Average & Max. lifespan of a Thinkpad

My own T61 is only more than 1 yr old, in mint condition . I wonder how long a Thinkpad can last. How long did your Thinkpad last before it became unusable? (and for what reason did you lose it, excluding physical damage? How did it "die"?)

 

Well.. My father's thinkpad T23 lasted almost 7 years.. 3 battery replacements needed.. and then it was replaced because it was too old.. not because it stoppped working..

 

I really hope my x200 will last that long. 7 years is a really long time

 

My now-5-year-old Acer TravelMate C110 tablet still works although I have replaced it with an X200. Since that old POS (IMO at least) could last 5 years I would hope that ThinkPads can last that long - I definitely hope my X200 can although ideally I would have it replaced after 2 or 3 years.

 

I used my T40 for 5 years (bought 2 spare batteries during that time).

I gave it to a family friend and upgraded to an x200 in August. The T40 still worked (and is working) fine.

 

It's been my understanding for some time now that thinkpads outlast almost all other machines, though I have a dell inspiron 5100 circa late 2003 which has run practically 24/7 for almost 5 years now with a few hd formats and a battery replacement. As far as I can tell unless something really just fails, no pc really just "goes bad." Formatting and part replacement can go a long way.

 

I would expect a Lenovo notebook to last as long as you would need it to and only be replaced when its technology is too obsolete. I actually just purchased a W500 which is supposed to be delivered today to replace my Dell Inspiron 8600 which will be turning 5 years old in another month. My Dell is still running on its original battery (doesn’t last as long though), just did a reformat of the hard drive and reloaded Windows and everything else back in October. I actually do plan to still use it for work stuff (when working from home) until our office purchases new CAD software that will run on Vista. It’s not the quickest machine on the block but its still cranking along. If my Dell can last that long and still run then I would expect the Lenovo would do the same if not better. I believe it was PC Mag or PC World or one of those magazines posted a very large survey that placed Lenovo and Apple as the two best computer manufacturers for 2008. They had the best service, best ease of repair, fewer problem, etc. Dell and HP (I considered buying an HP) did not do so well in that survey, especially HP which was nearly last in satisfaction. I don’t think you could go wrong with a Lenovo.

 

My Dad inherited a 380XD from his work in 2000. He had used it since like 1996 or 1997. That Thinkpad became the only house computer. I used it for writing papers until 2004 when my parents bought a new house computer. When I went to college in 2005 I got the Acer in my sig because the Thinkpads just did not have a good graphics card then. Dad still used that old Thinkpad occasionally for random mobile stuff. Besides a new battery and maybe more RAM I dont think anything was ever changed to it. The acer stopped charging batterys a year ago (I tried multiple ones, probably a motherboard problem) and that necesitated a new Laptop. I was not going to make the same mistake twice...

 

I can still crank along on a Dell Latitude C400 purchased in 2000-2001 (so long ago I can't recall). That's when Dell was making solid notebooks. I've gone through an HDD upgrade (only because I needed the storage--the mechanics of the first one were still fine), and the original battery is good for about 15 seconds...

I still have a Micron XKE and Panasonic notebook with Pentium I's, which I'm sure would still function fine if I had any reason at all to boot them up.

I think that with proper treatment, any notebook from a reputable manufacturer should last for the effective usefulness of that technology (anything other than gaming or other processor/video intensive applications). Other than the battery, the mechanical components are the most likely to fail, i.e. HDD, optical drive, and fan -- and these are normally the easiest components to replace or upgrade...

 

I still have a t42 that my kids beat to all heck. Still runs great. so about 5 years on that lappy.

 

What about the screen? Could long term use, especially at max. brightness, shorten its life? When I used an old desktop and CRT monitor, the CRT just suddenly died one day, but I understand LCD is different, still, does it have lifespan issue?

 

Yeah -- I forgot...That's certainly another critical component that could give out. But -- knocking on wood -- my 7-8 year old Dell is still going strong with fairly consistent usage. Probably one of the best things a user can do is to set the screen to blank out after a set amount of idle time (like, say, 10 minutes...).

Unless someone can point out otherwise, I would think that the new LED backlit screens should have an edge on longevity versus the old fluorescent backlighting...
'

 

Mine is almost 5 years with many abuses...

 

I still have a Lenovo 600E, it is useless because it is so slow not because it has broke.

 

My T41 is just shy of five years old. No replacements, other than batteries.

 

I have a T42 that my brother uses. Heck, that thing feels tougher than my T61p.

 

I have lots of respect for the T4x series.

They were very well made, thin, reasonably light, and solid all around.

I am not surprised that so many people on this forum (myself included) have gotten 4+ years out of T40, T41, T42, T43 as they are fantastic machines.

 

Still going strong a Thinkpad A22e my dad uses for his work (sitting at home is the laptop), working since Sep 2001, it served me well during college days and have an upgraded HDD to 100GB.

 

I have a 390E, ca '1999.
When I was given it as a grad student in '01, it had been owned by an undergrad for 2 years, then turned in for upgrade (part of a student program at WFU). I used it heavily for 2 more years, at which time the IT guys no longer allowed Win 2k systems on the network... so it was relegated to minimal-time work at home until about mid '04.
Who knows what the prev student did to it, but I treated it like crap, dropped it numerous times, and even *drove over it* once with my 4runner. oops. The screen cracked from that, but it booted right up no problem...

 

I have HP pavilion, P4 2.6GHz, 1GB RAM, ATI with shared memory that runs XP since the past 5 years ... and is still in a good shape. I think the screen brightness changed a little but no biggie. It has wireless B, lol, nobody used wireless when I bought it. I've changed the HDD on it once, and the battery lasts like one hour (vs 2.5 when new).

The current T61 is a little past 1 year old, and gets faster and cooler thanks to overclock, undervolt, fan control, clean XP install .. etc. I plan to use it for about 5 years or more. The only thing that will get changed is the HDD with some nice SSD .. and that's it. It's screen should last much longer as I'm using external monitor almost all the time.

 

It will be usless before it stops working.

 

When your laptops finally die, what do you do with it? Dissembling it for useful parts?

 

I'd try to sell it. Personally I would have no use for any parts inside, but there are lots of people who wants to buy broken machines.

 

I had a T41 that lasted 4 yr then there was a problem with the screen or motherboard, so said the computer techs. I am very careful with laptops so I have trouble believing that it stopped working from abuse, but I think it was a fluke because I bought an R61 and am on the boards know researching the T500.

 

I've never had a laptop "break" completely, they just become outdated. The only things I can think of which might be catastrophic failure would be a blacked out screen, or power surge/fried. I've never heard of that happening to any laptop, even at work or owned by friends.

I had a Compaq from about 1998, at the last I saw of it in 2005, the screen hinge was completely loose (wouldn't stay open) but when I sold it, it still worked fine.

The worst malfunction I ever had was the hard drive going bad, which is not really a laptop manufacturing error.

 

Those people want either free broken machines or pay dirt cheap (like maybe less than $50 for a broken laptop?). But maybe you could sell the screen alone, or a wifi card, keyboard...?

I once stupidly bought a junk desktop. It broke after 1.5 year. I think the fan was broken.

 

My experiences with T4x are that my own T42 is still working well with 4.1 years. It even runs Windows 7 and Aero, but I much prefer a SSD/Core 2 Duo machine, because of multitasking ability. Battery has been replaced once.
Two of my friends also use a T41 and a T41p. The first machine is a little older than mine, and has a loose connecting, so that if you pick it up in the corner, the display garbles. One of the USB ports is disfunctional and the ethernet connector occasionally disconnects. The second machine is working fine, except for the keyboard which has lost a key.

 

Our office has a T20 which has been in daily use for more than 7 years now. We finally gave it away to a friend (for his kids) less than month ago because it was getting too slow for modern work. None of the parts have been replaced. Everything including the HDD is still the original equipment. Now that's IBM quality! If only the Lenovo made Thinkpads can last that long only time can tell.

 

At some point a problem will occur where the fix or parts necessary far outweigh the value of the repaired machine.

I had an older thinkpad around that was first delivered with a 3GB HDD. It had the motherboard fail this year so I wiped the HDD (upgraded some time ago to 20GB) and threw it away.

I recall it was a 600 or some such, but I reckon it was near 8-10 years old and running a Pentium II of near glacial speed. Still useful for a few things.

Perry

 

Ok out of pure curiosity I recharged an old thinkpad 370C from about 1995 and it still works like a dream ...... okay its only windows 3.11 workgroup but it runs 14 years later !!!!

Note: okay the battery only lasts 20 minutes but im sure I can rebuild it with some old NI-MH cells

 

I would say that qualifies as fairly impressive. Under what conditions was it stored?

 

I've never run a laptop til death but it seems form these posts that they essentially run forever with some TLC. I wish I still had my old Thinkpad 570.

More importantly, however, is that with the endless software updates that companies subject us to we eventually have to upgrade (even if the software you use youself is still fine, at some point someone you communicate with is gonna force to to get newer versions). I mean... do we really need a new version of MS Office or Photoshop every two years?

 

the 370 was stored in a humidity controlled room with battery out since 2003. when it was stored it was wrapped in shrink wrap and just sitting on a shelf.

 

Microsoft and Adobe certainly do.

 

I have an Asus S96J that I am currently selling that has worked since 2006. As for my Thinkpad, I'd be satisfied with 4-years.

 

I am still using a 600e on an almost daily basis (built in 1998 or 1999). It runs the old software (Win98, etc.) quite well. I see no reason to update to newer software for the laptop as for what I want it works wonderfully. I am running Office 97 and it works quite well. The only reason to upgrade software is to give your money to companies who put out useless upgrades. If I plug in another hard drive, it will run XP, although a bit slowly. Great for wireless web surfing.

 

I have a Dell Inspiron 1200 circa May 2005 that is still operational. My battery is as good as dead on it though, so I plug it in. This July was the first time I had to replace a original component because it had failed; the AC adaptor.

My Sony Vaio Desktop was purchased in August 2001 and is still running. I've had to replaced the Vaio CRT monitor twice.

My uncle's old IBM laptop was purchased in 1995. Still functional.



On the other hand, my sister's Toshiba Satellite lasted from August 2004 to February 2007. Her next laptop lasted from March 2007 to Spring 2008 due to the NVIDIA GPU failure.

 

My Thinkpad T61 is already 17 months old, and she still looks and runs like new ! My last laptop (a Toshiba Satellite) lasted about 4 years until the hard drive crashed.

 

haha you guys with your 2005 computers, think that's old?

I know many tech geeks running 98, 99, 00 computers with no problem. My friend still uses his powerbook 12" every day, I am still envious of that laptop's exterior design...

 

I have a Thinkpad 600X, which is about 9 years old.

 

Think im still winning with the old 370C at 14 years, its been alot of fun playing some of my really old dos games on it again. and I did refurb the battery so its back to new condition. Thanks to the OP for the idea to go look in the laptop parts closet

 

I hope to get 2-4 years out of mine.

 

if you dont need the latest and greatest games and software I dont see that being an issue at all.

 

Nope I dont need the latest and greatest, but IDE and other apps get heftier each year and thats what really makes me upgrade. But Im hopeful for my thinkpad and dell.

 

I've never kept my ThinkPads long enough for them to fall apart. I was always upgrading before they started it deteriorate, though they don't travel a lot, which probably helps. My longest one so far has been my 14" R60. It lasted about two and a half years before I got rid of it. It looked pretty much new, save for a few very light marks on the lid and a little shine on the keyboard. I foresee keeping my current R60 for at least three more years. None of the stuff I do is that intensive and the screen on it is fabulous. The screen is arguably the most important part on a notebook and most of them are junk these days.

 

I agree with the screen thing. Thinkpad haters always mention that screen quality is poor, and they're not completely wrong.

 

5 years + .

 

I will consider replacing my current Thinkpad when Lenovo start production of USB 3.0 and good quality screens. I like my T61 with the exception of two things: The crap SXGA+ screen (which I think is made by Toshiba) and the not so great keyboard (I wonder if the T60/T61 NMB keyboard makes the typing experience more enjoyable than my noisy Alps keyboard (I think it is), flexy around the top left corner, the quality is not as near my T42p NMB keyboard.
I'd like a fanless Thinkpad too, but who knows when we'll get there (I'm talking about a regular 14.1" laptop, not a netbook here).

 

My wife's T40 lasted 4.5 years before dying with the well-known GPU solder issue. We had it reflowed and gave it to her nephew.

 

I had a T21 that i actually received for free from a business manager, "circa" 2001, (never knew they were antiqueties now) It still works fine apart from loose LCD display cables, Pentium 3-M 800MHz, 128MB RAM running XP Pro, i gave it to one of my friends as a light word processing computer and it's still chugging away with a very noisy HDD which i later discovered was normal for the T21's 20GB.

Edit:you'll fork over simply for USB 3.0??? USB 2.0 transfer's data faster than any network will for a long long time.. i'm pretty sure you'll be fine with 2.0, or are you the man that backs up the entire iTunes music catalog every day and wants USB 3.0 so you can go home earlier lol jk hehe