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The laptop that won't die

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Re: The laptop that won't die

#151

Post by baz00 »

ribit wrote: post #150

And we have a bunch of 15 year old Macs in the basement that outlasted any PCs we ever owned. What’s the point of these personal anecdotes? Lenovos build quality went down the drain in the last 10 years and their service is awful.

I think the same is true of Apple stuff. I mean the current line of soldered SSDs, RAM and pain in the ass to remove batteries is quite frankly annoying as hell. And Apple service isn't much better (it has been 2 weeks and I'm waiting for them to refund AppleCare on something but they have a bug in their system that is preventing it that no one knows how to fix).

As for Lenovo, at that price, I can usually just buy a whole replacement machine either new with warranty or new old stock for around 2/3 usual retail price and get it next day. I paid 730 GBP for my T14 gen 3 for example. And I got to stick bigger RAM and SSD in it and the battery comes out in 30 seconds. Granted the battery sucks but meh, you can't win everything.

Re: The laptop that won't die

#152

Post by shp0ngle »

I have such a laptop, but it doesn't survive update to Windows 11. Installing Windows 11 on old Thinkpad makes it go slow.

Luckily, there is Windows 10 LTSC bought from dubious serial code reseller. (OK, they possiblly pirate it, but.... Windows 10 LTSC is so good I recommend it to everyone. And MSFT won't sell it to me legally...)

edit: oh, this guy uses Ubuntu. I don't have nerves for Linux.

Re: The laptop that won't die

#153

Post by baz00 »

nirui wrote: post #104

This is another Thinkpad festival post? Let me just cold you down a bit by telling you that a 12-year-old laptop still kicking isn't that big of a deal. I have this DELL Studio laptop released back in September, 2009, and it can still kick very well too if I decide to recruit it back to my "workforce". I retired it just 3~4 years ago because I got a T480. Heck, some of my code (old versions) for the same project that…

That's not normal for Dell. Believe me. We bought a boat load of very recent Precision series and getting 12-18 months out of them would be considered a miracle. I've got a dead 5550 in the cupboard (thermal failure) and my 7670 is dying now as well. Also I have so many blown up Dell docks I look like a far Eastern recycling slum at the moment.

Their monitors are good though!

Re: The laptop that won't die

#154

Post by wiredfool »

baz00 wrote: post #151
ribit wrote: post #150

And we have a bunch of 15 year old Macs in the basement that outlasted any PCs we ever owned. What’s the point of these personal anecdotes? Lenovos build quality went down the drain in the last 10 years and their service is awful.

I think the same is true of Apple stuff. I mean the current line of soldered SSDs, RAM and pain in the ass to remove batteries is quite frankly annoying as hell. And Apple service isn't much better (it has been 2 weeks and I'm waiting for them to refund AppleCare on something but they have a bug in their system that is preventing it that no one knows how to fix). As for Lenovo, at that price, I can usually just buy a…

The 2016+ era MBPs were awful.

The previous 2 generations were good, but had their occasional issues. Like the drive cable on the unibody MBP. I got 7 years out of a 2012 Air. The jury is still out on the m1 era, but it's looking better. We'll know for sure in about 5 years.

Re: The laptop that won't die

#155

Post by baz00 »

shp0ngle wrote: post #152

I have such a laptop, but it doesn't survive update to Windows 11. Installing Windows 11 on old Thinkpad makes it go slow . Luckily, there is Windows 10 LTSC bought from dubious serial code reseller. (OK, they possiblly pirate it, but.... Windows 10 LTSC is so good I recommend it to everyone. And MSFT won't sell it to me legally...) edit: oh, this guy uses Ubuntu. I don't have nerves for Linux.

Windows 11 is horribl.e My exit plan is to move to windows 10 LTSC. I have some MSDN keys. I'll worry about that one day in the future though. I just exited the Apple ecosystem so I'm still getting my stuff together.

I also don't have the nerves for Linux. I want the computer to be a thing to solve problems not a thing to cause problems to solve :)

Re: The laptop that won't die

#156

Post by baz00 »

wiredfool wrote: post #154
baz00 wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the same is true of Apple stuff. I mean the current line of soldered SSDs, RAM and pain in the ass to remove batteries is quite frankly annoying as hell. And Apple service isn't much better (it has been 2 weeks and I'm waiting for them to refund AppleCare on something but they have a bug in their system that is preventing it that no one knows how to fix). As for Lenovo, at that price, I can usually just buy a…

The 2016+ era MBPs were awful. The previous 2 generations were good, but had their occasional issues. Like the drive cable on the unibody MBP. I got 7 years out of a 2012 Air. The jury is still out on the m1 era, but it's looking better. We'll know for sure in about 5 years.

Yeah agree there. I had a 2010 MBP that I rather liked.

The M1 era isn't looking good based on the number of bricked/dead and iCloud locked machines I see on eBay either corporate discards or damaged and not worth repairing. Also low quantities of parts on the market as well. Older MacBooks and PCs were usually pretty heavily shredded for parts but the same is definitely not true for the new ones. I suspect we've entered a new era of e-waste more than anything.

Re: The laptop that won't die

#157

Post by nirui »

baz00 wrote: post #153
nirui wrote: post #104

This is another Thinkpad festival post? Let me just cold you down a bit by telling you that a 12-year-old laptop still kicking isn't that big of a deal. I have this DELL Studio laptop released back in September, 2009, and it can still kick very well too if I decide to recruit it back to my "workforce". I retired it just 3~4 years ago because I got a T480. Heck, some of my code (old versions) for the same project that…

That's not normal for Dell. Believe me. We bought a boat load of very recent Precision series and getting 12-18 months out of them would be considered a miracle. I've got a dead 5550 in the cupboard (thermal failure) and my 7670 is dying now as well. Also I have so many blown up Dell docks I look like a far Eastern recycling slum at the moment. Their monitors are good though!

I think the problem here is "recent". Many vendors stopped making laptops as they used to.

You would think with less moving parts in those modern laptops they should fail less... not the case. Now days, simply pulling the USB-C charging cable too hard in the wrong way (say tripped over it) maybe enough to kill some boards. I learned it the hard way so just don't ever do it :)

Re: The laptop that won't die

#158

Post by alexvitkov »

baz00 wrote: post #155
shp0ngle wrote: post #152

I have such a laptop, but it doesn't survive update to Windows 11. Installing Windows 11 on old Thinkpad makes it go slow . Luckily, there is Windows 10 LTSC bought from dubious serial code reseller. (OK, they possiblly pirate it, but.... Windows 10 LTSC is so good I recommend it to everyone. And MSFT won't sell it to me legally...) edit: oh, this guy uses Ubuntu. I don't have nerves for Linux.

Windows 11 is horribl.e My exit plan is to move to windows 10 LTSC. I have some MSDN keys. I'll worry about that one day in the future though. I just exited the Apple ecosystem so I'm still getting my stuff together. I also don't have the nerves for Linux. I want the computer to be a thing to solve problems not a thing to cause problems to solve :)

You don't consider the first paragraph "a problem to solve"?

Re: The laptop that won't die

#159

Post by baz00 »

nirui wrote: post #157
baz00 wrote: post #153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not normal for Dell. Believe me. We bought a boat load of very recent Precision series and getting 12-18 months out of them would be considered a miracle. I've got a dead 5550 in the cupboard (thermal failure) and my 7670 is dying now as well. Also I have so many blown up Dell docks I look like a far Eastern recycling slum at the moment. Their monitors are good though!

I think the problem here is "recent". Many vendors stopped making laptops as they used to. You would think with less moving parts in those modern laptops they should fail less... not the case. Now days, simply pulling the USB-C charging cable too hard in the wrong way (say tripped over it) maybe enough to kill some boards. I learned it the hard way so just don't ever do it :)

Yeah that last one gets me. The USB-C connectors should always be on a replaceable board. The ex wife threw a cushion at me and broke the USB-C connector off my T470 motherboard. Fortunately it has a traditional charger hole in it that still works. That was one of the many reasons I divorced her :)

Re: The laptop that won't die

#160

Post by baz00 »

alexvitkov wrote: post #158
baz00 wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Windows 11 is horribl.e My exit plan is to move to windows 10 LTSC. I have some MSDN keys. I'll worry about that one day in the future though. I just exited the Apple ecosystem so I'm still getting my stuff together. I also don't have the nerves for Linux. I want the computer to be a thing to solve problems not a thing to cause problems to solve :)

You don't consider the first paragraph "a problem to solve"?

I'm slowly boiling myself into a portable software space. I have a couple of hard requirements that force me to use windows (or macOS) that i can kill in the next 2 years. I can put the LTSC migration off until 2025 and I can then push the LTSC EOL decision off until 2027. That's 4 years. A lot changes in that time.
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