How long would you expect a laptop to last?

[MedusaIsHavingABadHairDay]

I bought DD1 a laptop for her 16th birthday..it was her big present (ie nothing expensive for her 18th) ..it was a mid range Toshiba.

It lasted 2 years. The day she left for university it conked. Being essential we replaced it. Had another Toshiba which lasted 3 days..yes days.. before complete HD failure, then got an HP. Which, two years almost to the day.. has just conked. Completely...HD failure plus a few other more minor bits.

I am not faced with having to get another.. she does not have any funds, and it is certainly not her fault. Thank GOD we backed her work etc up to an external HD at the first signs this time...
I'm wondering what to get now. I am tempted to get THE cheapest thing possible.. Currys have Lenovo ones down to £299, given that they don't seem to last. I hate that none seem to come with back up discs any more either.

Are we just unlucky? SHould I be hitting the visa for a 'decent' one or would cheap do the job (she uses it for study, internet, watching the odd film)

She refuses to consider a mac which is a shame.. the rest of us are mac users and even our second hand 6 yr old ebay job has outlasted two of hers..:(

I repair computers for a living now (having been a software engineer, pre-kids, so heavily using computers for a couple of decades) and I'd say that there has been a real drop in reliability of computers in general over the last decade, with laptops being the worst affected.

I'm sure there are lots of causes, including the fact that people use their computers for more hours per day than ever before, but I also feel that the build quality is lower and they are being made with components that have a shorter average lifespan than they once did.

There is a huge issue (with laptops in particular) of lots of heat being generated by the massively faster CPUs and GPUs. Many laptops I see have overheated to the extent that their graphics chip has started to desolder itself from the pcb! In some cases this is due to fundamentally poor motherboard layout, but plenty of others would have been much longer lived laptops if they hadn't been regularly used with their air intakes blocked, as mentioned by someone above...

A laptop bought a decade ago would usually last at least 5 or 6 years (maybe needing a new hard drive or inverter board, but they are both trivial repairs) whereas it seems that one that was bought 4 years ago is quite unlikely to still be going strong today. Having said that, a top of the range computer is now less than half the price of the equivalent 'best you could buy' PC of 10-12 years ago, so I suppose there's some small consolation in that!

I assume 2-3 years for a laptop these days.

I buy cheap (refurbed where possible) & treat 'em mean - it perches on the arm of the sofa or is used in my study. Probably on for at least 6 hours a day & sometimes almost round the clock.

I've given up on desktops entirely; they last longer, yes, but then they're slower after a couple of years, & I end up faffing about & spending money on keeping them operational. After a few years of desktop for work & netbook for surfing, I've reverted to just having a cheap laptop for everything.

I do try to conserve most things. A really good pair of tights will last me longer than a computer these days, though...

lazydog software may have a place to play in overheating too, more and more crap running in the background unknown, having access to the internet streaming data.

I bought my first laptop (Dell Inspiron) in 2005. It's still going strong although I've added extra RAM to it and the C drive is almost full and it doesn't like funky new graphics much. Seven years strong!

We still use it for ripping to iTunes and burning CDs (and I bought myself an iPad for everything else).

I am a bit late to this thread but have a 3 yr old laptop at the moment having killed off 2 before that in 2 years. My current laptop has only lasted so long because I have had it professionally cleaned twice, have changed the power pack and generally treated it very well.

The other two failed because they over heated. Ime, laptops have to be clearned regularly. I use a laptop tray now because they shouldn't be put on fabric, anything soft or even on a table cloth because they pick up lint so I am told. Even on the tray, as I say, they have needed cleaning from time to time.

I am looking to replace the laptop now because it is running so slowly despite having been in for another clean up of the drives etc (I'm no geek so don't know precisely what was done). I do think they have built in obselesense.(sp?)

On the other hand DH had a Dell for 6 years which has only just failed. It was a bit crap and very slow and creaky mind you but it worked and DH was happy enough.

The only thing stopping me getting a new laptop is wanting to buy something that will last like the OP and because I have a fab desktop which is much better and faster, for the money than any laptop will be. And it plays the DS's games without trouble which laptops can't do easily it seems. It is stuck on my desk though which is very annoying. Its predecessor was 8 yrs old when it failed so they do seem to last longer.

If Macs really do last maybe I should be thinking of one of those but the price makes me flinch and DH cry so I probably won't be buying one of those in a hurry.

Ds's Sony Vaio has been with us for 6 years. It's minus a few keys, the battery doesn't work so needs a constant supply of electricity, and it gets hot, but otherwise it's still going strong.

4.5 year old mac airbook, has just started to heat up quickly though so suspect it won't be long before it goes, have just done a back up of all essential records on it for safety. Will probably replace with something less delicate as now DD is using it more I suspect we will need something more robust in nature. Like Apple so may go for the macbook or get her an imac for her room and a cheapy laptop for us, I mostly use an IPad so don't need a computer that much.

You need to clean the fan out, ThissaSign. It's really easy, just google the instructions. They get clogged up with dust and fibres from your clothes, which makes the laptops overheat. Once you've cleaned it out it will work like a dream.

lady will look that up, thanks. have to say I'd be upset if it does blow up, it's been my best computer.

Try using the dyson nozzle over the fan holes.