The Computer Corner
The brief life of laptops
By Charles Miller January 9, 2009 San Miguel de Allende

How long should a computer last? People ask me that question all the time. Google that and you may get a million hits, so obviously there are a lot of opinions out there. Here comes mine:

First, let us examine the subject of laptops. By their nature, these portable computers are frequently exposed to being mishandled (dropped) or otherwise banged around. It does not take much of this to completely destroy a laptop.

While careless handling kills many portables before their expiration date, there are several design flaws inherent in laptops.

The most serious problem is heat. Regardless of how well designed the laptop, the CPU generates so much heat that it shortens the life of all the other components. Using one of these external fan units made for laptops is about like putting a Band-Aid on a broken arm. One big reason that laptops used to last many years and now do not is that the old ones were slower and produced less heat; the new models are many times faster and run much hotter.

Another issue is the type of materials used to construct laptops. Most are molded of one type of plastic or another; the common dominator is that they all get brittle with age. The aforementioned problem with heat only accelerates the process. Some high-end systems use aluminum or magnesium rather than plastics, but that that adds way too much to the cost for most consumers.

But the most serious design defect inherent in laptops is they are delicate pieces of technology with limited tolerance for carelessness. Bouncing a laptop around while the hard disk is running is very dangerous to your data. Poking a fingernail too hard on a plasma screen can do permanent damage. Spilling a cup of coffee on a laptop more often than not results in complete destruction of the computer. Even seemingly harmless acts such as forgetting to close the CD-ROM tray for a month can cause a laptop to fail due to changing the designed airflow of the cooling system and allowing dust to enter through the open CD door.

No matter how well it is treated, any laptop with more than a few years on it will have some aches and pains. This might be cracks in the plastic parts, loose power connectors, USB ports that do not work any more, or lines on the screen.

And even if your laptop is still working okay after a few years, another factor in its obsolescence that cannot be ignored is that in the future you will need more computing power. Computer technology changes so rapidly that a computer five years old is absolutely a dinosaur. As new computers get faster, software updates and new software versions might not work on your slower machine.

Each year new software is designed to use more and more powerful hardware; so if you regularly upgrade to the latest software you will need to get a new computer more often.

So what is the bottom line? What is the answer to the big question? Unfortunately, there is no answer. It depends on each person’s needs and usage habits.

One thing for sure is that any laptop you buy today will not last as long as the one you had before. The slower, cool-running laptops of 8–10 years ago are no longer manufactured. The new faster and hotter-running laptops are guaranteed not to last nearly as long.

Those who buy one of today’s new laptops expecting it to last much longer than its warranty are kidding themselves.

Charles Miller is a freelance computer consultant, a frequent visitor to San Miguel since 1981 and now practically a full-time resident. He may be contacted at 044-415-101-8528 or email FAQ8 (at) SMAguru.com.
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