Parts availability over 3-5 years?

How is parts availability for non-'name brand' (for lack of a better term) systems over say a 3 to 5 year system life? On a Dell or IBM, if I blow a system board, crack a case or need an extra battery (most likely), I have numerous avenues to find replacements. How is it with Asus or similar systems for system specific components?

Regards, Zen

 

Somewhat less than regular "brand name" laptops, but after 3 years or so you should probably be looking into replacing your notebook anyways.

 

Hard to say, usually ASUS's E-Store carries quite a bit of stock, but its never updated to show stock, and their emails quite slow and unresponsive.

You can't find much on eBay since ASUS is not a household name.

 

Batteries stay in production for about 6 months after a model is deemed EOL (end of life)... then they're typically around for another 6 months. More models have a 3 year lifespan, so 4 years down the road you should still be able to get a battery for the unit - as long as the battery didn't change when the chipset was updated.

In recent years, some of the models got big power upgrades and the latest chipset required the moving of the battery connectors... so those batteries would fit previous models. We have one case, in the Z71 model, where it came out in March of 05, but went EOL in January of 06.... and we haven't been able to get out backorder for batteries on them filled since August of 06.... and we don't think we'll ever end up getting them.

In terms of system parts, like lids, palmrests, and other case parts... they have the same availability, sometimes longer.... We stock a lot of those things for our own repair work, so we may have them longer, but then again certain parts aren't common and ordered on a need to order basis..... Lids and palmrests for basically all models are kept in our parts department for some time though...

 

I'd also add that there are replacement battery companies that are doing the job of carrying replacements for most Asus systems....