Are new laptops intentionally built for short life?

**Jesus Jones** · 27-06-2013, 07:13 AM

Over the last two years I have bought three new laptops, one (Samsung Netbook) I posted on here a while back a problem I had which needed the hard drive replacing after 6 months. At the same time I also had a Samsung laptop 17" which also developed the same issue. After repairing I sold both.

Only 4 months ago my wife bough an Acer - she has a Dell which she uses for work, and again the hard drive failed.

All the laptops have been used for casual browsing, downloading the odd TV series and a little porn from me. However, I have a 7 year old compaq which I dropped down the stair, which ripped the screen off of one side exposing the ribbon wire. It fcuked the DVD tray and put a huge dent in the keyboard yet it is still going strong with an external keyboard. It is used daily to play music, download films and watch porn when the missus is out. It has been running the free version of Avast for the last 3 years, yet the ones mentioned above have all had paid versions.

What's the deal?

**Fondles** · 27-06-2013, 07:15 AM

Sounds like the HDD's have a short life and not the actual laptop.

What is the operational environment, are they only used on a hard flat surface or are they also used either on your lap or in bed on the bed covers as they could be over heating.

**Albert Shagnastier** · 27-06-2013, 07:16 AM

Everything is built for a short life.

"designed to fail"

standard marketing concept.

**Rural Surin** · 27-06-2013, 07:17 AM

Like every manufactured goods these days....

Produced to have a short life.....either replaced soon after or repaired.

**Jesus Jones** · 27-06-2013, 07:25 AM

Originally Posted by Fondles

Sounds like the HDD's have a short life and not the actual laptop.

What is the operational environment, are they only used on a hard flat surface or are they also used either on your lap or in bed on the bed covers as they could be over heating.

Always in A/C or with a fan blasting full power in my face. Occasionally on the bed or on my lap. Same with the Compaq until it threw itself downstairs.

**Jesus Jones** · 27-06-2013, 07:26 AM

Originally Posted by Rural Surin

Like every manufactured goods these days....

Produced to have a short life.....either replaced soon after or repaired.

All for the benefit of global warming, of course.

**pseudolus** · 27-06-2013, 08:29 AM

Yes - I am now moving away from laptops for this very reason. At least with a desk top you can replace and upgrade all the time. Lap tops are only good for a couple of years before they become obsolete anyway, so I guess they make them to fail around the same time.

**baldrick** · 27-06-2013, 01:09 PM

My personal laptop now is a dell xps14 I bought in jan 2011 - is still going fine

the only thing I changed was some more ram and a SSD - ( HDD is still used in an external enclosure )

I want to get a new laptop this year - not because I really need it , but I can afford to and I want to

looking a a 13" lightweight (~1.5kg ) - haswell i7 , discrete graphics ,SDD, 1080p , and widi or similar

will probably be samsung series 9 or Asus

**stickmansucks** · 27-06-2013, 02:35 PM

It is called planned obsolescence and ASmsung is famous for this.

Planned obsolescence - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Since 10 years in Asia I buy only Acer computers that are not famous in the west and never had any problem.

They never die !

My computers stay on 16 hours a day minimum and the ones I bought almost 10 years ago still work (even if I don't use them anymore).

Something that people usually don't know is that what kills electronics and turn on and turn off, because components warm and then cool, so the best is to let them on most of the time.

**Davis Knowlton** · 27-06-2013, 04:26 PM

At about three years old, my kids Acers are chugging along nicely.

**Primo** · 27-06-2013, 04:39 PM

I had a Dell for about 5 years and it got battered but worked fine,I then bought an Acer Aspire one when they came out as they are small and easy to carry when abroad and that is still working fine. I have only ever had one hard disk fail on me and that was because it was in a caddy and I left it on for ages and it overheated,never had one fail in an actual computer,the OP must be unlucky.

I have a very old Dell desktop which is still working although I do not use it much.

**Prem** · 27-06-2013, 05:23 PM

Can't beat Compaq, IBM and Lenova. I think I bought 15 in the last 15 years.
They are all still working (the majority is Lenova/IBM).

Prem

**baldrick** · 27-06-2013, 05:28 PM

Originally Posted by stickmansucks

Acer

Acer did this , and thus I will never buy one of their products
Acer LunchApp.APlunch ActiveX Control Remote Code Execution Vulnerability | Symantec

**Butterfly** · 27-06-2013, 08:19 PM

buy an iPad, problem solved

**Rural Surin** · 27-06-2013, 08:35 PM

Originally Posted by Butterfly

buy an iPad, problem solved

Move to the jungle or most distance unreachable village one can consider.

An ever better solution.
Existence without the aid of troubling electronic gadgetry.

**FailSafe** · 27-06-2013, 09:06 PM

I just ordered a bitchin' laptop today (my brother will bring it from the States when he visits next month)- DELL XPS 15 Notebook Intel Core i7(2.20GHz) 15.6" 16GB Memory DDR3 1600 128GB SSD 1TB HDD BD Combo NVIDIA GeForce GT 640M running Windows 8- I'm hoping I get a couple years out of it.

**xanax** · 27-06-2013, 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by stickmansucks

I
Since 10 years in Asia I buy only Acer computers that are not famous in the west and never had any problem.

They never die !

.

That's strange everyone I know who had one that died, good marketing but poor build quality. I bought a top of the range one for 35k in 2008 and it lasted 2 years, repaired twice. Always overheating, DVD drive went, footpad fell off and hinge broke along with the catch. Never left the house until I threw it in the bin. I would never buy Acer again

**Troy** · 27-06-2013, 11:04 PM

There was a time when a laptop HDD sat on an anti-vib mount. However price wars has seen this feature dropped. The most vulnerable component is the HDD and moving around and/or knocking the machine when it is running will contribute to its demise.

Once flash drives become cheaper the HDD will be a thing of the past and laptops will be far more rugged.

**nigelandjan** · 28-06-2013, 01:17 AM

Originally Posted by Jesus Jones

What's the deal?
__________________

The deal is mate what you spent on those 3 piles of cak you could have bought one of these little babies .

Best bit of kit I have ever bought had it over 3 years now never had any prob and is just about as quick as when I took it out the box.

I never have any of this conflicting bollox about this file tag missing and this program clashes with that program etc .

As and when this one croaks it I know what it will be replaced with

**stickmansucks** · 28-06-2013, 12:14 PM

Let your computers on 24 hours in aircon room and they will last longer !

**Dillinger** · 28-06-2013, 12:45 PM

I was carrying 6 empty cans, the remains of a takeaway and my laptop out of the bedroom the other day. I tripped over the power lead,went arse over tit, the laptop went up in the air and bounced off the wooden floor a couple of times. i clicked all the casing back around the screen and it's right as rain now, apart from that little piece missing from it

**baldrick** · 28-06-2013, 12:52 PM

Originally Posted by FailSafe

Notebook Intel Core i7(2.20GHz)

if it is not the new haswell i7 , I would recommend waiting just a wee bit until dell refreshes the lineup with the haswell

it is not just the performance increase , it is the power consumption .

if it is this unit http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834200804

or this processor Intel Core i7 3632QM(2.20GHz) - http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/...fications.html

it is ivy bridge , 3rd gen - last years model

**FailSafe** · 28-06-2013, 01:17 PM

Originally Posted by baldrick

Originally Posted by FailSafe

Notebook Intel Core i7(2.20GHz)

if it is not the new haswell i7 , I would recommend waiting just a wee bit until dell refreshes the lineup with the haswell

it is not just the performance increase , it is the power consumption .

I paid (the equivalent of) 42K for a 60K laptop (it was a lucky last-chance deal on a model that was just discontinued)- this will more than suit my needs- it's a monster as far as specs go, and battery life really isn't a major concern for me.

**Spin** · 28-06-2013, 01:34 PM

Originally Posted by Jesus Jones

Over the last two years I have bought three new laptops, one (Samsung Netbook) I posted on here a while back a problem I had which needed the hard drive replacing after 6 months. At the same time I also had a Samsung laptop 17" which also developed the same issue. After repairing I sold both.

Pointing a single component that fails and then claiming that the whole laptop is dead / useless is a bit silly.

Most hard drives available in Thailand are made in Thailand, so they are shit, like most things made here, were you expecting 5 years from them or something?

SSD is the way to go, I'm moving all my hardware over to them now, a 128gb I got a while back was 2040 baht. Yeah it's small but it might well last 4-5 years, much better than the 18-24 months I tend to see from regular drives.

A bigger concern for me is the quality of laptop screens, rarely get more than a year or so before the things gets a group of green lines running up and down it. Mind you, they are only 2000 baht to swap out for a 15inch.

**prawnograph** · 28-06-2013, 06:04 PM

Home laptop is fine but battery about dead - bought April 2010 - ASUS, told replacement battery about 6,000 baht, or else look for a 'copy' battery, cheaper.
Won't bother as it's a home fixture these days, retired from travel - but is 3yrs reasonable for battery life?
Guess it's had at the most 150-200hrs on battery-only, so is that potentially why it's failed, rarely used?
thanks

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