How long should a laptop last?

[Cunning_Fish]

Hi guys, my Compaq Presario 1100EM did the whole bsod thing after 1yr 6 months, and I'm fighting with PC World to give me more than half its £400 price tag back to me.

The point is, I don't think it's right for them to depreciate the value of my laptop by almost half its value. What I want is a straight answer, no silly "how long is a piece of string" answers.

How long, on average, should a laptop last?

I've got a Sharp laptop bought in 2002 that is still flawlessly working. That's 8 years, well beyond any Sale of Goods act stuff. I expect a laptop to work for more than a year and a half without going completely dead.

Your thoughts?

[Comptronic]

I don't think there's a standard for how long a laptop should last.  It all depends on each user (I'm not saying the BSOD was your fault).  Like you, I have a 6 year old Pavilion ze5700 and a 9 year old Presario 1200 XL-100.  They still work like new.

[Cunning_Fish]

Thanks, hearing that others get some decent innings out of their laptops is great news and helps my case a bit!

[auntcoo]

That's a good question! One of our IT guys at work said that he has had more complaints and problems from HP's Compaq--especially the 6000 series. Unfortunately, I found this out because less than one month after I purchased my HP Compaq 6830s, the webcam disappeared (along with unrecognized usb message). 

Now I'm having "Cyclic redundancy" error messages and apparently my hard drive needs replacing so back to HP it goes. My warranty expires the 25th of April and it will be sitting in their repair labs when the deadline comes and goes.

I will never buy an HP again.

[nascar4u]

while a 4-9 year old notebook may still turn on, Moores Law is still in effect

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moore%27s_law

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auntcoo wrote:

That's a good question! One of our IT guys at work said that he has had more complaints and problems from HP's Compaq--especially the 6000 series. Unfortunately, I found this out because less than one month after I purchased my HP Compaq 6830s, the webcam disappeared (along with unrecognized usb message). 

Now I'm having "Cyclic redundancy" error messages and apparently my hard drive needs replacing so back to HP it goes. My warranty expires the 25th of April and it will be sitting in their repair labs when the deadline comes and goes.

I will never buy an HP again.

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auntcoo wrote:

That's a good question! One of our IT guys at work said that he has had more complaints and problems from HP's Compaq--especially the 6000 series. Unfortunately, I found this out because less than one month after I purchased my HP Compaq 6830s, the webcam disappeared (along with unrecognized usb message). 

Now I'm having "Cyclic redundancy" error messages and apparently my hard drive needs replacing so back to HP it goes. My warranty expires the 25th of April and it will be sitting in their repair labs when the deadline comes and goes.

I will never buy an HP again.

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[unhappyhp]

here here!!!! i bought a lovely hp pavillion 2 years ago. then i noticed the fan running a lot then the graphics just freaked out. i had it repaired on me the guy had to replace the mother board. its running again but the fan starts running after 15 minutes and i end up worring so i turn it off.

i found out that hp had problems with this but they never did anything to solve this problem.

i will never buy another hp again either.

[Tech_Smurf]

They did do something! The notebook was running too warm so they changed the way the fan works so it comes on sooner and runs harder. And, if it was covered under the nVidia settlement they added another year of warranty to it for that issue. Finally, they let you extend your warranty with them at anytime during the first year. You could easily still be in warranty with them if you wished. I have arranged for many free repairs for clients notebooks with HP due to the overheating issue. I have received notifications from them by mail and email about known issues on notebooks I am the registered owner for. As long as your privacy settings are set to let them do so, and your address is correct they will let you know.

[woo562]

i have a compaq 6735s and it is just under 2 years old, it has completely died on me, with the battery R.I.P.ing 6 months ago.  I have lost a lot of data and irreplaceble photos as i was in the process of copying everything the last time it died.  I have contactd HP who are 'having a look' but i am not expecting any joy.  I have no knowledge of the workings of computers and have lost my employment so can't repair or replace.  i believe that eveyone with a dead or dying HP notebook should write and complain to HP who,by the way, 'have not come across this problem'.  perhaps they should read the dozens of forum posts on the topic!  Good luck with yours anyhow!

[Mumbodog]

Seems there are more failures in consumer grade laptops in the past 3~4 years than ever before, from all manufacturers, probably due to the severe price competition in the marketplace, quality has suffered industry wide on some models.

Business grade laptops seem to last the longest, but may not be what most consumers want or need in a laptop.

I have an old Dell Latitude D600 (2003) still running like a champ, dual booting XP and Windows 7, and another hard drive caddy to run Ubuntu when needed.

No solid answer to your question, since most laptops have a 1 year warranty, I would say that is the expected life of them, some don't make it that long.

Any Electronics are near impossible to know which are quality and which are not, time is the only real test of that.

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