A laptop would be expected to last at least 3 years. If an obvious defect happens in that time they are required to fix it free.

I got a new engine on my 5 year old Kia Carnival that would have cost me more than the car was worth.

This is another example of the faulty logic of worshipping the dollar over everything else.

http://consumeraffairs.govt.nz/consumerinfo/cga/index.html

In New Zealand the Consumer Protection Act requires that products last a reasonable time before failing. If they don’t fix it for free, a claim in the Disputes Tribunal (a small claims court which is lawyer-free) would soon force them to do it.

(However if you bought your laptop for business purposes the Consumer Protection Act does not apply).

I have maintained notebook computers for a small army of salespeople. Laptops last right up until the 2nd or third time they are dropped. In that your computer still has a funtioning backlight in the screen tells me that computer was stored safely away for many years.

I have an old Dell something or other (486-100) that runs some ancient version of slackware linux. It still works because I never use it. Thats what… 15 years old?

#18,

They are made so cheaply because people who use laptop computers for a living recognize that they last until they are dropped, sat on, or levered into their bag and something breaks the screen.

I think ssd’s will solve the problems of dropping running notebooks, at least you wont lose all your data. But still there are lots of parts to lever off and break in a dropped laptop. Apple probably has done the best to ruggadize the notebooks with their brick design, but they still are not saying its safe to drop em. Also, this is why the ruggedized computers have never taken off… Even those computers break when you drop em.

Gasparrini,

You are describing a laptop that was dropped, or allowed to overheat. Folling your provided links, there are lots of people who both admit to dropping their laptop and having this problem(one lady describes cat hair and bed use!). If you are in one of the covered devices they have extended the warranty to two years.

I think the solution is for laptop companies to start putting those Drop-n-tell, devices in the notebook computers. They could probably put one in for heat as well.

The all-in-one computers all suffer from the short lifetime as well.

What to do? Buy a Netbook with an SSD and keep a home PC for the heavy duty stuff. Or, if you must have the features, and I highly doubt that you do, buy a Panasonic, because they build ones that are good and charge accordingly. Anything else is asking for trouble.

Don’t know. I’ve used 3 different machines (not ultimate) and on 2 of them I’ve been able freeze (unrecoverable without reboot) just by using Windows mail.