Laptop Reliability survey
 

Engadget: "ASUS and Toshiba win, HP fails"

http://www.engadget.com/2009/11/17/l...-win-hp-fails/

Most ppl's opinions are based on their own experience. A good point someone has mentioned is that manufacturers with more sales are obviously going to see a higher rate of failure, esp. by someone that RMA's machines all day.

I'm not sure how reliable the data is, but it sure is more convincing than techs (myself included) that preach and praise certain brands based on our limited sample size compared to that survey. It's also nice that the survey is done as a percentage rather than number of failures.

Flame away hehe.

used everything but lenovo and gateway. survey seems to be pretty accurate. =S
i know a lot of people with messed up HPs as well too =S

Thank god. I purchased an ASUS UL20A the other day, ahaha.

Good thing I didnt get that HP

Sampled from what year to what year exactly ? It says nowhere in this article ...

For the last year and a half, HP has been quite good for us and Acer has been absolute shit for at least the last 2 years and they're only getting worse ...

I also have difficulty believing Toshiba is that high given their terrible reliability record for 2008, though they seem to have gotten back on track for 2009.

The only reason I could see HP being that high is they're one of the few companies that sell refurbs, which generally have higher defect rates than new laptops.

I got Acer never had a problem

my other Sony one one of the fan become hella noisy after about 5 months, had to send it in to get replaced



HP on the hand is a fail

did u bother to make a few more clicks?

here's the original pdf

"Synopsis: SquareTrade analyzed failure rates for over 30,000 new laptop computers covered by SquareTrade Laptop Warranty plans and found that one-third of all laptops will fail within 3 years."
I'm guessing that it's 2006-2009, or even just 2005-2008

in my own personal opinion, i've had to rma more hp's than anything else. why? it's probably because the company sold more hp's than anything else. i haven't read anything about toshiba's 2008 record, only their infamous overheating issues of older notebooks. I'm with you on the acers though, quite poor builds really. I'm not sure about HP being one of the few that sell refurbs. I think they ALL do, except for a few. As well, refurbs do not necessarily have a higher defect rate. i.e. Apple.

again, our individual sample sizes, biases, margin of error influences our recommendations. I liked the report because it was represented as a percentage rather than how many was returned

The 3rd year is projected ...

You know I'm so fucking surprised at how many people have their laptops fuck up or die over such short periods of times.

I have a fuckin 3-4 year old dell laptop, and it's never fucked up, and runs just as good as the day I bought it, minus a few scratches and other cosmetic damages.


the fact is, most people treat their laptops like SHIT.

laptops are fucking DELICATE COMPUTERS. you don't use it on your couch or your bed, where it's full of dust and of course this totally blocks off all the vents.

try not to move your fucking laptop around when it's ON. i mean c'mon it's common knowledge that your hard disks shouldnt be MOVED when they're ON.

people treat their laptops like the military would treat theirs, which ISNT very hard. and of course they break down. the diff is military laptops are designed to be treated like fuckin work laptop. moving on the go, putting in your bag on the go and maybe treating it slightly rougher.

I can't stress the fact that your laptop is NOT a MOBILE computer. it's just a small one, that can be brought with you place to place, then SET DOWN and used, like a desktop. then packed up and moved again.

it is not your PDA, it is not your cellphone, there are moving parts, you need airflow, you need to keep it cool, you need to undust it once in a while, you need to clean it.

I don't get how people expect their laptops to last when they treat it like shit. if you don't baby it and take care of it, it ain't gonna take care of you.

but of course for manufacturer's defects, that's totally different. i'm just talking about general everyday use.

I'm still so shocked when i see people leave their laptops on, on weird unstable angles, on their couches, carpets, beds, or whatever, and they just leave it there all fuckin day and night with all the vents covered. if laptops had feelings, 90% of them would be depressed. hah.

i guess ppl do tend to forget laptops are delicate afterall

perhaps some thinks its bulletproof lol

all my friends beat the fuck out their laptops. 2 Toshibas just failed, 1 Mac overheats like a motherfucker (actually burned his leg when he wore shorts), the other Mac has had tea and water spilled on it, most use them in bed and with all kinds of blankets and shit, and noone ever cleans or maintains anything (no dust removal, driver updates, etc). They all get dropped and slammed into stuff, they all sit plugged in most of the time, with the batteries left in.

I run mine plugged in with the battery removed (left nearly full charged) up on a laptop stand, and clean the fans every 6 months along with driver updates. If I have to use it in bed I have it on top of a textbook or vinyl binder with the vents hanging over the edge for air.

Realistically, the USER will kill the laptop before anything else, my HP had the wifi card die, it was covered under an extended warranty because it was a known defect. My friends with dead laptops leave them running in all kinds of shitty places, one has hers sitting on her bed running near 24/7 with no screen saver or any kind of sleep timer.

How do you guys go about cleaning a laptop? Do you have to physically open it up and use compressed air, or just clear the vents?

(I dont have one so I dont know)

I take it mostly apart so I can lift up the keyboard and blast air through the fan and back out through the vents so all the dust is gone.

Also, of my friends with Toshibas, three a200's shit the bed in the past 2 days.

My 4-year-old Toshiba A70 needs to be disassembled completely to clear out the fans and heatsinks. It was also one of the models that had issues with the power jack and required resoldering twice since I've had it. It's still running fine and I've only had to reformat once due to a blue-screen issue over the last 4 years.

My friend's HP has panels that open up to allow access to the fans for cleaning, so it differs for every model/manufacturer.

I've had my HP DV4040CA close to 5 years now...I've had to replace the battery once....the thing wont die.

had a HP it was the worst thing EVER

have a Vaio, had one for about a year but i broke the monitor got a new one.. so far so good

cousin uses dell but the thing falls apart, not the hardware but the casing/keyboard

always heard good things about Toshiba

Dell Inpsiron 6400

Owned it for 2.5 years, treat it like a beater, and still running strong!

every 6 mths:
open - dust fan and peripherals - reapply thermal paste (once per yr) - close