Average lifespan of a laptop

[Uplink10]

I have HP 4540s , Intel 3110M 2.4 GHz with HT, 8GB RAM, 2.5" HGST Travelstar (best HDDs ever), AMD 7650m. I use it for light virtualization, games... It is 20 months old but in those 20 months it has been turned on at least 95% percent of the time. Everything is working flawlessly, except NIC stopped working few days before warranty would expire probably because lightning struck it, but they still repaired it (without telling them about spark in the NIC port).
I would love to buy one of those 00 USD Bay Trail laptops and use them as a server or HTPC to see how long would they last.

 

[joeylee032]

I think laptops have improved in lifecycle usage these days but still go with a Mac if you want to make sure it lasts more than 5 years

 

[Jetster]

I think laptops have improved in lifecycle usage these days but still go with a Mac if you want to make sure it lasts more than 5 years

What? I understand ease of use but reliability? They use the same parts now as many IBM laptops. I have a Dell D600 that is still working at 12 years

 

[AhokZYashA]

i do have an XPS M1330 from 2008,
still going strong today, battery was stumped though.
and the HDD is broken by the time it reaches 3 years old,
its replaced by a 250GB HGST HDD, and kept turned on for atleast 3 months in passive mode.
its now used by my cousin.

and if you see the nostalgic hardware forum here,
i still have a toshiba 2595CDT circa 1999, runs windows 98, still running.

 

[zsolt_93]

I think he meant the Mac for constant software support and future OS upgrades for free and maximum compatibility with the hardware. My laptop for example has win 7 and win 8 supported with official drivers and utilities, but not win 8.1 which is purely stupid as 8.1 was free update from 8 and the drivers still wont work correctly and the manufacturer says its not their problem, i am using an unsupported OS. Hardware wise any maintained laptop will last long enough for it to become potentially obsolete, with minor or no issues.

 

[Uplink10]

@zsolt_93
New OS (Windows, Linux) usually has support for new hardware that isn't supported on let`s say Windows 7. If not you can probably download new drivers through Windows Update. Only graphic card drivers could be an issue, but Nvidia and AMD usually support older graphic cards. Intel sometimes doesn't because he makes older CPUs obsolete but iGPUs are often supported on new OS.

 

[zsolt_93]

I personally have issues with the quicklaunch keys, and wireless/bluetooth which are Dell proprietary. The wireless could be tracked down to atheros and works with an another atheros driver, the buttons sometimes do, sometimes dont, but i learned to live with it.

 

[64K]

I've never had a laptop die on me but I replace it with a new one every few years. The longest I've ever kept one is about 4 years. You may just have bad luck with a laptop but you can certainly improve your odds by not abusing it.

 

[Peter V Olsen]

I own an ASUS laptop model A72D with spinning harddrive, bought in 2011. It still runs perfectly. We have used it most days, not more than 4 hours average a day. But I am aware that newer models may not be so durable. Our previous laptops of the fujitsu-siemens or HP all had failures of keyboard or display within 3-4 years. This has not been the case with the present laptop.

 

[Boatvan]

There are a number of factors that determine the life of a laptop, at least a laptop in my possession. I had a Toshiba Satellite as my first laptop. It lasted about a year and a half, but I was a reckless college freshman, dropping it a couple of times, leaving it on in my backpack, etc. My next laptop was an HP Pavilion DV7. I had this one for 3 years. What shortened the life of this one was upgrading parts on it whilst being a noob. I was missing screws, broken connectors, etc. My current laptop has been with me for at least 5 years and is still going strong. It is an HP Envy something or other. I threw in an SSD and it runs great. I use it nowadays for web browsing/non gaming activity and remote work from home. My point is the life of a laptop is based on a number of variables.

 

[phanbuey]

it depends on the laptop, but in my experience higher performance machines die sooner than mid to entry level...

I used to have all macs and they actually die pretty often, at least the most recent generation. Had 2 of 6 machines die around the 3-4 year mark, one with a GPU error, one with a power failure that completely destroyed the drive.

 

[Darkleoco]

I had an old Asus G50 from about 2009 that still runs fine to this day besides the screen starting to die(might only be a loose connection though). In my experience my Asus laptops have always lasted very well. I had a 2012 G75 that was still working perfectly until I sold it a few months back.

 

[Derek12]

2007 Samsung laptop
Going strong.
Except the backlight and battery. The CCFL lamps are dying (red tint at boot)
The battery only holds for 30 minutes.
This with current LEDs won't happen.

I just bought an Asus laptop. I hope it will last for years

 

[silkstone]

I have an old T7xxx, another core2 duo and a 1st gen i5. They are between 6 - 9 years old.

The Dell T7xxx is the only one that hasn't needed repairing, but the problems with the other two were cheap fixes. I'm lucky to live in a country where labor is extremely cheap and so fixing things is worth it.

 

[Melvis]

I think the quality of laptops these days have dropped alot from the old days, I have had alot more dead modern laptops come in to work then old XP machines thats for sure over the yrs. That been said high end laptops of today are pretty nice and should last a long time but only time will tell, its the cheap laptops of today that seem to fail pretty dam quick. Back 10yrs ago or more there was no such thing as a cheap $250 brand new laptop.

I wrote this to you on a 2005/2006 Presario V4000 in excellent working condition.

 

[neatfeatguy]

My first hand knowledge of Mac Book Pro laptops - they last at least 11 years based on the experience of the one and only Mac Book Pro we have had in our house.

My wife got one in 2005 and she used it up until mid December 2016. Finally had some money to get her a newer one for Christmas. I wonder how long this one will last.

 

[micropage7]

maybe between 3 or 5 years, but for some who lucky enough it could be more
i have a friend that run from windows xp age, until now it runs pretty good

 

[Derek12]

I still believe laptops last too much for how some people around my surroundings treats them and they are not high end laptops:

• Dropping in on the floor
• Sitting on them.
• Pour liquid on them
• Sudden temperature changes (condensation)
• Put them on a bag or backpack and throw them around (or even without bag)
• Leaving them plugged in and on overnight every day, even on holidays.
• Leave it on while inside a bag
• Open the screen by the corner (and bending it in the process but doesn't crack)
• Put them naked (no bag) on the car trunk with more objects, while they knock over each one.

And they last and last

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The average, right now, of these four systems is 7.25 years. 3 out of 4 are still in use so that average will keep climbing.

Add 2 more years to that count. Thinking about putting a SSD in the rugged laptop, the old XP one got Linux MINT Mate and is being used by a veteran's wife, and the newest of the lot is still operational, in use, running Windows 10.

Laptops, like desktops, can last a very long time.

 

[INSTG8R]

My Acer Aspire 7520 just turned 10. Only things I've done to it is put more RAM in it and replaced the fan. Happily sits on my coffee table on Win 10 Pro 64 as my web surfer. Specs:AMD Turion X2 64(1.9 GHz)+NV 8400M G. Some people's phones are faster

 

[cornemuse]

I still have a Toshiba A 16? at least 12 years old. Came with 30 gig hdd & 256 meg ram. Has a 120 gig ssd & 512 meg ram, works really good. XP home, , , ,

 

[Komshija]

If you maintain your laptop from time to time and avoid physical damages, it should last much more than 3 years. My Dell Studio XPS 1640 is 7 years old with almost 19000 working hours according to HDD's power on hours. That's approximately 7,4 hours per day, every day, during 7 years. Only the subwoofer blew after 2 years. I had previous HP nc6220 for 4 years and than I sold it.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

I have an old HP DM1 3200SA that i still use occasionally in emergencies. Its just too slow for use as a daily driver and chrome browser runs like absolute crap on it. GPU drivers are broken and 1080p lags the hell out of it.