What's the average lifespan for a computer?

[Archae]

Especially the hard drive, if it's used constantly?

I had the hard drive of my older computer make an awful sound and now it gives me all sorts of warnings.

So I have it in storage, at least for now.

It's been in use for about 3 years now.

[NYC_SKP]

1. My Sony Viao didn't even make it one year before the hard drive went bad.

IIRC, it also was making unpleasant sounds before it went.

There isn't going to be an easy answer to your question, I have some 12 year old computers that never needed work but they cost $5000 new (Toshiba Tecra, for example), and were business class not sold in consumer stores.

Three to five years without a hitch would seem reasonable for a PC, longer for a super duty business model like an IBM or Tecra, and also longer for a Mac.

[applegrove]

2. My computer is 10 years old. The fan went last year but seems to have fixed itself. The software

and hardware are not powerful enough for me to really surf. I can't really use the internet for much.

[RebelOne]

3. Not long for a PC.

I have had 3 PCs and and none of them lasted for more than 2 years. I now have a Mac Mini that I have had since 2009 and it still working wonderfully. In my opinion, Mac is the only way to go.

[kentauros]

5. That's probably only true for name-brand PCs.

Both of my custom-built PCs have been good for at least five years. This is one is still going after six years

[Go Vols]

4. HP's

have been good for me.First one lasted 7 years running 24/7 until the western digital hard drive took a dump,replaced and still running fine at 10 years.

Second HP is 3 years old,running 24/7 and no problems so far.

I do open em up once a year and clean with air.

[VenusRising]

17. HP has been good to me, too,

The one I'm running is about 6 or 7 years old.

[deucemagnet]

6. I've had my PC since 2008.

It was a monster back then (2.6 gig quad-core, 500G hard drive, 3G DDR2. 32-bit OS is the only drawback), but still has plenty of power for day-to-day use today. It initially had a BIOS issue I had to resolve and I've had to replace a graphics card in the intervening years, but it's still going strong. Never had a virus. The only OS mishaps were my own damn fault for doing something stupid. I use it for everything, including gaming and recording and watching television. The only reason I'm thinking about replacing it is because the motherboard is outdated, but even after this machine is replaced as my primary desktop it will live on as a secondary machine. I paid $600 for it as a refurb in 2008.

[riderinthestorm]

7. I have an ancient PC my dad built for me that's 10 years old, runs great,

has all my "old" business files on it. My "new" PC is a Compaq, 5 years old and runs fine too. I have a Sony Vaio laptop that's 3 years old and is the backup for everything else.

FWIW, I live in an extremely dusty environment, what most would consider pretty toxic to computers...

[murielm99]

8. My old PC is upstairs in storage.

My son and I built it in 1999. I stopped using it two years ago. I have been using this Mac ever since. I am not used to it yet.

[RebelOne]

19. Once you use Mac, you will never go back. n/t

[dimbear]

9. When your hard drive starts making noise, it indicates you should download and save

anything you want to keep. On an older computer that could easily amount to just one flash drive.

This would include treasure maps, photos, email addresses, so on.

[Initech]

10. Surprisingly my 6 year old Mac is still humming along.

The CD drive died the other day but other than that everything else works. My current Toshiba has lasted two years as well, I replaced the HD on it and upgraded the RAM and it's still going strong.

[hunter]

11. I've got some from the 'eighties that still work.

One computer I built in the 'seventies no longer works.

On many old computers it's the electrolytic capacitors that go bad. Sometimes the pop like firecrackers when you start the computer up.

Generally my computers "die" of hard drive failure, but it's rare I lose much because I make frequent backups. I stopped buying computers a long time ago. Mostly I make them from trash.

If I bought a new computer and it didn't last at least five years I'd be irritated. But most people seem to replace computers every three years, which makes me a happy scavenger.

[hobbit709]

12. Computers last for years.

hard drives, optical drives, and fans all have moving parts that wear out.
I know someone that is using a 233MHz laptop with Windows 95 on it. It's still working fine and it does what she wants out of it.
Drives fail, power supplies go bad but most cpu's-if not overheated will run practically forever.
The OS will get cluttered and corrupted but a clean reinstall solves that problem.

[HopeHoops]

13. If it is in storage, probably 20 years. Daily useage, more like six.

[Betty88]

14. Moving parts about 3 years

like others have said. I change my hard drives after about 3 years, put in a new one, old one becomes a backup. I have had many PCs over the years and they became outdated not broke. Usually I get a good 4 years out of the hardware before it is no longer powerful enough for my needs (gamer..) Sure a fan would quit or a power supply need to be replaced but I have never had a PC just up and brick its self. Now if you buy a $300 pc and think its going to last as long as a $2000 apple I cant help you.

[pscot]

15. We're on our 3rd Dell in about 15 years

I had to put in a new power supply last year, and we got one with a bad MB once, but it was still under warranty and Dell had a tech out to replace the MB within a few days. Obsolescence tells us when it's time for a new one.

[Neoma]

16. Depends on the quality.

Technology gets an upgrade every two years. Usually it's a race to keep up. But I used to have a computer for...6 years maybe? It didn't crap out, it just got outdated. Though I might need to mention that the computer was built by my brother. Just get the case, mother board, videocard, hard drive, memory, fans, other stuff... Install everything and you have a kick ass 2003 computer.

[Moondog]

18. Hard drives have an endurance rating, usually referred to as MTBF.

Which is Mean Time Between Failure. This is typically measured in thousands of hours of operating time. Higher, obviously, is better. That said, hard drives are cheap, and they get cheaper every year. They are also ridiculously simple to replace. There are videos on the web showing you how to do it if you do not already know how. Some purveyors of computer parts have videos not only showing you how to do it, they provide part and tool lists.

Anyway, if you are happy with your computer but suspect that the hard drive is about to take The Big Sleep, back that sucker up and replace it. Easy peasy. If I can do it, you can do it.

[Ron Obvious]

20. My Kaypro from 1982

I must admit it doesn't have a hard drive, but my 1982 Kaypro II still works great. I just booted it up to make sure.

28 pounds, in other words a portable computer by 1982 standards. I did have a hard drive for it at one point. A 10 Mb hard drive with a host adapter piggy-backed into the CPU. Big enough for a single mp3 file today, or maybe even two pictures!

I don't care what anyone says -- Computers were more fun in the days when I knew what every byte of the operating system stood for.