How long does your computer or laptop last?

Glad to meet an owner of Commodore 128. You are really lucky to have it in your collection. Did the CPU cooler give up during hot summer? June, July and August are usually the most troublesome months for computers. They always make me nervous. Did the motherboard show smoke?

I have been told that keeping the laptop on lap is one of the reasons why it can end up getting damaged. The notion is the same and that is, overheating. In my house, I tried the ceiling fan. But now I prefer the table fan since it is more energetic. How long do you game on your laptop? My sister's one does the same. It just shuts off instantly due to the overheating.

The problem itself is not leaving it on, the problem is that it may overheat. It depends on what you leave it doing while alone, and in what environment it is, for the refrigeration. I tried laptop base with coolers, together with putting me and it just under the ceiling fan and it can support quite well these hot days. But the table fan seems nice too, just anything that throws fresh wind directly into it may help fine . I don't game so much as I would like (time consuming work :( ), but an hour daily or so possibly. It really depends on the game if it makes it overheat or not. Some can run for hours and hours without worrying, but others, more modern, I have either to stop them or regulate the temp by switching out of it every one in a while. Right now I have such a game running in background, minimized and there it doesn't heats the CPU, but when I go into it, it becomes hot, so I have it on a regime of 10 minutes play, 5 minutes rest with web browsing . Not a great way to play really, but it makes the laptop survive.

Asus is definitely one of the best. It has been beating all other brands for a couple of years now. People take it as equal to Apple. We have one Asus laptop. It hasn't failed despite the fact that my sister works on it more than 9 hours a day. I haven't heard of Fujitsu. Probably, it is still not available here in US.

Yep, by 3rd year the laptop or computer stars to kind of slow down. So your one is not at all abnormal.I have been just trying to avoid downloading software. Even I do end up getting one I make sure that it is on my flash drive. I even run my antivirus software from that.

I have around 6-7 laptop since I started to work. I worker around 14 years already. My first laptop is no brand laptop, soon, its harddisk have problem :( Then, I always buy ASUS

Does changing the OS have any impact on latest software? Our custom built computer crossed its 4th year somewhere around in 2009. Now it still works, but very slow.

Does your desktop go through the slowness problem? 5 to 6 years sounds a lot. It is wonderful that it is still in great shape.

Those computers and laptops are gone. My dad did not want to deal with them anymore. I will say that the slowness of the computer has more to do with Microsoft updates. Sometimes one session includes more than hundreds of them. One of my friends lost her computer to that annoying thing. Well according to Microsoft, such updates are supposed to give the machine security and boost. Butin reality, the consequence is the opposite.

My old computer was so old at that time than that fan couldn´t be found. It has happened to me with other machines and gadhets: if they are too old you can´t find replacements

The fan problem is familiar to me. Our computer had to deal with this. But we replaced the fan and things went back to normal. But yes, I guess, only a technician is more capable of doing this.

My sister is using Dell. But our main computer is custom built and it has given less trouble than branded ones. I totally agree with you that the life of the computer depends on how the user cares for it. But I think most often people bulk it up with tons of files and programs. In Californian houses, many kids keep their computers open 24 hours. As far as I know, this is truly harmful. One of my ex's said that he kept his one open for 3 months in a row. I feel sorry for it.

Definitely the quality is very important and also how one handles the system. I have never used Lenovo. But I believe that Compaq laptops and computers are great. The one we had was a little troublesome in the end though. But it was from 2000. I totally agree with you that Samsung laptops look cool. So does Sony We were told by the technician that majority of the time laptops crash earlier because owners use them on bed or lap. This prevents the heat from escaping. Large heat sink is definitely important.

Have you considered going for iPad instead? Not sure if it is going to happen, but according to one yahoo article, by 2014 laptops will be replaced by that gadget. I don't own an iPad and so I cannot tell if it is more powerful than computer and laptop. But yes, I definitely agree with you that a good brand of computer is necessary. The cheap ones are cheap for a reason.

Hi jordq7, I was writing to you a reply when suddenly my browser lost mylot. Anyways, it seems that the motherboard acting up is the most common problem for computers. I heard that four year thing from my boyfriend. He said that is what the makers predict. He was quite disappointed by it. Computers are expensive machines. They should have the ability to last longer than years. Look at televisions, they can live more 10 years without any problem.

Was the clock fine before? My older sister's laptop has never given the right reading on its clock no matter how much we fixed it. I really despise that whole windows update thing. It is one of the main reasons why so many computers crash badly. At the end of the day, the updates do not seem helpful. They just take up too much space. What is the brand of your new laptop?

I totally understand your pain. Our custom built one is a bit slow now despite the fact that it was fed double hard drives. Of course, slowness has nothing to do with motherboard. Blame it on Microsoft who has an addiction to inject updates after updates in a computer in such a way as if it is jealous of its good health and wants to see it slow and crashed.

It is much easier to take care of such internal parts. But it seems that the computer gets helpless in front of new technology. A new software is invented and its maker suddenly feels it should be injected into the computer's system. That is so annoying. That is why, I turned off my Microsoft updates.I don't see my laptop acting up because of this.

I too believe that laptops and computers can last a long time. We have one user here who still has Commodor from the 80s. That definitely is the biggest hint that if we take care of the gadgets they will have no big problems. But like you said, the updates are what makes them junky. But does Microsoft care? I don't think so. I wonder whether people complained to them about how their updates end up harming the computers. What is even the use of them if the machine itself is not capable of carrying their burden?

My laptop's battery is gone too. Weren't the 90s versions a little heavier than what we have today? You have already crossed 4 years with your new laptop. I suppose this means that it will last even longer.