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1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 6/16/2010 5:02:46 PM
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AnalystsAreUs
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Given that they are all made in China, this kind of one of those duh moments. No wonder the extended warranty is over $100.00 for one year of service. Any way, I'm trying to figure out which one is easiest to fix in case something goes wrong. Seems like Dell is the best documented for the average consumer. Toshiba documentation looks pretty sparse and the #1 brand for sale on Craig's List. Levno does not look much better. Anyone had any experience in working on there own? And it really really irritates me that they do not give you an OS reinstall CD any more. That means I have to spend another $20 for a HD image software just so I can have a back up.
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 6/16/2010 5:57:42 PM
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neuronstatic
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Every Stinkpad I ever cracked open would literally crack along the way. The ones I had were near impossible to get open without bending some piece of plastic to the point of breaking.
Dells are documented well and not too difficult to replace major parts, including keyboard and motherboard. Ever wonder why so well documented? Its done a lot.
For my HPs, it is fairly easy to change things like hard drive, memory, etc. Have never opened one up to change mobo or more deeply embedded part. I would not want to, they are put together almost "one-way".
I used 3 Toshiba laptops in my time. Never had a failure on anything. I did upgrade memory on one. It took about 45 seconds.
But yeah, commodity laptops are not "durable goods". They are for the most part expendables. You run them to death, pitch them, and get a new one. Now some of the more expensive laptops do have superior parts and you get better service from them. But that is not to say all of them are better because they are expensive.
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 6/16/2010 6:15:46 PM
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Miss Giggles
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I guess it depends on what they are counting as a death. A lot of people think theirs are dead but probably can be fixed by replacing the hard drive or reloading it. Then a few die by drowning and being dropped.
Dell gives out actual DVDs with the OS on it.
I've opened up a couple of laptops - they are not so easy to work on. There are a lot of little cables and pieces and very easy to snap and bend pieces.
I'm on my 4th laptop. They all died when the system board started going. All of them lasted over 3 years.
So, I'd get a Dell since they are the only ones with decent to find documentation. i start planning on replacing computers after 4 years anyway.
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 6/17/2010 7:06:22 AM
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MWD
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From: New Hampshire
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> 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years
And, in my experience, many wouldn't have if their owners had used them properly. There are several things an owner can do to increase a laptop's lifespan. Probably half of them involve simple common sense.
On the topic of restore media, I make it a policy not to buy any system unless it comes with restore media OR a set of restore media can be burned from the system's hard drive OR restore media can be ordered from the manufacturer's web site. And on the last option, before I recommend or buy any system, I always make sure an order process can actually be initiated on the web site, because I've learned the hard way that it's not enough merely to see a link in the support area that looks like it ought to work; I won't mention specific manufacturers.
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 6/17/2010 10:48:25 AM
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judii1
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From: The Frozen Thumb of MI!
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We bought one less than 3 months ago. The power cord won't charge it now. Ds is going to call the company to see if we can get a replacement.
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 6/17/2010 11:51:19 AM
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psaulm119
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I sincerely doubt that 1/3 of laptops "die" in the sense of not being usable any more. I can imagine that might be true if you mean "needing repairs." Someone posted in these forums, a study by an insurance company recently, and even the least reliable laptops didn't have 33% of their units needing to be replaced. I think the worst stats were in the 25% area (this was 1-2 companies only, others were much better) and I believe this referred to all claims, not just "deaths."
At any rate, I can vouch for Dell's documentation. I've re-applied thermal paste to the CPU, taken its innards out for a shot of compressed air, and replaced the keyboard, so three times it has guided me to dismantling the laptop (including removing the display). The only issue I had with it was, the first couple of times, I wasn't always sure how hard I should be tugging when something didn't give right away, but I never broke anything doing this.
Now I"m not trying to be a commercial for Dell. I'm seriously considering moving to HP (after my last three purchases being from Dell). Case in point--my laptop was overheating (even with a cooling pad). I took off the CPU, reapplied the thermal paste and presto--no overheating. I'm not sure what the following is worth, but the guy at the tech store who sold me the paste took one look at the chip and said that the paste should never have been applied like that--he thought it was a repair guy who did it--I told him no, it was the guy from Dell who assembled the computer to begin with. So I'm thinking that Dell's sloppy worksmanship cost me 10 bucks in paste and a several hours in driving, disassembling, and reassembling the laptop, to say nothing of the inconvenience of having a laptop shut down all of a sudden, and not be operational for another 30 minutes. Kind of a steep price to pay for $50 in savings, huh?
The question for me is, if I had bough an HP laptop, would the paste have been applied better? Or is this a common problem?
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Let no offensive talk pass your lips, only what is good and helpful to the occasion, so that it brings a blessing to those who hear it. (Eph 4:29)
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 6/19/2010 9:47:44 PM
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netstroller
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quote:
The question for me is, if I had bough an HP laptop, would the paste have been applied better? Or is this a common problem?
There generally a little too much paste, but they probably do that since it's much better than too little.
I haven't taken any Dell laptop down to the system board, but have done a few HPs and I can tell you the HP documentation is not 100% accurate, though not a huge deal. And you will need a couple of torx drivers to work on HPs. Actually I think I did do a Dell notebook system board a few years ago now that I think about it. IIRC it was easier than the average HP, but that might not say anything about current Dells.
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 6/26/2010 8:34:43 PM
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Aelric
Posts: 200
Joined: 9/18/2006
From: My corner of reality. AKA My Room
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I seem to say this alot this week :) I very much like ASUS, their prices are a bit more than some, but they have, to me, superior craftsmanship. I tend to agree with an above poster, most laptops "die" do to user negligence and/or lack of common sense. If the laptop feels hotter than your hand, on the mouse pad or keyboard, you are WAY past the time it should have been looked at.
Semi offtopic comment, My last dell actually has marks in the plastic where my had was, because of the heat difference. It finally gave out on me because of heat.(I was a foolish college student that didn't work on laptops lol)
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 7/2/2010 8:00:31 PM
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jaimestarcross
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I only use a cheap laptop from HP... as a tag-a-long,
my desktop computer was built for me and I like it a lot
because all the parts can be purchased locally and
fixing it is just as easy if anything should go wrong.
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"A world of nice people, content in their own niceness, looking no further, turned away from God, would be just as desperately in need of salvation as a miserable world---and might be even more difficult to save."
C.S. Lewis
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RE: 1/3 of all Laptops Die in First Three Years - 7/2/2010 9:53:17 PM
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tacitus
Posts: 2582
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I had a Lenovo T42 that died after two years of heavy daily use. Replaced it with a Lenovo T61 which is build like a tank compare to the T42. After two years of heavy use it's still going strong, though some of the lettering on the keycaps is wearing off!
I think what tends to exacerbate the problem of longevity is people's desire to always have the latest stuff. Three years is a very long time in the laptop business, and you can get a much better machine for the same money you spent on the old one, thus there is little incentive to repair your old system -- something that could cost as much as 50% or more of the price of a completely new machine.
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