Putting a Laptop in Storage?

I just bought a 18.4" laptop and I love it, I don't think I could go back to even a 17" laptop. I have this crazy idea of buying another one (same version) and using it once in a while or not even at all and putting it in storage until this current one breaks.

Is this a good idea or not?

Can a laptop be damaged if it's not used for years?

 

Im gonna say bad idea, simply because you don't know what the future will bring. Could be bigger better screens by the time your current one breaks. And not to mention, the hardware will be outdated by that time anyway.

What brand is the one you bought?

 

This idea is utterly crazily unnecessary for a new laptop - unless it's a grey import or second it will have a manufacturer or reseller warranty in case it breaks. Laptops also depreciate ridiculously. Paying full price for a new one and not using it while warranty runs out, and better hardware slowly obsoletes it, is a colossal waste of money. Take that money and invest it in an interest bearing online saver account, and use it for spare parts and repairs as needed.

As for the technical question, remove all batteries, seal it up, keep it moisture (dessicant sachets) and dust free (airtight) and away from temperature extremes and radiation sources and it should be fine like that for a decade. You could even remove the components and store them individually to keep the internal contacts (gold pins on slots etc) in pristine condition and avoid thermal pads and paste harming the surfaces they're in contact with. The main battery will slowly degrade and will be dead eventually even with optimal maintenance (if you store it at 40% and cycle it every six months to keep it healthy). Remove CMOS battery also in case it leaks.

edit; looked at your post history - it's a ten year old core 2 duo era Sony Vaio 18.4". Grabbing spare parts when you can makes sense here if you can find them cheap. Grab busted ones selling for nothing, disassemble them, and most of the bits should still be good. In the past I've also bought spare ex-lease partly-broken chassis in the past for a similar era Dell Vostro that was just retired earlier this year. I saw no degradation over 5 years on disassembled components, only dust, and all I did was chuck the pieces in a bag and leave it in a cupboard.

 

The laptop is the 18.4" monstrosity known as the Sony Vaio AW170Y. I just got it last week and love it, brand new it was over $3,000, got it for about $500.

-Build in Bluray player and ripper
-18.4" ADOBE RGB 1080P Matte screen
-Brand new 2.9 Ghz T9800 Penryn with 8GB RAM (seller upgraded the CPU from 2.4 GHz and ram from 4GB)
-Windows 7 64Bit (best windows version)
-Two HDDs
-Build in Compact Flash card reader for my Nikon D700 and SD card reader for my Sigma cameras
-The keyboard is unbelievable, I love typing on this thing​

And even though it only has a 9600m GT card with 512MB RAM I can play the following games on medium to high settings with at least 50fps:

-Call of Duty (the first ones that were WWII based)
-Deus EX (the first one)
-Max Payne 1 and 2
-CS GO
-Portal
-Half life 2
-Star Craft 2
-Diablo 3​

So you can see why I would really like to buy another one. Gents, they don't make laptops like they used to. All the laptops now have ****ty x768 screens or unneeded 4k screens that kill gaming performance and the funniest part is almost none come with a CD/DVD drive, let alone a Bluray drive.


I just bought one of these fans:

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NACVLWM/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1


Keeps the CPU temps in the low 30s C and GPU in the low 40s C while surfing the internet, using photoshop and lightroom 6 and watching Bluray movies (not all at the same time of course since it only has dual core CPU). Haven't had time to play any games yet to see how much the temps will decrease by.

Also, I carry this thing with me to work, library and coffee shop.

 

@Hulk2006 optimal battery charge for storage is 40%-50%. I'd remove/disconnect it indeed. I understand where you're coming from, but generally it's a very poor investment. This laptop (or any other old laptop, for that matter) won't ever get patches against recently revealed terrible security vulnerabilites, your data won't be safe on it.

 

Yea there's lot of good old laptops out there with nice design and functionality, and yet very affordable prices, I still got my old dell precision m6500 (i7-720q,m7820,8gb,1200p rgb) and have that as a backup if my current laptop ack up (dell 7710, xeon 1505m,gtx 1070,16gb,4k,nvme m.2 256gb) (i7-6920hq mobo fried/current mobo one won't charge with out the dock), but one thing I don't miss is the performance, and you will soon realize that once you really get started in games. i also had a hp elitebook 8530w, best built laptop i've ever touched,magnesium alloy/brush aluminium, touch bar controls for the volume/media on a core 2 duo laptop!!!!!! Apple just added that to their laptops.The only reason i won't buy it again, is that i will literally kill myself if i have to render a 3d video using a core 2 duo @2ghz. But the best old laptops are the one's with first gen extreme i7 and mxm 3.0b slots which could hold modern gpu's on those highend rgb lcds (best laptop life span). but at the end of the day, your money do what you want, buy couple dozen if you want.

 

You do know that current laptops are sold with more than just 768p displays and 4K displays, right? 1080p is an extremely common example, though others exist as well...

Also, external optical drives exist but the present is USB and/or network storage.

 

I've used and given away many similar notebooks (18.4" models...) over the years.

Anything I'm using today (even a tiny T100TA, in it's own way) is worlds better.

As a matter of fact; I ran into one of these models I had donated and even though it had 8GB RAM, Win10x64Pro and an SSD - the only thing impressive was the screen (for about 5 seconds). After that? Not so much.

Use and enjoy the example you have now. But keep saving for a more current model when you finally realize that the one you have now is really past it's prime.

The size of the screen is important, true. Nothing that an external monitor won't fix in mere seconds though.