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List:       mandrake-newbie
Subject:    Re: [newbie] OT - Lifespan of a laptop
From:       JR <turnloosetheswans () eircom ! net>
Date:       2005-06-05 10:50:51
Message-ID: 200506051150.52655.turnloosetheswans () eircom ! net
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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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