are cheaper laptops disposable items?

Bought myself a new laptop for £400 and this comment kept on appearing.

Kinda like mobiles....have it for two years and then rid.

Surely not?

I'm no green environment hippy type....but that just goddam wrong.

The term "consumer electronics" is definetly taking a new meaning. Maybe not every 2 years but I can see the reasoning, they're a pig to format if you dont have the correct drivers to hand but I'd prefer to do a factory reset and get another 12months out of it before considering a whole new laptop. (That said you can get a decent one free with a new mobile these days).

2 is a bit short, I'd say 5 years before things have moved on so far it's more of a hindrance than an enjoyment to own. They're practically worthless then, ebay for £50 for the geeks.

no they are not..

The last laptop I bought was £400 5 years ago, it still goes strong but struggles with the latest programmes and web pages etc.

It has had a new hard drive and CD r w drive but other than that still works well.

The new one we just bought an HP should last at least as long, and can be maintained like the other one.

[Viney]

It does seem that more and more 'Luxury' items are becoming disposable which is sad, and as you say, not very green. Getting laptops repaired is silly money if you use the likes of The geek Squad and such like.

My old Compaq laptop is probably about 10 years old and in IT Geneology, its Willam the Conquer, but with a fresh load of windows on it, its happy enough to run the portable HDD and plays music at work and thats about it.

Whats worng with your Laptop?

I must say, with laptops the reason they are becomming so cheep is due to the lack of upgradeability, however your good local PC friend (or me) can normally give these beasts a new(ish) lease of life and extend them tremendously.

My laptop is pushing for 5 years old and i've got another that is pushing 6-7 years old. The most they need to keep them going is:
* more memory, 2GB at least is good but check www.crucial.com for how much they can take using the memory scanner.
* new HDD, like with the bike, bearings go after a while and read speeds slow down, replace with new.
* clean install of Windows - you never belive how much rubbish the manufacturers put on laptops that slows your system down and will NEVER be used.
* new battery - need i say more?
* MAYBE a new DVD RW - only if you notice that yours is becomming unreliable though.

Some laptops you can also upgrade the processor to a faster one of the same type (i'll not go into too much detail to save confusing people), and some allow upgradeable graphics processors, but these can get costly and sourcing parts is rare.

hope it helps.
Collis

Nothing wrong....not even got it yet!

But the words £400 and throwaway don't sit right with me.
£400 is still a lot of cash.

It's a Lenovo G550 in case u wondering.

Originally Posted by collis

I must say, with laptops the reason they are becomming so cheep is due to the lack of upgradeability, however your good local PC friend (or me) can normally give these beasts a new(ish) lease of life and extend them tremendously.

My laptop is pushing for 5 years old and i've got another that is pushing 6-7 years old. The most they need to keep them going is:
* more memory, 2GB at least is good but check www.crucial.com for how much they can take using the memory scanner.
* new HDD, like with the bike, bearings go after a while and read speeds slow down, replace with new.
* clean install of Windows - you never belive how much rubbish the manufacturers put on laptops that slows your system down and will NEVER be used.
* new battery - need i say more?
* MAYBE a new DVD RW - only if you notice that yours is becomming unreliable though.

Some laptops you can also upgrade the processor to a faster one of the same type (i'll not go into too much detail to save confusing people), and some allow upgradeable graphics processors, but these can get costly and sourcing parts is rare.

hope it helps.
Collis

By the time you've done all this to your old laptop you'll be eyeing up new ones in the shop as you'll have spend about £200 on upgrades.

Another way to extend their useful lives is by reinstalling with a different operating system. It's amazing how responsive an older machine can become with a light version of linux. Something like puppy linux can be great. You can get applications to do pretty much anything you want. As for speed, on a 5 yr old laptop that took 2 mins to boot WinXP, Puppy boots (from CD) in 10 seconds!
Its not Windows, so be prepared to get used to it. If you're willing to give it a try you'll probably be pretty happy with it.

Bought my laptop in 2007 over 3 years ago, one of the first core 2 duos T7200 2hz, its still more than capable, was very expensive back then.