On Sunday 05 June 2005 12:39 am, Dennis Myers wrote: > On Saturday 04 June 2005 06:24 pm, Aron Smith wrote: > > On Saturday 04 June 2005 12:12 pm, Mikkel L. Ellertson wrote: > > > Ian wrote: > > > > On Saturday 04 Jun 2005 18:36, JR wrote: > > > >>Hi folks, > > > >> > > > >>I'm curious what you all consider a reasonable lifespan for a laptop. > > > >>Personally, I bought my one and only Dell I4000 about 4 years ago. > > > >> Within weeks, the battery deteriorated beyond use, as did the DVD > > > >> drive. > > > >> > > > >> > > > >>A few months after that was repaired, the hinges on the screen came > > > >> apart, and the display became a true peripheral :) > > > >> > > > >>Anyway, that was all repaired while in warranty, but within a few > > > >> months of the warranty expiring, the battery again became useless, > > > >> and shortly afterwards, the DVD drive died. So I cant make any > > > >> alterations to my OS that might require say, and emergency boot CD. > > > >> > > > >>Is this normal for laptop parts? Everything else is fine, (Actually, > > > >> the speakers blew within a week of owning the laptop.) but I want to > > > >> know what to look out for when choosing a new model. > > > > > > > > I'd expect a laptop to last at least 5 years without repair. > > > > Either you are extremely ham fisted or you bought a dud. > > > > Laptop batteries aren't known for longevity, although completely > > > > discharging them is a sure recipe for failures (the charger usually > > > > can't bring it back up from zero). > > > > > > I find this interesting, because the directions for the Li-Ion pack for > > > my Thinkpad recoment doing a full cycle to full discharge, and then > > > full recharge every 3 months. The instructions for the Ni-Cad recoment > > > doing it at least monthly. I am not sure about systems using Ni-MH > > > batteries... > > > > > > > Old Toshiba laptops (PII) are still going strong, so it appears some > > > > do last for a while. I'd suggest a google for forums discussing the > > > > virtues (and otherwise) of laptops. > > > > > > I have a Toshiba 400CDT that is starting to die - the bottem 1" of the > > > display sometimes goes gray. Other then that, and the fack that it so > > > limmited by todays standards, it is still going strong. (P-75, 40Mb RAM > > > and 800Mb drive. No USB, No cardbus support, no 3.3v PCMCIA cards.) The > > > strange thing is that the battery is still good for 2 hours. > > > > > > My brother-in-law has a Compaq laptop that is even older. 486 > > > processor, and 8Mb of RAM. It is still up and running. When he gets > > > tired of it, I am thinking of turning it into a firewall. The batteries > > > are only good for about 5 minutes on that one, so it isn't too partable > > > any more. > > > > > > Mikkel > > > > I just bought a Fujitsu lifebook P7010 and so far am impressed with it > > (except getting the Centrino wireless to work with linux) > > I bought an HP zv5360 Pavilion laptop and am totally surprised with it. It > has all onboard functions working in linux. The video, cd burner, pcmcia > cards, onboard wlan, onboard nic, onboard modem all work and seem to work > well. Using ndiswrapper for the wlan card. Battery is only good for 2 to 3 > hours but that's ok I don't run on battery much. Hope it lasts at least 5 > years. Looks like I did get a dud. Thanks for the feedback folks. When I got my laptop, I'd never really used the net or anything so I'll have the advantage of research this time. Surprisingly though, I havent found any specific gripes about my laptop on the net (bar the battery).
Jarlath
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