laptop lifespan

I’ve heard people say anywhere from 3-5 years as a good lifespan for a laptop. (They’re more or less obsolete by the end of that period anyway, so I guess there’s little use making them any more durable than that.)

I didn’t have my first laptop until 2000. The first one lasted until 2005, but caused me terrible grief beginning in late 2003— randomly erasing documents I had worked hours to create, for instance.

The second one lasted from 2005 to 2008, and the final cause of death (typical for that model) was large portions of the screen blanking out, and though repairs tended to work they were always pricey and merely temporary.

The current laptop is one I bought at the FNAC in Toulouse when I was there for the conference in 2008. And now it’s just about dead already. I’m quite familiar with the early warning signs of a laptop on the verge of being untrustworthy, and this one has reached that stage.

Two years may sound a bit flimsy. But I’ve really beaten this one up with overuse. The amount of writing (not to mention blogging) in the past two years has been fairly high.

The only thing is, Egypt isn’t a good place to buy computers. There are plenty in stock, but they tend to be ridiculously overpriced. It must be tariffs of some sort. The same is true of stereos, and the like; this simply isn’t a cheap place to buy electronics of any sort.

So, I’ll try to push the current machine until November and pick up a new one while in Los Angeles. I very nearly bought a new one in Atlanta in April, then decided to push it a bit longer. My reward was that June hard drive crash that I blew about a week recovering from.