How long do XP laptops last?

I might not go as far as "rare" but would probably agree to "atypical".
Laptop hard drives certainly fail more often than desktop hard drives,
but desktop drives are not subject to being moved around while the
drives are operating.

Mark Shapiro wrote:
> I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
> Have firewall, virus protection, do
> all updates, don't open attachment,
> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
> Every year, the hard drive dies with
> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
> replaced it. This time I'm not going
> to replace the hard drive.
> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
> web sites. Why do hard drives die
> so fast on Windows laptops?
> Or is my experience rare?

Give me a break. Re: "Mac laptops use high quality hard drives which
can handle shock far better than the average PC hard drive"

That is just BS.

Mac laptops use the same drives ... made by Hitachi, Seagate, WD and
Fujitsu ... as PC laptops. They are no different, overall.


BillW50 wrote:
>
> Your problems with hard drives sounds like they might be failing do to
> vibrations. Mac laptops use high quality hard drives which can handle
> shock far better than the average PC hard drive. Although Apple drives
> weren't always like this. As the first iPods that used mechanical hard
> drives were failing left and right. As they couldn't handle the shock of
> being moved about.
>
> I am pretty delicate with my hard drives, so they seem to be lasting
> forever. I did have two out of 20 something drives fail (both in the
> 90's). And one failed being one week old and the other after 1 month. I
> blame these being lemons from the get-go, so there you go. Oops! I also
> received one DOA last year too. I almost forgot that one. ;-)
>
> Since you have problems with hard drives failing. You might want to
> checkout SSD (solid state drives). As they can handle huge amount of
> vibrations and still keeps on working. They actually use them on the
> Space Shuttle during launch. Then switch over to old mechanical hard
> drives once they are free floating in space.
>
> I love SSD technology. As you don't have to be delicate anymore. And you
> can toss them on a chair, car seat, or whatever and not worry about the
> shock or vibration damaging the drive. I have seven SSD I think now and
> I think they are great. I did buy a used netbook with a seemed to be
> defective SSD in it. I bought a new SSD and it has been working great
> ever since. It seems they had a few bad batches from what I could figure
> out. Later I discovered that defective one would work if you leave the
> power on for about 90 minutes. So you could get your stuff off of it if
> you needed too. ;-)
>

Let's understand what voltage we are talking about.

Both the battery and the AC adapter are simply INPUTS to a switching
power supply inside the laptop that acts like the power supply of a
desktop PC and supplies the various voltages that the laptop needs
(typically 3.3, 5.0 and maybe 12 volts). The hard drive runs off of that.

So when you say "the power supply output voltages", the power supply in
question is the INTERNAL power supply of the laptop (typically on and
part of the motherboard) and, in particular, is ***NOT*** the "AC
adapter", which, I have a strong suspicion, is what you were thinking.


Larry wrote:
> "BillW50" <BillW50@aol.kom> wrote in news:hba0nj$hkt$1@news.eternal-
> september.org:
>
>> Since you have problems with hard drives failing. You might want to
>> checkout
>
> ....the power supply output voltages.....
>
> Just a thought....
>
>

Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com> wrote in news:hbb4av$po7$2
@news.eternal-september.org:

> I have a strong suspicion, is what you were thinking.
>

That's what I'm thinking....

output of the switcher has ONE monitored winding and TWO not monitored.
One of them could be noiser than hell or way over/under voltage from a bad
rectifier or filter cap....sending the drive into hysterics....

Worth checking that drive's pinout voltages and noise....

--
Larry

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Larry wrote:
> mark@mail.goguys.com (Mark Shapiro) wrote in
> news:1j7o3ca.1l8nrxc1fx22sN% mark@mail.goguys.com:
>
>> Why do hard drives die
>> so fast on Windows laptops?
>> Or is my experience rare?
>>
>>
>
> Must be you. There's an antique Gateway laptop laying on my bed
> that's been a DivX player and wifi TV for over 10 years. The drive
> rarely stops when it's booted because the movie's on there. I never
> lost a drive. It's only casualty was when I was in a bad mood and
> the ****ed DVD burner popped out for no reason once too often,
> prompting me to grab it and rip it out of its hole...solving that
> popping out problem for good.

[snip]

Note to self; If Larry visits slip some Valium into his coffee.....
--
Shaun.

"Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's
warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet, 'Jingo'.

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Ryan P. wrote:
> On 10/16/2009 9:02 AM, Mark Shapiro wrote:
>> I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
>> Have firewall, virus protection, do
>> all updates, don't open attachment,
>> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
>> Every year, the hard drive dies with
>> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
>> replaced it. This time I'm not going
>> to replace the hard drive.
>> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
>> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
>> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
>> web sites. Why do hard drives die
>> so fast on Windows laptops?
>> Or is my experience rare?
>
> I think its luck of the draw. I have a Compaq Presario R3000 that I
> ran over with my car (accidentally) and the only thing I've ever had
> to do to it is replace the LCD screen (because of the car) and buy a
> new battery, because of age. Still works great, and I find it more
> responsive than my newer HP DV6000. Although its much heavier.

LOL, this cracks me up! How do you run over a laptop accidently? Do you use
it for a parking brake and forgot to move it? Did you drive over the couch
it was on? Or are you just in the habit of leaving it in the driveway?
Hehee, amazing....
--
Shaun.

"Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's
warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet, 'Jingo'.

In news:hbb3k0$k60$3@news.eternal-september.org,
Barry Watzman typed on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:37:15 -0400:
> Give me a break. Re: "Mac laptops use high quality hard drives which
> can handle shock far better than the average PC hard drive"
>
> That is just BS.
>
> Mac laptops use the same drives ... made by Hitachi, Seagate, WD and
> Fujitsu ... as PC laptops. They are no different, overall.

If you believe what you are saying, then you have a case to sue Apple.
And I say go for it Barry. I love to see how far you get.

http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm

I also noticed you failed to touch on why their Mac doesn't go through
hard drives every year like their Dell does. Why is that Barry? My guess
is that you are just clueless. ;-)

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:02:06 -0700, Mark Shapiro wrote:

> I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
> Have firewall, virus protection, do
> all updates, don't open attachment,
> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
> Every year, the hard drive dies with
> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
> replaced it. This time I'm not going
> to replace the hard drive.
> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
> web sites. Why do hard drives die
> so fast on Windows laptops?
> Or is my experience rare?

How about heat and poor ventilation? It is amazing how much dust can be
sucked into case.

On 10/17/2009 5:35 AM, ~misfit~ wrote:
> Somewhere on teh intarwebs Ryan P. wrote:

>> I think its luck of the draw. I have a Compaq Presario R3000 that I
>> ran over with my car (accidentally) and the only thing I've ever had
>> to do to it is replace the LCD screen (because of the car) and buy a
>> new battery, because of age. Still works great, and I find it more
>> responsive than my newer HP DV6000. Although its much heavier.
>
> LOL, this cracks me up! How do you run over a laptop accidently? Do you use
> it for a parking brake and forgot to move it? Did you drive over the couch
> it was on? Or are you just in the habit of leaving it in the driveway?
> Hehee, amazing....

It was during the process of packing up my truck while moving from my
apartment to my new house. I had a whole armful of stuff, so I leaned
the laptop case against the rear wheel, packed the truck, got distracted
by something, took care of the issue, got in the truck, shifted into
reverse, and didn't hear the laptop fall as the rear wheel stopped
supporting it, but I did feel the front wheel roll over it as I backed up.

But, thanks to ebay, $40 later, it was impossible to tell I ran over it!

I deal with hundreds of laptops a year (buying, refurbing, servicing and
selling them) and while drives do fail, the drives in most laptops will
last the life of that laptop. The situation described by the author of
the thread is simply not typical.


BillW50 wrote:
> In news:hbb3k0$k60$3@news.eternal-september.org,
> Barry Watzman typed on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:37:15 -0400:
>> Give me a break. Re: "Mac laptops use high quality hard drives which
>> can handle shock far better than the average PC hard drive"
>>
>> That is just BS.
>>
>> Mac laptops use the same drives ... made by Hitachi, Seagate, WD and
>> Fujitsu ... as PC laptops. They are no different, overall.
>
> If you believe what you are saying, then you have a case to sue Apple.
> And I say go for it Barry. I love to see how far you get.
>
> http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm
>
> I also noticed you failed to touch on why their Mac doesn't go through
> hard drives every year like their Dell does. Why is that Barry? My guess
> is that you are just clueless. ;-)
>