Your operating times

Good morning (or day, where ever you are) to all owner of one or more Toughbook(s)!

I thought it might be interesting to gather some information about the natural life span of a Toughbook.
My CF-18 MK4 now has passed the mark of 8700 hours. When looking for a new Toughbook to buy, operating time always is something to keep in mind. But how long do these things actually last? I'd find it interesting to know, so I suggest we all collect our data to calculate an estimated life span of a respective model. Of course individual cases by themselves tell little about the long term performance of a model, but all our data put together certainly does.

So if you find the time, post your operating time of your machine(s) here, and if they go dead edit the post. I would really like to know how much time my machine still has (or could have).

Well anyway, thanks for your time and I really hope we can come up with some interesting and useful results!

 

Linky linky...

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/487192-fun-poll-how-many-hours-your-toughbook.html

http://forum.notebookreview.com/panasonic/584216-accumulative-operating-hours-survey.html

8766 hours, 9 minutes, 9.5 seconds in one year

according to:
Mathematics Magazine
College Mathematical Journal
American Mathematical Monthly

 

Thank you Shawn, I used the forum search and it kept throwing "results" of every forum at me, so no way to find these. Glad that this thing is already ongoing.

 

Sorry the auto editor deletes it.

 

....Oops! Google Chrome could not find .com...
But thanks anyway

 

they just keep going and going and going............some with over 30K plus hours in the cf-29's cf-74's, cf-30's cf-18 not sure will have to check but feel like over 20K hours..Driller

 

HAHA... I have 16,950 hours on my CF-30... And STILL going strong. It's pretty much on all day... Every day!

 

Gotta love these Toughbooks...

 

Just curious, are there (m)any other brands that can get 10k+ hours on laptops?

 

I've owned IBM, HP Dell laptops in the past... For me... No, not even close!

 

my CF-30C (mk1) has 7400hrs on it, 95% abused by some telecom workers. Backlight is still good for sunlight viewing, original Hitachi 80GB disk has no issues;
after I'll switch to ssd, it should be completely silent (maybe except the humming/buzzing/etc low volume noise coming from the speaker (no audio playing of course).

 

I own a couple of ThinkPads that are definitely past that mark by quite a margin.

As for my own ToughBooks...under 1,000 on my work-issued CF-31, and about 3,000 on my personal CF-W7...but one of the CF-52s I sold last year had something like 12,000...and very little wear to show for it...

 

Hmm, I only have 2860 hours on my 19. But it's just over one year old.
Usual laptops wouldn't last much longer than 10-12 months.
And I used the 19 much, much more and much longer.

On the other side, If I use the 19 for 4 years I'll be over the 10k hours mark!

 

Its no matter to me as long as your unit keep running. The integrity of pansonic toughbook rely into housing coz the chassis that not to tend to bend specially during the long period of operation are reliable than those commercialized laptop out ther which are mostly made of plastic that tend to bend with respect to its mobo. So, when it happned the soldered on mobo. specially on the BGA chipset are started to cracked or maybe full blown separation.



ohlip

The rock solid chassis of the machine is the foundation of having a long lasting operation of the machine. Thats the secret.

 

10,000 meh!

 

keep in mind if i left my unit on for 8000 hrs versus turning it off/ on every 24 hrs for 3000 hrs would cause more stress on the unit due to the cool down heat up effect

 

Yeah....at 30k plus hours Driller is "On the Money"....until you mention "Operating Environment" & "SBC" in the same breath....then you say "4k hours maximum".

If your not sure who "SBC" are, the search function should reveal how to test a Toughbook to destruction.

 

I have to disagree. My SBC cf29's have been decent high hour units. My AT&T cf30 is also a decent unit.

 

I have to disagree.

I've no doubt you have used your knowledge & experience to buy the right unit at the right price but....how representative is a unit used by an office jockey or a supervisor compared to the average unit?

I recall TopCop having three or more good clean units with zero faults....I recall Toughbook & Alex wouldn't touch them with a barge pole....I also recall toughasnails spitting his coffee across a clean touchscreen when I suggested that Booboo has had a unit for sale for two years & reduced the price every week until someone unknowingly bought an ex-SBC unit.

Retaining my original point....30k hours on top of a desk is different to three years in the field.

 

Well, by the way the housing on this cf30 was damaged, I am certain it wasn't a desk jockey.
You are correct in using my knowledge for discretion in what to buy. Average Joe may not have a clue.
I don't think being a SBC or not being an SBC matters. It is on an individual basis. There are many locations and users that are much worse than in a telco truck. SBC gets a bad reputation due to the fact they sold so many at the same time. They flooded the market and like most things, people complain about the bad things. They never make comments when things are good.
I personally don't think New*gg would have sold them retail if they are all that bad.

 

On the East Coast, as in Verizon/Frontier territories, CF-18/19 and CF-28/29/30/31 were models used in the field over the past 7-8 years.

Supervisors were issued CF-72/73/74 and more recently CF-52 models.

While I don't have the first-hand knowledge of other Baby Bells and their practices, I doubt that they differ much...

My $0.02 only...

 

Roger that....& the 4k hours I suggested earlier was intended to be jovial banter.

There are times when you can learn from other peoples misfortune....If a new to you toughie comes from a known "kill them early environment", the chances are it's going to die with a comparatively low accumulated hours.

I was hoping for 55K hours....but I've just realised that I missed an oil & filter change at 10K....so tomorrows my last day. :hi2:

 

Sorry to repeat some stuff, but I want to make this clear.
SBC, now a part of AT&T, gave their workers Toughbooks. These phoneyboys abused them so bad, several forum members won't touch them? But if they are physcally abused so bad, you can see it by the marks/dings/breaks?
So if you buy a pristine looking SBC, what's going to be the problem? Or did I miss something?

 

If you've got a pristine condition. Perhaps its a back up unit that they use once in a while. I never mine getting the abuse one as long as the price is right. It only needs a thorough cleaned up from the inside coz maybe dust and moisture already penetrated on it. The motherboard pcb of the toughbook is clear coated that is why it is also tough but few parts still open and can be damage by moist.. and dust.

ohlip

 

I haven't had my hands on SBC 29, but I just got rid of a AT&T CF-30 Mk2. It was beat up and was on a Second or third respray (not by me) but it looked fine when you opened the lid and looked in the keyboard area. The new owner is happy with it and has already started the modding on it. I have seen few more like that on ebay, look rough, but still work.

 

It is true some members won't buy them. Like I said before, SBC and ATT units don't bother me.
It's important to realize that some members buy and sell these for a profit. Some make a living selling them. This changes things for them compared to someone who wants a cheap fixer upper. I can invest a lot more time cleaning and painting a unit when I don't have to worry about cost vs profit.

 

My apologies to the OP, the thread appears to have been de-railed by my use of an example of why I think the operating environment is a significant factor in the life expectancy of a unit & not just the accumulated operating hours.

Retaining my original point....a toughie sitting on a desktop will never receive the same use & abuse of those used in the field & it's quite reasonable to expect a "home use" unit to last considerably longer.

Unfortunately, if you are buying used, the less scrupulous re-furbisher's have realised that manipulating the accumulated hours & the general appearance of an otherwise low dollar unit transforms the said unit into a potentially more attractive proposition. (the minority Yes, but it happens).

For obvious reasons the forum does discourage any discussions regarding how to change some settings. :thumbsup:

There is a lot to be said for paying a fair price from a known trusted source. or in the case of Alecgold, your "tailor made" trousers have nice deep pockets allowing you the option to buy NEW.

I get the general idea of why the thread has been started....good idea IF comparing "apples to apples".

I'll try & get the train back on track....CF-29 Mk5 2,900 hrs (I promise it's genuine).

 

It's interesting coffee table talk about hours on a laptop. The longevity on Toughbooks is a testament to the engineering of them. I would like to hear of a 100,000 hour unit. That being said, I would personally never use the hours of a unit as any valid scale in purchasing. It's like a used car. There are way too many variables to judge based on numbers alone.
I actually have no idea how many hours are on my cf30. I glanced at it when I first booted it, but then moved on.

So Gear6 has the high score at the moment with 74,000 hours.:thumbsup:

 

that's a good one
it's got only 7400hrs , not 74000 I think the CCFL backlights would be long gone by then, and also the HDD.

P.S. my work desktop has 2x80GB SATA disks (Barracuda 7200.7) in HW raid, with 54623 hrs; that's over 6yrs non-stop), and no reallocated sectors, or other issues. in the first 2 years, they were in a datacenter, though; they don't make them like that anymore...

 

So I guess I can't read......

Jeff has high score of 37,900..

What's the prize for the winner?

 

Hehehe, I know I like to show of my nice miV, but don't forget that its a work machine. And because im self employed, i don't pay 21% VAT and then i also deduct it from my income, saving me another 40%. So I still need pay for it, but after a year it's considerable cheaper. What is really expensive is buying an apple each year!
And something odd happened, now that the VI is out, I don't have the need or urge to buy it!!! All I want is another phone as my iPhone 4 starts to behave oddly. But I cant find a good really though phone.
Any how, what I wanted to say was that buying a new thoughbook might have good reasons. If not just because there need to be new old ones in 3-5 years for a lot of folks here on BNR/Panasonic!! :tongue:

 

Nice saving with the vat & business deductible expense.

I bet you'll be the first to get a CF-20 with the optional Integrated Coffee Maker.

 

Hehe, nah, been there, done that. But odly enough I have less and less interest in the latest and greatest. Buying the mkV wasn't a mistake, it's a superb machine. But if I where to do it agai , I would buy a really nice mk3 orso and save a lot of money, while still being able to do anything I need to!