What to consider in Configuration and Use to increase Thinkpad lifespan

To make your Thinkpad last long for years, what to pay attention to when you buy one, and during your daily use? I am not talking about physical damage or battery life, but just the laptop itself, through your use.

Are there configurations more preferable for extending its future life?

If you never shut it down but just let it go sleep mode when idle, will it affect its life?

What will usually fail first?

Will it extend the screen life if you don't use maximum brightness?

Etc...

(I'm starting to be concerned about my 2 year old X200s. I hope it can last at least 2 more years. It's really a great machine. Not sure how the new models compare to it in terms of lightweight and the screen.)

 

Maximize the configuration on ordering a system. Buy adequate, long term warranty, as long as possible.

Renee

 

Maximizing the specs probably has the opposite effect, as the components will produce more heat. Minimizing the specs will probably increase the literal lifespan of any laptop, but will decrease its usable lifespan. I honestly don't see myself sticking with one computer for more than 4 years. In fact, the longest that I've used a computer for (as my main computer) so far was about a month short of 3 years.

 

I still have a t61p that I ordered that still works fine. Maximumization is the way to fly for availability and usability, two things that are very important to me.

Renee

 

i think Renee is talking about a slightly different thing, what she is referring to is about how long a laptop can be used without needing upgrade. While, OP wants to extend the longevity of the parts in the laptop.

-Usually half brightness,
-clean the fan/heatsink regularly
-if the laptop constantly runs, then the fan will eventually fail, as they have a limited service life.
-CPU can last more than 10 years and integrated GPU are fairly robust too.

 

Spinning hard drives don't last a great deal of time. Perhaps the newer ones are better, but old hard drives used to only survival 5-7 or something, with decreased life after repeated trauma while the disk is being assessed. Think SSDs are much more robust in this regard.

I learned the hard way...back up everything frequently

 

Before this x220, I was using a Athlon XP 3000+ desktop bought at the end of 2003. Both HDD's have never had issues even after extensive use, nor the backup drive. Guess I've been lucky though.

 

I think the HDD is more of an issue with laptops where the machine is moved a lot with the HDD on. I personally have drives that date back to like 1994 or something and work fine still (though, very noisily). So, I guess that's another thing, leave your laptop in one place and don't move it, and it should last longer; however, that would totally defeat the point to a laptop, and especially for an ultraportable like the X200s.

 

From the comments here, sounds like the HDD dies mostly due to moving around, not by just being used too much? What parts are most likely affected by heat?

 

My guess is gonna go to the things that have a heatsink sitting on them. That is, the CPU, GPU, and chipset. The HDD probably doesn't like being too hot either, but under 40C should be fine.

 

Lead_Org,

You are correct of course BUT a computer that is no longer within capacity or tolerances is not much good.

Hello to you.

Renee

 

@Renee, yes you are correct.

HDD is something you could consider replacing maybe after 3 years, if you constantly use it. Constant data backup is so essential, just in case when these machine's hdd would die on you.

 

what to worry about:

make sure the computer doesn't run to hot when buying it, over its life span it will slowly get hotter.

make sure you have enough ram, most lenovo laptops give you option for 1 stick 4gb ram buy that so later down the road you can pick up another 4gb for around $20 to give your laptop more life.

make sure to not trash your laptop, treat it with some care and it will last long.

Not to worry about:

Hard drive, most hard drives in laptops only last about 2 years maybe 3 if your lucky. Good news though they only cost about $50 to replace and can be done yourself in warranty.

Cd/dvd drives, most of the time your not even going to use one and if you do you can either pick up a replacement or a external one for cheap.

batterys, all laptop batterys are only good for 1 to 2 years before they become pretty useless. They are actually really cheap to pick up after they discontinue your laptop.