Computer Life Expectancy

Keith Browning · July 10, 2009

I was wondering what the typical life expectancy of a PC for most people. Considering that my main PC (the one I created and maintain the DTS site with) is now 10 years old the idea of replacing it has again crossed my mind. This is a machine that I built so actually it is just the computer itself that is that old. It started with a hand me down monitor, keyboard and mouse from the only complete system my wife and I have ever purchased. Since then all of that has been replaced I have added a second hard drive and a DVD burner. The only failure I have had to repair was the power converter. I Googled computer life expectancy and did some reading to discover that the typical average is 3 to 5 years. If you are an avid gamer the time is 1 to 2 years!

Please participate in the poll - you may make up to two selections if you have more than one PC. Choose the two most frequently used PC's if you have more than two.

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Bruce Amacker · July 10, 2009

Considering that my main PC is now 10 years old

You gotta be shitting me! I replace my main PC at 3 year intervals max. We have a lot of PC's and laptops because of the business and needing spare laptops when teaching software classes, but even my oldest PC or laptop is less than 10 years, and probably average 5.

I'm really blown away with how cheap my local PC shop can build a super powerful tower for, with great support, and a long warranty. Much cheaper than Best Buy or anywhere else. Currently I have a TB, twin burners, 4g ram, and a 2.4 Intel processor. I rarely have to wait for it to think, and I run F'ing HUGE Powerpoint files and graphics, with multiple windows open all of the time. I just checked my toolbar, and there's 16 windows open at this time....

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Keith Browning · July 10, 2009

You gotta be shitting me!

I shit you not! I took an ATX case, put an ASUS CUV40 motherboard - 133 Mhz bus, 733 Mhz Pentium 3 processor, 18gb hard drive, 520 Mb RAM and an ATI Radion 128 video, Soundblaster 16 sound card and a CD-RW drive. It has been slowing down with some of the newer applications I have in it now but it WORKS! I have an external hard drive I use to back up my data.

Me thinks it is time to replace it before I start pushing my luck. Posted Image

GregH · July 12, 2009

Well, with no moving parts, and adequate ventilation, a computer should not ever wear out. Sure, the hard drive will start to get glitchy, and the optical drives will eventually fail, but the guts of the computer should not ever wear out.

I've got an old TRS-80 and a Timex Sinclair upstairs in the closet. Connect them up to the TV (yeah, no monitor in those days...) and they still operate.

What prompts most consumers to replace their computers is two things - failure and loss of performance. Failure will happen, but for the most part is preventable. Pop open the case of your computer, Keith, and see how much dust has accumulated in the last ten years. That dust acts like an insulator, and prevents heat from dissipating to the air in the case. Do you have a filter on the power supply fan? If so, is it stopped up? A hot computer will degrade the solid state circuitry over time and cause a failure. Removing the dust and replacing the filters will make the computer run cooler. Dust will also conduct a small amount of current, so when the accumulation gets thick enough, some of the traces that are closer together will short circuit - and that usually causes an instantaneous failure. How about the quality of the power supply? Is it conditioned before entering the computer? Are the phone/network lines filtered too? Surge suppression will prevent small, cumulative damage to the circuitry as well as stop some catastrophic failures.

Where is the computer located? Is it in a heavy desk on the ground floor of a slab building? Or on a flimsy table in a conventional residence during line dancing practice? Vibration will shorten the life of moving components and will help locate the weakest joints in the circuitry...

How about performance? Has the computer slowed down in the last year? Most computers do not technically slow dow over time - they run just as fast as they did when they were new. Unfortunately, just like cell phone plans and DirecTV contracts, it is easy to add stuff, but impossible to take things away. How many icons are there just to the left of the clock on your windows taskbar? Is there a little "<" symbol there hiding a few more? How many of those programs do you use? Do you recognize all of them? Now do the three finger salute (control-alt-delete) and look at the process list. Do you have more than 30 processes running? Do any of them have "sched" in the name (like "realsched.exe")? Those programs are watching the clock, and pinging a site on the internet (realsched.exe pings realnetworks.com) looking for updates. Do you have an ipod? If so, why are there three programs constantly running on your computer, just waiting for you to plug your ipod back in? I'm going to put my foot up Steve Jobs' ass the next time I see him...

What I recommend, and practice with my own computers, is to start with a clean boot. Go and purchase a copy of the operating system you want to use. Then format your computer to this operating system.. That way there is no "AOL" junk or special offers or any other crap from the computer manufacturer. Something else I do p8iuois regularly audit the programs I use and classify them as often, occasionaly, rarely and never used. The never used get deleted and all processes associated with them are suspended and removed. Often used get a spot in the start menu, and I allow resident processes from them to run constantly. Occasional programs only get a desktop icon, and no standby processes are allowed to run. Rarely used programs are relegated to a listing in the "all programs" section of the start menu. This keeps a clean desktop, a speedy and relevant start menu, and low idle processing overhead. There are only three icons beside my clock on the task bar - antivirus software, wireless connection status, and the wireless configuration status (since I use my laptop on more then one network).

Moving components are another story. They will fail much sooner than the solid state components. But they can last longer if you take a few precautions.. For hard drives, make sure you've got plenty of RAM. Windows will allocate a section of the hard drive for "virtual memory" if you do not have enough RAM to do your work.. Take a look at the bottom of the window after a three finger salute. you will see "commit charge" and "total memory." Compare total memory to the physical memory you have installed in your computer. The difference is the virtual memory allocation. Ideally this should be zero. If not, add enough RAM to your computer, then turn off the virtual memory allocation system. This will speed up your computer - RAM is faster than hard drive access - and save wear and tear on your hard drive - "thrashing" is harmful in the long run.

In recent years, applications have become bloated. Take Microsoft Word, for instance... The newest version needs, what, 1GB of memory and about an acre of hard drive space? For what, at the most a few kilobytes of text? Oh, wait, we have to have three miles of header information appended to every user generated file, and there has to be every Word option loaded and ready to jump into operation at the click of a button. I say bullshit. The 2003 version of Word does the exact same job and uses less than half of the resources. You can't tell which version of word processing software generated a document once it is printed out on paper. You don't need all those extra toolbars in Internet Explorer either - I have a coworker that had the Google toolbar, the Yahoo toolbar, and a PirateBay toolbar running on her IE window. Add that to all the optional toolbars from IE, with the oversized radio buttons, and the useable area of the window shrank to about 1/2 of the height of the monitor!

Anyway, enough ranting. It boils down to this - know what your computer is doing. Trim out the excess crap. Don't give in to bloatware - install the latest and greatest software only if there is a concrete reason to do so. Have enough RAM for your applications. And keep your computer physically clean and stable. It will last a lot longer than you think it will...

Whoa, sorry about the length of the post....

Tony302600 · July 12, 2009

Ive had PC's my whole life....loads of problems with countless different makers. I never kept a computer for longer then 2 years. Majority of my friends have macs and they keep their computers for 5-10 years and never have problems. I bought a new 24'' iMAC and i love it. I dont have to worry bout viruses, no spyware, its crazy fast.

I don't think i'd go back to PC's again.

Keith Browning · July 12, 2009

Good post. All of my computers get an internal dusting at least twice a year - usually I try to do it when I clean the underside of the refrigerator and when I see fuzz along the back of the case openings. The fans get quiet again when there is no dust on them too! Your point about maintaining what is ON the computer is excellent advice as well. Over time your PC has a lot of crap added to it that uses up your CPU capacity and your RAM. Occasionally weeding out the garbage does help but as you also mentioned, it is worthwhile to reformat the hard drive and start fresh and clean. I think on my most used computer (the ten year old) that has happened about every two years each time upgrading the OS. I am not using Win XP Pro which is the newest it will ever see ans anything newer simply will not run because of the minimum system requirements.

At this point, I am almost tempted to push this thing and see just how long it will last before a serious repair is needed. Thus far I have only HAD to replace the power supply about four years ago.

Bruce Amacker · July 12, 2009

I also take the covers off my machines and blow them out regularly, but not twice a year. We have no pets or kids so dust is not a huge problem in our household. Reformatting the HD may be fine if you're not running proprietary programs, but many of the programs I have require huge hurdles to reinstall if the HD has been changed or formatted. Some cannot be reinstalled at all, like IH's diagnostic programs. If you want to reinstall it, you have to buy another copy! MS has been getting pissy about this over the last few years and limiting installs for a given license to two.

I use C Cleaner in addition to defragging a few times a month. Backups are done regularly, both on-site and off-site in case there's a fire or burglary.

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Keith Browning · July 12, 2009

The off-site back-up services are becoming more popular or at least I hear advertising for them daily on the radio. At the moment I have an external back-up hard drive and personal/financial/crucial data is backed up into a DVD and stored in my safe. I am not sure I want my taxes and ALL of my bank records under someone else's control.

I don't have any applications that pose any real installation issues. I don't see why any software manufacturer should get pissy about RE-installing software as long as it is a single install on a single machine - especially if it is the same machine. I understand the piracy thing and this is totally different. If I have to reformat my disk or install a new one for that matter it is not a violation of the license. Er, ahhh, I assume so. Has anyone actually read the terms and agreement before clicking on the continue button when installing any software? I tried it once. I didn't get far... click!

I also take the covers off my machines and blow them out regularly, but not twice a year. We have no pets or kids so dust is not a huge problem in our household.

Are you insinuating my kids and cats are filthy? Posted Image

Bruce Amacker · July 12, 2009

The off-site back-up services are becoming more popular or at least I hear advertising for them daily on the radio. At the moment I have an external back-up hard drive and personal/financial/crucial data is backed up into a DVD and stored in my safe. I am not sure I want my taxes and ALL of my bank records under someone else's control.

Yes, there are online backup services but I am suspect of them, like you.

I don't have any applications that pose any real installation issues. I don't see why any software manufacturer should get pissy about RE-installing software as long as it is a single install on a single machine - especially if it is the same machine.

That's the problem- once you format the drive their little "cookies" are gone and they can no longer tell if it's the same PC or not. Or, if your HD dies and needs replacing, the same thing happens. I believe IH's early diag programs would verify the serial number on both the HD and the motherboard every time they were started, and bail out if they changed. The newer IH programs need to see the internet in order to confirm a legal install. I think that's why Service Assistant went away so fast and went to ServiceMaxx- SA was too easy to install with a bootleg code.

I understand the piracy thing and this is totally different. If I have to reformat my disk or install a new one for that matter it is not a violation of the license.

Yes, but from MS's (or another supplier) viewpoint, they can't tell if it's a justifiable re-install or a pirate install.

Er, ahhh, I assume so. Has anyone actually read the terms and agreement before clicking on the continue button when installing any software? I tried it once. I didn't get far... click!

It's all written in legalese just so Joe Consumer can't understand it.

Originally Posted By: Bruce Amacker

I also take the covers off my machines and blow them out regularly, but not twice a year. We have no pets or kids so dust is not a huge problem in our household.

Are you insinuating my kids and cats are filthy?

Certainly not! I'm insinuating ALL kids and cats are filthy!

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Jim Warman · July 13, 2009

Some good advice all 'round.... "Bloatware" is all we can call todays operating systems... The absolute best operating system I ever had shipped on three 4.5 inch floppies. My 286 SX was blazing fast and everything I could ever need left a lot of unoccupied real estate on a 44 Mb HDD.

Today (it's WINDOZE NOT DOS) my PC isn't smart enough to shut down Acrobat Reader after it's done with it.... If you allow auto-update to have it's way with you, the very first message you get after auto-update forces a reboot is "updates are ready for....".

Granted, 9600 baud wasn't a good way to surf for porn.....

But why is it that software continuously is just out of reach of current hardware?

If it's on top of your desk, it's obsolete, anyway.... here is what we saw as a computer in my youth.

Aaron · July 13, 2009

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GregH · July 13, 2009

If you decide to check your process list to see just what it is that your computer is doing in it's spare time, reference this website: www.answersthatwork.com and go to their task list at the bottom of the screen. It's a little outdated, but pretty accurate. They also sell a program called The Ultimate Troubleshooter. I've tried it, but wouldn't recommend it to most people. It's fun to play around with, though.

Jim Warman · July 14, 2009

All of my beads finally wore out.... while the GUI is good and basic, it isn't real intuitive..... a certain amount of training and thought is required. And any porn you get needs a LOT of imagination for it to, ahhhhh, get a rise out of the viewer....

Of course, today we see a lot of common sense and intuitiveness.... to shut your computer off, click <START>.

Wow,,, them beads look a lot like blueberries or maybe saskatoons.... got any KoolWhip?

ChristopherH · July 31, 2009

When our 7 year old desktop PC lost the hard drive, we purchased a laptop about 2 years ago and my wife mainly uses it. The battery went south and we are waiting for one to come in for it. In the time being, we decided to pick up a second laptop and purchased a new MacBook Pro. I have to admit that I like it and so far is seems to work great. Although I have a lot to learn--this is my first Mac.

Tony302600 · August 4, 2009

When our 7 year old desktop PC lost the hard drive, we purchased a laptop about 2 years ago and my wife mainly uses it. The battery went south and we are waiting for one to come in for it. In the time being, we decided to pick up a second laptop and purchased a new MacBook Pro. I have to admit that I like it and so far is seems to work great. Although I have a lot to learn--this is my first Mac.

There is a average 1-2year lifespan on a PC but 8-10year on a mac (IMHO) PC's are great..if you don't have to connect to the internet. Spyware/adware/virus software slow down your computer sooooo much. I'm happy with the iMac i have. Wait til you learn the apple/command shortcuts....cuts all your time in hald.