how long did your thinkpad last you?

more of a vent thread than anything. very sad day for me. in the last 7 years i've gone through 5 laptops, dell/hp/asus then finally lenovo. this is my longest lasting laptop before a big hardware failure but today it decided to call it quits

T510 - April 2010 > Sept 2013 RIP i'm actually really really really sad i thought this would last me 5 years

plan to buy the T440 when it comes out (next month?)

how long did yours last before it gave up?

 

depend on how careful you are with your laptops.

 

My dell Inspiron is entering it's 6th year without any major hardware failures. I only replaced it because it was SLOW (single core Celeron says hi)

Bottom line, take care of your laptops.

 

2007 Lenovo ThinkPad T61 - Still with me and my personal favourite. It seems this machine was "overengineered" with roll cages everywhere including the lid top, full backplated keyboards and stood the test of time in 2013 for my daily use. Incredibly not one component had failed on this machine throughout its life, especially now considering it is 6 years old! Over the years I have upgraded a couple of components such as the CPU (Merom to Penryn), SSD and a Half Height Wireless N Card just to keep it up with the times. I still enjoy using this 16:10 machine today and it runs happily on Windows 7 64 bit.

2011 Lenovo ThinkPad T420 - In its second year and working fine so far. Not flawless however since it had a dead pixel from day one, loose LCD hinges within 6 months and a dead keyboard within a year. A big disappointment compared to my T61 so I don't feel the love for this machine as much!

 

I have a 10 year old IBM ThinkPad R40 which is still fully operational and never had any hardware failures. I was never really careful with it and took it with me everywhere I went (planes, trains, buses, etc), played all my favorite games (more than 5000hrs in total) and even let it run for several months without powering down or rebooting. The only reason I stopped using it as my main rig, was the outdated graphics card, but it's still fine running windows 7 enterprise and playing netflix videos for my kids. A truly remarkable machine. Alas. the days of reliable and resilient hardware are over. Pretty much every W/T thinkpad I had in the past 4 years (3-4 models) failed miserably at some point. IMHO, as far as build quality goes, it's either HP Elitebooks, Dell Precisions, or AW flagships (M18x). The rest are miles behind. Now, quality control is a whole another can of worms and no vendor is immune, except maybe apple.

 

T400. 5 years and still going, even after a really bad drop that cracked off the CPU vent cover. Reseated the CPU and still works. Of course, it's kinda on the slow side now.

 

I series from 1999. Still works but very slow. Repaired once.

E420 still works after more than 3 yrs. No repair.

T430 still works after about 1 yr. No repair.

X220 still works after more than 1 yr. No repair.

 

I have had my x61T since 2007. Still running strong with Windows 7. No hardware issues to speak of (figures crossed for the future). Also, I have had my Dell E4300 since 2009. Only problem with that machine was a hard drive failure in the first year. I can only hope that both my computers keep running smoothly for foreseeable future. I can just echo the important of taking care of your computer. You really reap what you sow.

 

Wow, what kind of work/abuse do you throw at it? I'm still using a T61 from 2007/08...works fine with an SSD and RAM upgrade...two years into my second fan though. Also using a 2x USB 3.0 connector in the PCIe slot...works great and having 5 USB ports is nice, very very nice. The NVS140M GPU even drives my U2713HM 1440p external monitor (in addition to the laptop display)...what more could I ask for? Battery life is only 2 hours but who the hell cares, every public place has a billion outlets free to use. About to replace the keyboard ($20 upgrade is worth it) after spilling 4 too many cups of coffee I'm surprised how well the drainage holes work, even when docked it took me a while to undock, power down, remove battery, etc...no data lost both times though! It's hard to justify an upgrade since I don't need the raw CPU power or ultra-mobility.

 

My A31p just passed away from GPU failure at 11 years of age.

Newer ThinkPads include a plethora of 2006-2011 units that never encountered any hardware failures, apart from hard drives, the oldest one being a T43p and the youngest one a T410.

Luck of the draw in many respects, but proper care usually pays off when it comes to ThinkPads in my not-so-modest experience. Obviously, YMMV.

 

T61 from 2008, 1 dead fan and dead battery a years ago. The battery drop dead from holding 70% charge...

 

My R51 from 2006 works great even after a fall that broke the corner of the case, and my refurb T61 bought in 2009 still works great after I repaired a bad GPU last week with a heat gun (NVIDIA!).

 

I don't think I've ever had a ThinkPad fail. I always upgraded before anything happened. My R60e bit the dust, but that was a self-inflicted wound.

 

Longest running ThinkPad that has been near me is one that I had passed along to a sibling. It is an R52 which I had originally purchased from fleabay in 2010 for a pretty decent price. I am pretty amazed by how it has been holding up for her. AFAIK the only thing that has been changed on it is the keyboard (due to some fading key characters) and a new application of thermal paste. I can say that when I borrow her laptop for a quick task (e.g. quickly checking something on the internet) I immediately notice how in comparison to other ThinkPads I have owned (or used) is how sturdy the palmrest feels and how the keyboard responds to user input as well. I do marvel over how quiet and resounding keystrokes are on that R52! Keystrokes are met with a nice tactile feel that is not overbearing nor fatiguing on the fingers. Definitely a difference from the T400/T500/X200 keyboards I have been using the last year. One other thing that should keep your Thinkpad or any other laptop happy is maintenance of the cooling system. I definitely recommend changing the thermal compound if needed and to blow out the intake and exhaust with some compressed air. Just make sure to keep your fan blades stationary when using the compressed air. Those bearings are no designed to spin freely at exceedingly high RPMs!

 

Apart from my X220 none of my ThinkPads have died on me. (but that one's gone now anyone) Even my oldest one, a 600X from 1999 is still running like it's fresh out of the box. (14 years and it never had a single problem) My other ThinkPads that I am currently using, an X301 and W500 are both about 5 years old now. No problems so far. I don't replace my laptops because somethings doesn't work anymore, I replace them when performance becomes an issue. This can usually take a decade.

 

My Thinkpad T410i has been running almost every day for about 3 years and 5 months. Keyboard and keyboard bezel replaced one time (wear and cracking). No serious problems.

 

I don't know if this counts... One of the Thinkpads 340CSE I have was used on daily basis according to the previous owner, he got it in 1999 and he was running an old Win3x based statistics program. Battery is dead and the BIOS battery was swapped, the rest is in excellent condition.

I bought it around April 2012. Granted, I don't use it so often, only now and then to play around with W95 But it's still working strong...

 

I got a still working 5 years old Thinkpad T61 14.1wide. Motherboard replaced 2 twice (due to GPU), fan assembly replaced (some rattling noise), all at no cost. Thank god for 3 years on-site warranty.

 

ThinkPad T23 is the oldest thinkpad i have, and it still works.

 

I have a 755Cs that "works".

 

The only laptops that broke down on me without me actually damaging them by accidents are ASUS laptops, ironically.

L420 still in service, though it is not necessarily mine.

@600x

My dad had a 600x or something like that in his office when i was in Kindergarten or so (around 1999-2000). First computer i ever used in my life I remember when the trackpoint was your ONLY pointing device ahaha.

 

those that keep asking what i do to my laptops. my usages - daily machine, so they are on for 12+ hrs a day. none of my laptops have ever been dropped or thrown down hard, i would say i take care of them very well. if i transport them, they are put in a heavily secure laptop protected department in my backpack. my dell (both of them)/hp what went wrong was the hinges to the screen loosen and eventually broke (of course i tried to fix it)

 

I am on my second ThinkPad; the first was a 760-ED that lasted through the four years I owned it, and with no problems. Somebody else is still using it, so I was told. My current TP is a T61, that is still going strong. I doubled the RAM and the HD a few years ago, and upgraded to Windows 7. The one failure I had was the keyboard a few years ago...covered under warranty, and I replaced it myself in just a few minutes. When I called to order it, a very pleasant lady in Atlanta (actually IBM) took the order, verified the information, and had it shipped out later that day (FedEx). That thing is like the Energizer Bunny.

 

My W510 (i5, 8MBram) has been going strong since 12/2010 & still is.
I actually dont use it as much as my other Lenovo laptop which is a cheapo ($279.00 USD + tx) essential series G575 (purchased 6/2012)

 

All my thinkpads are still going strong and they are x40,x60t,x61t,t400,x201t.I hope they all last a few more years or even longer .

 

My T500 is still going strong after 4.5 years (received February 2009), and my X120e is working well after 2.5 years (February 2011). Haven't had a real need to replace them, as the T500 still handles my computing needs well enough.

 

My T61 with the nvidia graphics I bought in June 2008 is still going strong and is my daily driver. 4gb ram and 128gb SSD really help.

 

Great notebook! I had mine for 5.5 years and just sold it yesterday. It was in perfect shape and I hated to let go but I needed the $250 toward my new Yoga 13.

The new one won't be as sturdy but will be about half the weight with a touch screen - more useful in my current job.

Sent from my A700 using Tapatalk 4

 

The much older Thinkpad ( two X61 and one T61) still works. A T43 is somewhere gathering dust (can't charge battery no more). The "newer" used one work too but need HD upgrade

Change fans couple of times for the older ones.

 

My X220 is going on 2 years. I sent it in to get serviced under warranty a few weeks ago because the screen wasn't working, but the problem was with my HyperX RAM, which thankfully has a lifetime warranty. Apart from that, I have had no problems with it and it has been my favorite laptop ever My wife's mid-2009 VAIO is still running strong too, but the fan is rattling up a storm (the replacement fan I "fixed" it with ). I also had a 2006 Acer that is surprisingly still alive, now under the care of one my little cousins ^.^

 

My T61p gave me 5+ years of service before it died. Even then, Nvidia killed it, not Lenovo.

 

I still have a Thinkpad A20m with a Pentium 3 and 256mb ram which was from 2000 i think, the CCFL bulb finally went out last year but other than that it still works tho it is on the very slow side lol.
my T420 its been 2 years, no real problems, I upgraded almost all the parts as time went on.

 

Typing on a R60 here. The battery control chip is dead and there appears to be something wrong with the VRAM which causes random graphics errors when pushed, but it's still good for a backup system.

 

I've got a T60 I bought in Feb. 2007 that is still kicking.

 

I have had several Thinkpads.

T40/T41/T60/T61
They are all functional and serve as backup machines (collecting dust). They retired because they are slower. Pretty impressive machines.

T400
I had 2 of these machines. One is cursed and went in for repairs at least 5 times and was never totally fixed (random shutdown for no reason). The other one had a bad keyboard/touchpad. So my experience with T400 are not good.

T430s
This is my present machine. Great laptop! It was dropped on concrete floor (while it was open) and broke the power connector. Fixed it myself and still works perfectly. Pretty impressive.

 

I gave my previous T61 from 2008 to my mom who's still using it on a daily basis.

My current T420s is obviously still up and running.

 

Bumping.

I still have a T21, probably around 12-13 years old. It still works just fine, albeit rather slow. There's only so much you can do with an 800MhZ Pentium 3 and 256MB of RAM. I keep it as a backup and still play around with it from time to time... still has a battery runtime of around an hour and a half.

I also have a working 380ED, though I don't really do anything with it. Would like to eventually turn it into a DOS/Win95 gaming machine, though. That one's about mid-'90s vintage; I would have just about killed for one back in high school, I think.

My T500 and X200 are working just fine, although my T500 needs a new display(don't go aftermarket; mine's having issues after two years) and battery. My X200's experienced a few drops and is rough around the edges, but still keeps on chugging away. I don't use them as much as I do my new Precision M6700, but I might end up getting a T430 as a more mobile option in a few months. Time will tell.

 

There seem to be a lot of stories on this thread on the T60-T61, that may have been the last over-engineered one. Like the others, I have a T61p that is still kicking, the last of the 4:3 screens, I have upgraded to 128gb SSD and Windows 7 and replaced screen when I broke that and wireless card, but other than that its still stock, even the keyboard which took a lot of soda over the years. I just retired the old friend, gave it to my parents to use as their computer. I have a T42 that still works, if I could find it somewhere...

 

And one of the last IBM designed ones as well.

@OP
Please do keep in mind that those IBM ThinkPads have very little to do with what you can buy today.

 

T22 still running even slow. shud be about 12 years now
T43 already sold
T61 RIP after 3 year cause of nvidia flaw

currently using cheaper X120e. already 2 years running also. so far so good. finger crossed.

 

posting from my T60 here, though i've been wanting to replace it for a long time. always runs hot and often crashes when streaming video.

has been a true workhorse though, been powered on for a solid 14-16 hours everyday.. somehow it's still kicking.

 

Just out of curiosity: what answers will we get if we replace "ThinkPad" with "IdeaPad (or TP G/E/S)"?

 

I'm still using my first Thinkpad as a daily driver. It's the T61 in my signature ( bought it in February of 2008 ordered it brand new from the Lenovo website ). I use it everyday for 3-4 hours per day, and have replaced NOTHING on it ( knock on wood ). I've had to use Rescue and Recovery several times due to viruses, but other than that, I'm still using the original 160GB HD, and 2GB of ram. It's getting slower now on places like YouTube, or anything that involves video. Other than that it still looks brand new, since it usually sits on my desk 99.9% of the time now. During it's first few years I've taken it across county flights many times, as this was also my primary travel laptop as well.

Then I got the X301 and I use that whenever I travel.

So ya, T61 still going strong 5.5 years later !!

On a side note, my T61 still has the ORIGINAL BATTERY !! Granted, it only lasts for about a half hour, but still I think that is very impressive that it even works !

 

FWIW, the T20 that was issued to me by my employer in May of 2000 still runs flawlessly. The battery holds about 15 minutes, the hard drive has been replaced twice and the keyboard is very shiny (all the keys are still legible though) but in its timewarp W2K realm the oldie is still very fast...fabulous and lovable machine, that one is.

 

Just repaired my Uncle's ThinkPad R61, even though it has the NVIDIA timebomb the actual problem was that his left mouse button decided to fall out (heh). Got a replacement touchpad for just £3 and works like a charm again. I wonder how long this machine would last...

But now I just discovered cracks on my T61 Palmrest - bad times. I probably didn't take care of it well as I should have given that I have been stacking my T420 on top of it lately. Thankfully the palmrest is a cheap and easy repair, just wondering whether I should stick with the original T61 palmrest to keep it vintage, go for the T60 "IBM" version for that retro look or go for the T400 palmrest with the wider touchpad? Oh the choices...

 

If it's a Penryn-era unit, it will probably do just fine. I went through quite a few of them with no casualties to report. Yes, I know that not everyone was that lucky.

Given that you're mentioning a T400 palmrest, I presume that your T61 is a 14" WS model...hence a couple of notes:

a) There were no 14" WS T60 machines, but if you want the "IBM look" you can just flip the sticker on the appropriate T61 palmrest.

b) T400 palmrest will require minor physical mods - as in cutting - to properly fit on a 14" WS T61.

Happy FrankenPadding.

 

T500 three years, it still powers on, but after my friends cat got scared and it was on the table, it pulled the wire when it took off bringing the laptop down to the ground, screen hit the beam of the chair base and screen broke, hard drive wasn't 100% after that, before i got the t500 it was used at the job i worked it, it was just in a trash can, took it, got a battery and AC adapter from a friend, got a new hard drive since it was taken out, and was good to go, don't think it is worth replacing the screen now though

just got the t430, i like it so far, little heavier than expected, i've only had a problem with the hard drive, clarified it's not clicking, just activity noise, it doesn't make as much activity noise on linux, and linux supports a battery manager for thinkpads which is nice. i hope it last at least 3 year, has 3 year warranty, not sure if it will do so but, paid 450 so 150 a year isn't too bad,

edit: thinking about getting an older lenovo just for linux

 

SL400 with a Core 2 Duo from 4 years ago - it's still running strong. Got it for just above $500 and it has solid metal construction of the base (unlike the Edge series). I'm looking forward to replacing it with a T440p or T440s.

 

T61 14 inch with all original parts (except RAM upgrades) still going strong. 2.0 ghz intel core 2 duo, 100gb HDD, etc.

 

T400 all original except for SSD upgrade. Have had it for a little over 5 years now. Bought it September 2008. Still runs great.