# Average lifespan of a laptop



## P4-630 (Feb 21, 2015)

I was reading at yahoo answers and a guy answered:

"_By far, the component that is affected the most is the motherboard because it holds so many components that need to work concurrently in order for the laptop to simply turn on. The most common problem is that the motherboard's capacitors go out first leading to a non-bootable(and thus non-usable laptop). These capacitors have up to 5000 hours of life. A rough estimate for someone who uses laptops as their primary computer (e.g. without a desktop) is 5 hours a day average; this yields 2.7 years. (Keep in mind in mind that this calculation assumes that you use your laptop for EVERYDAY for 5 hours, regardless of your vacation or days off. If you actually do use it for 5 hours a day it may be significantly less.) But this is simply a very rough estimate and it can vary drastically depending on how frequently you use it. (Remember, if you turn it off when you don't use it, you will preserve the life of your laptop.)_ "

https://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20100313013520AAQb2nC

I think this is real bullshit about the capacitors that have only 5000 hours of life.

My mom has an acer bought in 2008, which is still running strong and she uses it about 5 hours a day.


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## Kursah (Feb 21, 2015)

There really is no sure answer to this, but honestly in my years of experience the most common failing part on a laptop is the hard drive. Smaller spinning drives that experience so much more in the form of moving abuse. Many capacitors outlive their life expectency, many don't. If even one bulges and fails though that could mean a new board or replacement cap is required to have a functioning system again.

I would say I see the average dead or dying laptop at about the 2-4yr mark with more modern laptops, older ones seem to do better in the 4-6yr+ range. Depends on how they're cared for, cleaned, cooled, etc.

Like any other piece of consumer technology, new and cheaper methods of getting the same or better performance are being made yearly, with that the quality and durability is reduced. I would expect newer laptops in any kind of low-mid budget to not last as long as an older laptop honestly. I see far more old Dells and Gateways and Acers still working and see a ton of failing newer laptops, some even just months old. Again though, most times abuse has the most direct result on the lifespan of a device.


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## P4-630 (Feb 21, 2015)

Kursah said:


> There really is no sure answer to this, but honestly in my years of experience the most common failing part on a laptop is the hard drive. Smaller spinning drives that experience so much more in the form of moving abuse. Many capacitors outlive their life expectency, many don't. If even one bulges and fails though that could mean a new board or replacement cap is required to have a functioning system again.
> 
> I would say I see the average dead or dying laptop at about the 2-4yr mark with more modern laptops, older ones seem to do better in the 4-6yr+ range. Depends on how they're cared for, cleaned, cooled, etc.
> 
> Like any other piece of consumer technology, new and cheaper methods of getting the same or better performance are being made yearly, with that the quality and durability is reduced. I would expect newer laptops in any kind of low-mid budget to not last as long as an older laptop honestly. I see far more old Dells and Gateways and Acers still working and see a ton of failing newer laptops, some even just months old. Again though, most times abuse has the most direct result on the lifespan of a device.



What do you think about the life expectancy of my Asus G750JX gaming laptop?  I only have SSD's in it, so no mechanical harddrives,
I use it about 14 hours a day, about 1 hour of gaming a day.


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## eidairaman1 (Feb 21, 2015)

My Dell Xps Inspiron 9100/Gen 1 with a P4 3.4 Gallatin (Northwood Extreme with 800FSB,L3 Cache), 2GB ram, m18 GPU radeon 9800-256MB, r420, Core ocd from 350 to 459 and ram from 297 to 416. Still running good, no parts failures(3 fans on it) Tells me it has good airflow.Had it since 2004. Only mod i did was change the tim to AS5 on cpu, Akasa Shinetsu Pads stacked on gpu and chipset, and As5 mixed with AS Thermal Adhesive, tweak monster ram sinks on the ram


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## Jetster (Feb 21, 2015)

Laptop motherboards rarely go out. The most common is the hard drive followed by the power plug from being dropped.


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## xfia (Feb 21, 2015)

pretty sure cap rating is done under full load..  a computer just sitting idle is hardly affecting lifespan especially if p states have not been disabled.


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## FireFox (Feb 21, 2015)

I have 5 years with an Asus laptop the only thing that I have changed is the hard drive, (once becasue it died),so +1 to what @Kursah said.


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## OneMoar (Feb 21, 2015)

indefinably if properly cared for


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## P4-630 (Feb 21, 2015)

OneMoar said:


> indefinably if properly cared for



Which I do with my laptops, such as blowing out dust if there is any, 
I just hope that I never have to replace the thermal paste of my laptops, because I don't like DIY on my laptops for such.


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## kurosagi01 (Feb 21, 2015)

To me depends how heavy use the laptop is used,generally find laptops to last about 3-4 years before you see a dip in performance and then slowly die out.


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## Frick (Feb 21, 2015)

kurosagi01 said:


> To me depends how heavy use the laptop is used,generally find laptops to last about 3-4 years before you see a dip in performance and then slowly die out.



Why would the performance be lower, unless it's thermal throttling or degration from heat which shouldn't happen as long during it's lifetime anyway?

But yes the statement quoted in OP is bull. The number one cause of death is people just thrashing them about (I will never understand how people manage to break them so completely unless it's a failed insurance/warranty scam) about and trash them after a few years of bad surfing habits have made them riddled with crap and the computer shops charge 100 euros just for looking at it amd and obviously tells them it's just not worth it.


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## P4-630 (Feb 21, 2015)

Frick said:


> Why would the performance be lower, unless it's thermal throttling or degration from heat which shouldn't happen as long during it's lifetime anyway?



I watch my temps every day, if I notice that the temps are higher after some time, I blow out my laptop with an air compressor.
So I should be fine for years to come. I just don't know how fast the thermal paste of my gaming laptop will degrade, I hope it won't.


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## Kursah (Feb 21, 2015)

P4-630 said:


> What do you think about the life expectancy of my Asus G750JX gaming laptop?  I only have SSD's in it, so no mechanical harddrives,
> I use it about 14 hours a day, about 1 hour of gaming a day.



Depends on a lot of factors, some you can and some you cannot control. Every piece of electronics has a use-life. SSD's can still fail, and when they do...you lose your data with no way to get it back..so keep that in mind.
Gaming laptops have a tendency to build up more heat than many other laptops, heat and cooling cycles, expansion and contraction, current, etc all play a part in the lifetime of an electronic device.

Keep it clean, cool, and don't bang it around a lot, you'll be okay. It will eventually fail, heck even when taking care of it, if one resistor or capacitor wasn't quite up to quality control specs and slipped passed QC, your device could fail today. Just take good care of it, and odds are it'll take care of you for some time. Goes with the saying you'll often see on used FS items "adult owned", keep it clean, keep it simple and cared for, you'll be fine. 

But I won't give you any kind of guarantee on dates, but odds are you'll have years of faithful service if you do a good job of maintaining it, and doing as previously suggested.


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## stinger608 (Feb 21, 2015)

Hell, I purchased a brand new Gateway P7811-FX brand new in early 09 and it is still going strong. 

I have updated the bios to allow RAID, which I did for a short time, upgraded the ram to 8 gigs (max it will allow), and upgraded the processor. I have been running Windows 7 Pro on it since Windows 7 came out and just recently loaded Windows 8.1 on the system. 

As has been mentioned, I think a lot of it depends on how systems are taken care of. My ole Gateway still looks brand new. I still, to this day, use the felt divider that was between the screen and keyboard every time I put it away. Still have everything that came with it new including the original box. Hell, I still play games on it from time to time. 

As for most common failing parts; I think it is depending on the system itself. Some have issues with the power port, some have issues with motherboards, and some have video card issues. 
There was an HP model that was always having video card issues and tons of people were backing or heating up the built in video cards to extend the life of the system. 

There were a few Dell models that had daughter board issues. 

But for the most part I think that heat is the number one issue with failing laptops. If a person can control the onboard heat the laptop will last many many years.


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## FireFox (Feb 21, 2015)

Kursah said:


> Gaming laptops have a tendency to build up more heat than many other laptops,


My Asus Gaming G72GX
This is an example about Temperatures:

The situation inside the case, in regards to the components, looks a lot worse. Whilst the temperatures of the CPU level off to about 50°C and the GPU to around 60°C in idle mode, the cooling revealed big weaknesses in our endurance test (Furmark + Prime95). Thus, both the CPU (up to 97°C) as well as the GPU (up to 102°C)


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 22, 2015)

My laptop is 9 yrs old still runs XP fine with good temps and regular cleaning.

Its the batteries that need replacing not the laptop in my experience.


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## FireFox (Feb 22, 2015)

I've cleaned my laptop just once in 5 years


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 22, 2015)

Knoxx29 said:


> I've cleaned my laptop once in 5 years




When i look at filth on my laptop it is definitely dirty. !!


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## THE_EGG (Feb 22, 2015)

P4-630 said:


> What do you think about the life expectancy of my Asus G750JX gaming laptop?  I only have SSD's in it, so no mechanical harddrives,
> I use it about 14 hours a day, about 1 hour of gaming a day.


I used to have an Asus G53JW which I got in 2010. I only sold it 6 months ago to upgrade. It was still fully operational and the original HDD was still good too. The only bad thing was that I think one of the fans' bearings was on its way out because it would rattle a little bit.

The G53JW was quite possibly one of the most over engineered laptops I've had. From my experience with laptops, Fujitsu laptops have lasted the longest with the exception of the Toshiba M200 Convertible Tablet which is still kicking to this day.


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## krusha03 (Feb 22, 2015)

My dad still uses a laptop he purchased back in 2003. Does it work? yes! Does it work well? Hell no! Every time I would sit behind it, I would feel like hitting it with a hammer and throwing it out the window. The battery is of course dead and one of the hinges is cracked but nothing that can't be fixed with some super glue and baking soda. I bought him a new laptop as a birthday present last year since I couldn't see him working on that single core 2.2GHz P4 which is technically slower than an Atom but he still uses it. It is as they say, old dogs can't learn new tricks but then again he is older than @CAPSLOCKSTUCK


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 22, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> My dad still uses a laptop he purchased back in 2003. Does it work? yes! Does it work well? Hell no! Every time I would sit behind it, I would feel like hitting it with a hammer and throwing it out the window. The battery is of course dead and one of the hinges is cracked but nothing that can't be fixed with some super glue and baking soda. I bought him a new laptop as a birthday present last year since I couldn't see him working on that single core 2.2GHz P4 which is technically slower than an Atom but he still uses it. It is as they say, old dogs can't learn new tricks but then again he is older than @CAPSLOCKSTUCK




Thanks..... i love a good laugh on a sunday morning  .   My arthritic, rheumatic, disjointed bones need a good rattle.

Only joking.........49 and going strong.


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## krusha03 (Feb 22, 2015)

CAPSLOCKSTUCK said:


> Thanks..... i love a good laugh on a sunday morning  .   My arthritic, rheumatic, disjointed bones need a good rattle.
> 
> Only joking.........49 and going strong.


Fuck then he is as old as me and you together  BTW I was joking of course man, no offence  He is still more than enough tech savvy for his age just few years back with current developments


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## CAPSLOCKSTUCK (Feb 22, 2015)

krusha03 said:


> Fuck then he is as old as me and you together  BTW I was joking of course man, no offence  He is still more than enough tech savvy for his age just few years back with current developments



@krusha03 Look after him, you can replace a laptop but you will never replace your Dad, wish him well from me.


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## FordGT90Concept (Feb 22, 2015)

There are four laptops I was directly involved in, all Systemax.
1) bought in 2004.  Poor thing went through an 18 wheeler wreck which I believe did more than just cosmetic damage.  It started locking up after that so it got recycled probably around 2012 not only because it was having problems but it was functionally replaced by #3.  *~8 years, no OEM servicing.*

2) bought circa 2006.  The only servicing it had was the optical drive failed.  Systemax mailed a replacement and we installed it.  It is still working but doesn't get much love because everyone hates XP these days.  *11 years, minor OEM servicing.*

3) bought in 2008.  It was sent in twice for repairs and both times was to replace the track pad and on the second time, also the optical drive.  This would normally be a minor service job but this machine is semi-rugged so these repairs had to be performed by the OEM (Gammatech USA).  The track pad has design deficiencies (the mouse clickers aren't strong enough). It was serviced twice in total, still operational.  Moreover the battery still holds about 40 minutes of juice because the user is very careful about treating the battery right.  *~7 years old and still going strong* (almost like new, in fact; yay for magnesium alloy!).

4) bought circa 2012.  It got sat on (not a gentle sit either, more like jump into couch where laptop was) shattering the monitor.  Not warranted, obviously.  Systemax mailed a replacement screen and we installed it.  Later, it was discovered the same mistake also broke the plastic one of the back screws was supposed to hold on to so the back panel would move.  "Fixed" via JB Weld for plastic.  The only other thing of note is the battery was recently replaced because unlike #3, the user doesn't treat it well.  Systemax stopped making computers so those OEM battery came from an Amazon supplier.  It isn't a perfect match for the laptop but it works.  *~3 years old and despite a hard start to life, the innards are still sound.*

*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.


As for time.  Pretty sure #3 ran 8+ hours per day until early 2014.  It was on whenever he was driving the 18 wheeler and conditions varied widely (hot, cold, vibrations, grease, dust, etc.).  It had a GPS program running on it and also kept track of the "80-hour rule."


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## dorsetknob (Feb 22, 2015)

Got a  2008 Acer aspire 5619z laptop
It has been Running 24/7 for the last 2 years (only rebooting  occasionaly when the webcam program errors)

ITS HISTORY
Dug it out of a scrap yard  about 4 years ago  Think  it was scrapped because the owner borked the screen
came with NO Ram No HD 
I replaced the screen with another from a scrap Yard 
Upgrades the CPU to a t2250 (the fastest i had as spares)
whacked in some 2gig of DDR 800  mem ( max it supported)
fitted a 250gig HD  win XP Pro 
well it then got occasional use as my traveling support laptop till i needed it to moniter my ailing Father via  a MSI 370i infra red webcam
thats why its on 24 / 7 

ps Its Due some Dust busting downtime maintenance soon and i will replace the tim then as a precaution


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## Uplink10 (Feb 22, 2015)

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.


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## joeylee032 (Feb 23, 2015)

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


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## Jetster (Feb 23, 2015)

joeylee032 said:


> 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


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## AhokZYashA (Feb 23, 2015)

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.


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## zsolt_93 (Feb 23, 2015)

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.


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## Uplink10 (Feb 23, 2015)

@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.


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## zsolt_93 (Feb 23, 2015)

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.


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## 64K (Feb 23, 2015)

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.


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## Peter V Olsen (Jan 9, 2017)

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.


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## Boatvan (Jan 9, 2017)

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.


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## phanbuey (Jan 9, 2017)

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.


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## Darkleoco (Jan 9, 2017)

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.


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## Derek12 (Jan 10, 2017)

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


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## silkstone (Jan 10, 2017)

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.


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## Melvis (Jan 11, 2017)

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.


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## neatfeatguy (Jan 11, 2017)

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.


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## micropage7 (Jan 11, 2017)

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


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## Derek12 (Jan 11, 2017)

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


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## FordGT90Concept (Jan 11, 2017)

FordGT90Concept said:


> *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.


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## INSTG8R (Jan 11, 2017)

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


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## cornemuse (Jan 11, 2017)

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, , , ,


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## Komshija (Jan 12, 2017)

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.


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## FreedomEclipse (Jan 12, 2017)

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.


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