Laptops Less Reliable
 

SquareTrade.com, is a seller of warranties on electronics.
They've compiled a lot of reliability information, in a PDF, with charts like this one.

Maybe I have just lucked out but I have had my HP laptop for over a year and it goes EVERYWHERE i go and get used almost 24/7. I have not had any malfunctions with the computer and have only had minor flaws with any of the software installed including VISTA. I don't advestise for any particualar brand this is just my experience.

The DEC '09 issue of Consumer Reports also shows the percentage of repairs based upon a survey of 75,000 readers who bought laptops between '05 and the first half of '09 (differences of fewer than 3 points weren't considered meaningful):

Toshiba .... 16%
Sony ........ 17%
Compaq .... 18%
Acer ......... 19%
Apple ........ 19%
HP ............ 20%
Gateway .... 20%
Dell ........... 21%
Lenovo ...... 21%

Their survey of 62,500 readers who bought desktops over the same period showed overall results similar to the laptops (differences of fewer than 5 points weren't considered meaningful):

Apple ......... 13%
Compaq ...... 18%
eMachines ... 19%
Del ............. 20%
HP .............. 21%
Sony ........... 22%
Gateway ...... 23%

I wonder how the CS numbers would break out for just laptops 3 years old? It's tough to compare apples and oranges.

Yet the graph seems to show that even the worst brand has a three year failure rate of 25.6%, and the best 15%.

When I was in school, one third was 33%. (okay, point three three three recurring.)

Uh?

Interesting. Dell and Apple are pretty close. I have had my Dell Inspiron 8600 for 5 years. No hardware problems.

Gee, mine is only a year old and already I have a problem that defies my ability to diagnose or fix it.

It's either the ESC key shorted/stuck or some kind of malware. I've run several kinds of malware cleaners and the ESC key functions normally for the first minute or two of operation, then degenerates to nothing, but it's tough to tell since I can now not open windows, dialog boxes, access the START menu or shut down or reboot without a hard shutdown.

It's off to the computer guys for my laptop.

I wonder how the numbers will be affected by widespread SSD adoption. Seems to me that most laptop problems are probably caused by poor QC and using components designed to be stationary in a mobile platform.

Jim's HP is a turd and has been since day 1. I'm on my second Sony (vaio), the boy loves my old one. My next laptop will likely be a Sony.

I have been quite surprised but the HP I bought my wife has also turned out to be a piece of crap. I think I may just buy her an Apple Mac.

I'm a happy user of a Dell laptop here. While I'm pretty good about not spilling stuff on it and whatnot, I do truck it all around the house, and the keyboard has been beaten on violently by more than one pair of chubby little hands.

Your's (and many of other posted problems) is why better laptops have comprehensive hardware diagnostics. Diagnostics that do not load Windows (or Linux, etc). That test every individual component even for functions you (or Windows) may not use.

No one key goes defective except where the key touched the conductive PC trace. IOW, if it is only one key, then you key the contact material both on the key face and on the PC traces that it touches.

Keyboards are particularly easy to fix. But approach the problem slowly and with care. Little parts can go everywhere.

In one case, the keys that worked intermittently shared an intermittent trace. Found the cracked traces. Got some conductive epoxy from Radio Shack. Using scotch tape, literally painted a new trace over the defect. Entire keyword became reliable again.

How to find defective laptops long before the defect becomes apparent and long before the warranty expires. Operate the computer for hours in a 100 degree plus room. Those without hardware knowledge will quickly identify themselves. They fear heat; foolishly call heat destructive. Heat is how defective hardware is found before that hardware starts making hard failures.

Also have a Dell 8600. Excellent machine. But I had one defect. While doing that 100 degree operation, a display bit would periodically go back. Only one memory bit in one video memory chip would fail intermittently when room temperature was almost 100. Because Dell is one of the few responsible computer manufacturers (diagnostics are provided for free), I quickly identified a defective part and the memory location that was failing. Called Dell. Got a new video controller (where the defective memory bit was located) replaced. Using Dell's exploded diagram, replacing the video controler was easy.

Want to see a nightmare? Gateway (Emachines) provides nothing. No diagnostics. No exploded diagrams. Even telephone techs that foolishly believes a warm room causes hardware damage. How do you know Gateway is a bad machine? They do not provide comprehensive hardware diagnostics. Gateway has them. But you are only a profit center.

All computer manufacturers have comprehensive hardware diagnostics. Every one. But only a few are responsible enough to provide them. That is the benchmark of the better computers. The few superior manufacturers also provide those comprehensive diagnostics so that most everyone above with problems could have solved that problem quickly. Either by executing diagnostics and immediately identify (replace, correct) a defect. Or, because diagnostics were executed, have facts so that the few and better informed can provide help.

Is the ESC failure due to a virus? That and about 30 other possibilities could be eliminated immediately using the manufacturer's comprehensive hardware diagnostic - provided free by every responsible manufacturer. And then combining hardware diagnostics with another diagnostic tool - heat - to further define that defect. Without diagnostic results, every reply can only be “it could be this or might be that”.

If they have QC, then their products have high failure. Quality is in design - not in QC. Laptops are so robust that you plug it into any AC power source anywhere in the world (100 or 240 volts) - and it works perfectly fine.

BTW, many laptops from different manufacturers are assembled by the same Taiwan manufacturer. What makes some better than others? The design presented to that Taiwan manufacturer.

A common problem observed is failure between the computer and its power supply. Often a connector inside the laptop breaks. In one case, a little plastic on the power supply connector caused signaling failure - so that the battery would not recharge even though the computer was AC powered.

Another problem is battery failure. Too many assume a laptop is intended for mobile operation - to be powered routinely from its battery. Laptop batteries enable you to move a laptop from power source to power source, already contains a UPS for intermittent power outages, and for the rare time that you must use that computer without AC power. Laptop batteries are typically good for 300 plus recharges.

BTW, another way to put a laptop at risk - use a power strip protector. Any protector that works adjacent to a laptop is already inside that laptop.