Lifespan of a Laptop?

darrenw5094

darrenw5094

Certified Bug Hunter
My HP laptop was 4 years old last month and it's the oldest laptop I have ever used. Sometimes I change it every 2 years, but this one is starting to get annoying, stuttering and freezing and random shut downs.

Just wondering how old is your machine before it gets replaced?
 
I have a quad core HP that was my main computer for 15+ years. It originally came with Vista. I added more memory at one point and upgraded the OS to 7, then 10. In both cases, only because I had to. Both drives are still running…knock on wood. I bought an i7 HP tower in December, with 12 GB and a solid state drive. I still use the quad core as a server because it has a Seagate external drive connected to it for all my backups.
 
I've had 3 HP's. The one that I got around 2006 (given to me thru work) had Vista and lasted about 8 years. Previous one had the backlight fail after I think about 3 years. Not worth fixing. After that, in 2015 I went with a custom computer company (I was sick of bloatware, they use high-quality components akin to FAS, only using ones that have extremely low failure rates) by the name of Puget Systems. Unfortunately, they stopped making laptops because they can't source a high-quality ______ (I forget which part.) Even going that route, it only lasted about 5 years (But I may have caused the MB failure myself, using the wrong power adapter, but they had parts and got me fixed. I still use it, but with Win7, offline.) Couple years ago I went cheap and bought another HP from BestBuy. Laptops are a crapshoot.
 
Hate to jinx it, but for work I'm still using an Eluktronics laptop I got in 2016. I've replaced the SSD and the cable to the screen, both of which weren't clean failures where you just know immediately what has to be done and do it, bang. I
Good machine, it's doing quite well.

My ancient Sony music laptop running win 7 is so slow it can barely get out of bed. Runs Axe-Edit and similar just fine, but running a DAW on it at this point is, um, unrealistic at this point. Replacing it with a good desktop is one of my top three music wants.
 
Just swapped the original HDD for a fresh SSD and added an extra one in a caddy in my Mid 2010 MacBook Pro, currently running Catalina. If I were to use this offline and exclusively for audio I think I could get another 10 years from it, easily.

Still have my eyes on the upcoming M1X Mac mini tho...
 
As an IT professional, user laptop refreshes are every 3 to 5 years (windows/Mac) for myself at home I'm using a Dell D630 which was new in 2007. I replaced the spindle hard drive for a solid state (SSD) which makes a world of difference if your laptop is not using a SSD then replace it with a new one and a OS reinstallation as Piing recommended in earlier post. You might check to see if your laptop is overheating, order laptops can have the little fan go out and or clogged up with dust/dirt bunnies, give the unit a good hard blast of air to clean out the fan and heat sink, check the BIOS (if you have one) for logs if the unit is overheating many times shutdowns are power related and there may be logs on it. Check your battery make sure is healthy if not change it. Changing a fan on a laptop is relatively easy you can search your model for a online tutorial if its bad. btw HP Dell laptops can last well beyond 4 years usually in my experience.
 
If it has an "i" series Intel or equal AMD CPU it should still have some life in it. Sounds like either Windows has gotten bloated or even some sort of malware. Also, I always like to leave at least 20% HDD free and that's if it's just an everyday machine. If your HDD is full Windows will misbehave. How much RAM is in it? A clean install of Windows can do wonders. If you know where to go to clean up things it can be done without reinstalling windows. I have a 10 year old Gateway that would still be useable for small things if I would load Windows 10 on it. It has Vista and nothing will run on Vista. It's a shame because it's not a bad system.

Speaking of new laptops. I just got a Lenovo Legion 5. Really nice machine for a grand. This is after a year of using nothing, but an iPad.

Edit:
Now that I think about it that Gateway has to be well over 10 years old.
Also, as mentioned over heating due to insufficient cooling can put the CPU in a lower performance mode.
16 Gigs of RAM is getting closer to minimum requirement these days, especially if your graphics is sharing your RAM.
 
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My Dell i5 laptop is almost 9 years old, functions perfectly for 95% of my general, daily, computer needs (email, internet, Youtube, speadsheets, jamming with, light audio processing, etc.), is still going strong, and runs well enough so the 'irritation factor' doesn't really show up. Ports are all sturdy, working, and not worn out, screen is ok, HDMI output for the TV works fine, battery still holds a good working charge...

I upped it to 8Gb of RAM a while ago (and cleaned it all inside) and it really perked up big time. Have considered getting it an SSD for even more performance but I'm going to look at a fire-breathing laptop so I can do some more GPU/CPU intensive work on a mobile device (Blender 3D stuff in particular).

But otherwise, this ~9 year old laptop still has a lot of utility left in it. When I do get a new laptop I'm going to run Linux on this old Dell and use it for SDR (Software Defined Radio) applications, Arduino/Raspberry Pi tools, and stuff like that.
 
I have an Asus i7, with nvidea graphics....circa 2014. what I like about it is the normal 1920x1080l high def. I use it with muy, also older, Roln octa-capture USB AI. Operates perfectly. I did remove the CD\dvd thingy and install a second HD...............

I should add I use my killer desktop PC for everything. The laptop is for emergencies. In Florida we call those hurricanes and thunderstorms. :)
 
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Multiple 2015 MacBook Pros in our household. Pre-keyboard issues and the magic strip thingy...

I'm waiting for the Apple Silicon MBP with > 16G RAM to replace mine. That will be a good step up.
 
My primary computer is an HP laptop running Windows 10 that's 4 or 5 years old and still going strong. I did add an SSD (and moved my system and app files to it) and maxed out the memory to 16 gigs. The original HDD is plenty fast for my data storage needs. My backup computer, which was the primary until 4 or 5 years ago, is another HP laptop with Windows 7. It was both my home and work computer for the first 3 years I had it. It's about 10 years old and it still runs great too...I just don't use it online anymore.
 
Bought a couple of Hp Envy laptops about ten years ago. Replaced the batteries in both, and upgraded a hard drive in one, but they are still going strong. Like another has said, I always max out these builds. Cramming the better technology into these smaller frames might lower battery life, but they do tend to more comfortably process the newer software for longer.

Thought about upgrading these laptops as they are quite heavy and the newer ones are a little more portable by comparison. But, kinda seems like a bit of a waste when the ones I have do everything I ask of them.
 
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