1 in 3 laptops die in first three years

[NotMe546]

> The most reliable companies? A shocker: Toshiba and Asus, both with below a 16 percent failure rate due to hardware malfunction.
> The least reliable brands? Acer, Gateway, and HP. HP's hardware malfunction rate, the worst in SquareTrade's analysis, is a whopping 25.6 percent.

 

[hbk409]

well my wife has a toshiba laptop that we got last decemeber and the hard drive failed twice, and they had to replace the mother board once because were the ac adaptor plugs in became loose and would no longer charge.

 

[avg1joe]

The source of this information is a company selling laptop warranties.

 

[NotMe546]

The source of this information is a company selling laptop warranties.

From what I've seen I agree.
Either way don't buy one without any extended warranty.
In fairness I haven't seen 30 thousand either.

 

[Skyhi]

I'm on an eMachine right now that I purchased 6 years ago for $300. It takes about 10 minutes to boot up, but It's still going strong.

 

[jayn_j]

Another variation on Cheap, fast or good - pick any 2.

As I see it, there are three markets for laptops, and they are very different. The three markets I see are business travelers, students and casual users who don't want to dedicate computer space in their home.

I have read several times that the average business laptop life is 18 months. Cost is not a big issue because it is dwarfed by other travel expenses. Reliability is a big issue though. That is why most of the big manufacturers have a second line of business laptops.

Students want light and cheap. They want it to last 4 years, but I doubt that is a buying decision for most of them.

Casual user just wants cheap. Never thinks of reliable.

 

[harshness]

An acquaintance of mind goes though two Toshibas a year. He wears out the keyboards.

My evidence supports that the HP Pavilion is far and away the worst for notebooks. Backlight and optical drive failures are in competition for which kills them first.

 

[Stargazer]

Toshiba = JUNK

Know someone with one that had a few issues with it causing it to not work at all in one case and a bad power supply.

I had one as well. It would shut off suddenly on its own and when I sent it in they ended up fixing a power port on it and something else on the back in addition to what I had sent it in for. This was in about 8 or 9 months. In a year and a half (after warranty was done) the dern thing's battery quit working (or whatever it was that detected one) and hard drive went bad (that is my guess since it would crash more and more).

These were both Satellites. NEVER will I buy one again.

Also, those laptops on the worst reliability list are the ones that Wal-Mart sells.

If Toshiba is one of the most reliable laptops there are, as much as they fail, then there is NO reliable laptop out there and they are all junk. That to me is hard to believe. How about the Apple laptops? They are pricey but are supposed to be better. How about the Sony's?

 

[diogen]

How about the Apple laptops? They are pricey but are supposed to be better. How about the Sony's?

Sony and Apple are 3rd and 4th in the list, respectively.
Apple fourth best among build quality study for portables

Some 10 years ago Tecras were very expensive and very reliable. Only those were certified to run Solaris at the time...
That was before Sun got pi$$ed at Intel and abandoned the x86 port... just to come back a few years later.

Diogen.

 

[yorktown]

Toshiba = JUNK

Know someone with one that had a few issues with it causing it to not work at all in one case and a bad power supply.

I had one as well. It would shut off suddenly on its own and when I sent it in they ended up fixing a power port on it and something else on the back in addition to what I had sent it in for. This was in about 8 or 9 months. In a year and a half (after warranty was done) the dern thing's battery quit working (or whatever it was that detected one) and hard drive went bad (that is my guess since it would crash more and more).

These were both Satellites. NEVER will I buy one again.

Also, those laptops on the worst reliability list are the ones that Wal-Mart sells.

If Toshiba is one of the most reliable laptops there are, as much as they fail, then there is NO reliable laptop out there and they are all junk. That to me is hard to believe. How about the Apple laptops? They are pricey but are supposed to be better. How about the Sony's?

I bought a Toshiba laptop about 3 years, so did my girlfriend.
We haven't had any problems with them.

These were both Satellites. ALWAYS will I buy one again.

FYI - Batteries don't last forever.

 

[mike123abc]

Dell Latitude seem much better built than their Inspiron or Vostro lines.

Hard drive failure seems much more common than it was a few years ago both in desktop and laptops. I wonder if they have gotten too cheap on some components now in hard drives. I have switched my laptops to SSDs, the jury is still out of course on the long term reliability of SSDs. The laptop manufactuers cannot really be held responsible for HD failure.

 

[jayn_j]

Everybody has a story about how theirs was junk or was great. That doesn't mean much and you have to look at statistics. They all buy pretty much the same parts from the same places. The question is whether they buy strictly on price or is stated reliability a factor.

I am totally ashamed to admit that I worked most of my career at HP. 24% annual failure rate is totally unacceptable in this market. I hired on there because they designed and built cool stuff that nobody else could do. These days, they assemble and market junk that nobody else would dare.

 

[Frank Jr.]

I have a 4 year old Hp pavilion dv1410us that the fan died three days before the standard 1 year warranty expired. I couldn't get through to those knuckle heads over seas that it was still in warranty. Wound up calling corporate here in the States. It was sent back to them and they replaced the motherboard as well. I replaced the hard drive shortly after I got it back as an upgrade. I have installed windows twice. The lcd although not as bright as when new is still ok. This is not a great success story by any means but it is still running. knock on wood!

 

[navychop]

I simply don't believe anybody is selling laptops when one fourth of them fail. They couldn't stay in business if that were true.

 

[yorktown]

Everybody has a story about how theirs was junk or was great. That doesn't mean much and you have to look at statistics.

It also depends on how much use and abuse a laptop gets. It will last longer if it only goes from the kitchen to the bedroom to the living room. If it gets taken on trips, back and forth to work, bounced around in the car all day it's bound to have a failure sooner.

 

[thiggin2]

I bought my Gateway laptop 2-3 years ago and the only problem I have had is the "|\" key came loose, but I dont use that key so was able to push it back on and it just comes loose ever now and then. I upgraded the memory right afer I got it and its been running GREAT .

 

[jayn_j]

It also depends on how much use and abuse a laptop gets. It will last longer if it only goes from the kitchen to the bedroom to the living room. If it gets taken on trips, back and forth to work, bounced around in the car all day it's bound to have a failure sooner.

That's a good point. That may also explain Asus. HP is heavily sold to businesses, and Asus is primarily a home use machine. Doesn't explain Toshiba though.

 

[navychop]

Toshiba laptops have been very reliable for us. Not a lot of road trips, though.

 

[Stargazer]

I bought a Toshiba laptop about 3 years, so did my girlfriend.
We haven't had any problems with them.

These were both Satellites. ALWAYS will I buy one again.

FYI - Batteries don't last forever.

It was not an issue with the battery. It was not even detecting a connection to a battery at all. I rarely used the battery.

 

[BuddyBoy]

HP, Dell, Gateway - none of them make laptops. Some ODM (Original Design Manufacturer) in Taiwan designs and manufactures them, like Compal or Quanta. For the most part HP, Dell, and Gateway just spec the laptops. I believe Apple actually designs their laptops, and then hands the design over to one of the big Taiwanese ODMs to manufacture them.