad...yet... *knocks on desk*

My friend has this old Pentium3 450MHz laptop that still runs fine besides the battery...
 
I have a 450 MHZ Pentium 3 thinkpad and it keeps running. I bought it used a few months ago. The only thing I have had to replace is the CMOS Battery.
 
It must have been referring to component life because in this day and age if a laptop is over a year old the hardware will be outdated and not able to play up to date games and such. I bought a pretty sweet Vaio 2 years ago january and I just had to replace it because it just wasnt' cutting it. But as for hardware if you take good care of it 3 years is a pretty low estimate, considering that people still have laptops from Pre-2000 era.
 
Thanks

Thanks for all your comments. I only use my laptop for the internet and word so I will be able to keep it for a lot longer than three years, based on your comments. I dont mind updating the hardware as I have just had a new hard disk put in. The laptop was given to me and I think the person who gave it to me had it for nearly three years - so you can understand my concern.
 
Well unless you abuse it like i did (needed to replace gpu after 1 year) It should be fine for a little while, just make sure to back up your important data. You can always recover data from your HD as long as it's ok, but HD failure would be the greatest hit to many people, time = priceless, be prepared!
 
I have had a laptop be4, and it last 3.5 year be4 it died....
Actually I was quite lucky it died on Oct, just start my final year of uni...
 
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It is all subjective...


Windows laptops, yeah three years is old. Linux or OS X since by default these OSes take less resources you can run their OS longer on older hardware. I have an older PC running newer versions of Linux at very decent rates, but if I were to put even windows xp and update it to the newest release and all the newest drivers it would not perform as well.

It really depends on lots of factors.
 
i have one that i use on a daily basis for just internet and email now that is from 99 and it still works fine... Just have to baby it and it will be fine for years to come.. My fiancee has my xps thats 2 years old and its like new still and i have seen some laptops that last a year just depends on how you treat it and how you use it...
 
Well if were going to talk about how long our laptops have lasted, when I was in elementary school my dad brought home a work laptop which had Windows 95 on it, and the laptop itself was produced sometime around 1995-1996. It lasted up until 2004 or so, but I took it apart so it didnt really fail. That was a Dell by the way :)
 
I had an ibook I bought back in 2002, and I sold it last year for 350 dollars and it was running Tiger with no issues what so ever. The person I sold it to, uses it for DJay and audio sampling and though it does get slow with huge audio files it does in fact work still.

hardware can last a long time, but in reality with updates and software requirements it doesn't hold up to what is up to date. In the work shop currently at my job, I have tons of Old Compaq laptops and Old powerbook G3s that run current OSes, but they run like crap.
 
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