Computer Life Span Question

[TxHeat]

Your HP is barely used. Run it till the wheels come off, or until MS stops providing security updates in a few years. What kept XP going for so long was the massive, worldwide installed user base in the business community. Expect Win 7 to stop being supported in 3 or 4 years.

I just disassembled an HP desktop that was ten or twelve years old running Windows ME! It still ran like a top, booted right up. It was used by 2 adults and their 2 kids for over 5 years! But, it wouldn't run any current software and was not upgradeable. It was just obsolete and I needed some of the parts for another older machine.

Power supplies will wear out but other than that I can't think of anything in a pc that I could say will just wear out.

Minor hiccups can be pretty easily repaired as time goes by if you prepare a bit.

Get a good UPS to protect the power supply/motherboard/cpu from power surges/lags.

Install a dependable imaging software and make backups. Be sure you have reinstallation CDs or make them, instructions will be in your user manual. That way, if your hard drive dies you'll be able to replace it and your system easily and quickly.

I build my own desktops and have a couple of laptops, one Dell and one Lenovo. The Dell laptop is almost 5 years old and I've updated it from Vista to 7 and now to 8. I've also changed it over to an SSD. Still runs great and my wife uses it every day. The Lenovo is 2 years old and running Windows 7. I bought it off Craigslist for $50.00 because the hard drive had died and the owner just wanted to get rid of it.

I can keep upgrading the desktop as long as I'm happy with the case.

My laptops and your HP desktop will become obsolete before they die and cannot be repaired or, more likely, become cost prohibitive to repair. The laptops, like your HP are good only so long as the hardware meets my needs or can be upgraded.

Don't expect that Windows 9 or 10 will be any more to your liking than Windows 8! I do not! FWIW, Win 8 is a good OS. It is just the interface, that stupid "Metro" Start Screen I don't like. However, if I were using an appliance with a touch screen I expect I'd feel differently!

My advice would be to not buy another Windows 7 machine unless you need one and use that money to buy whatever is current when you do need a new one.

Good luck!

Larry

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: bornconfuzd
Your HP is barely used. Run it till the wheels come off, or until MS stops providing security updates in a few years. What kept XP going for so long was the massive, worldwide installed user base in the business community. Expect Win 7 to stop being supported in 3 or 4 years.


I don't think so. What I've seen in the healthcare sector as well as EDU is that 7 is the new XP. They are avoiding 8 like the plague so what used to be XP was lifecycled out to be 7. The install base for 7 will likely be as big if not bigger than XP was, which leaves Microsoft with another product they are going to have to support for well beyond its intended lifecycle.

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: bornconfuzd
Your HP is barely used. Run it till the wheels come off, or until MS stops providing security updates in a few years. What kept XP going for so long was the massive, worldwide installed user base in the business community. Expect Win 7 to stop being supported in 3 or 4 years.


I don't think so. What I've seen in the healthcare sector as well as EDU is that 7 is the new XP. They are avoiding 8 like the plague so what used to be XP was lifecycled out to be 7. The install base for 7 will likely be as big if not bigger than XP was, which leaves Microsoft with another product they are going to have to support for well beyond its intended lifecycle.
. I think businesses will jump over Win7 because of the hardware requirements

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: BMWTurboDzl
Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: bornconfuzd
Your HP is barely used. Run it till the wheels come off, or until MS stops providing security updates in a few years. What kept XP going for so long was the massive, worldwide installed user base in the business community. Expect Win 7 to stop being supported in 3 or 4 years.


I don't think so. What I've seen in the healthcare sector as well as EDU is that 7 is the new XP. They are avoiding 8 like the plague so what used to be XP was lifecycled out to be 7. The install base for 7 will likely be as big if not bigger than XP was, which leaves Microsoft with another product they are going to have to support for well beyond its intended lifecycle.
. I think businesses will jump over Win7 because of the hardware requirements

The hardware requirements are pretty basic.

Systems in the enterprise/healthcare/Edu are cycled out every number of years. For a while you had machines that would have shipped with Vista shipping with XP. And when 7 was in its infancy, also XP. I know at many of the Canadian hospitals and educational institutions the most recent machines lifecycled out (in the last 2 years or so) have shipped with 7 on them. This is why HP, DELL, Lenovo...etc have made 7 the default choice for their business machines.

 

[The_Jeff]

Don't forget that a year or two ago you could get a new netbook license of XP for $29. One requisite was only a gig of ram-- no more.

 

[djb]

As others have said, just keep the dust cleaned out and it has a chance of running for many more years.

Semiconductors don't really age, with a few exceptions. A poorly designed 'wire' can suffer from electromigration, where the current density causes the conductor to thin, resulting in increasingly high current density until it burns out like a light bulb. Most modern chips are pretty thoroughly simulated, so this problem is very unlikely.

Some types of capacitors will eventually dry out, accelerated by overheating. The capacitors in the power supply are most likely to fail this way. This is an inevitable failure, but if properly designed you have a few more decades of use.

 

[Doog]

Open the case and get the model number, capacity and manufacturer of the hard drive. Go on amazon and buy the same type of drive. When it arrives put it away for safekeeping. Then go on the crucial.com website and run their memory upgrade download and max your RAM. Then go on Amazon and buy a 500mb Nvidia video card and install it.

You are now equipped to get another 5-6 years out of your current system. When your existing HD spits out 2-3 error messages or dumps. Install the new one. Then you can go another 4-5 years from that point.

BTW, FWIW I run XP on all of my desktops and laptops, my servers run Win2000server and Win2003server. I change out the drives every 5 years. Since we never shut them off we find that the system should last about 15-17 years.

Our key to long life is a good strong APC brand UPS and never shut off the computer (steady state theory) that way the internal components do not go through the constant cold-hot stop start cycles. Disk drive spindle bearings last 2x as long as well. Plus we clean them inside 2x per year and re-boot the OS every 90 days.

 

[redhat]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: bornconfuzd
Your HP is barely used. Run it till the wheels come off, or until MS stops providing security updates in a few years. What kept XP going for so long was the massive, worldwide installed user base in the business community. Expect Win 7 to stop being supported in 3 or 4 years.


I don't think so. What I've seen in the healthcare sector as well as EDU is that 7 is the new XP. They are avoiding 8 like the plague so what used to be XP was lifecycled out to be 7. The install base for 7 will likely be as big if not bigger than XP was, which leaves Microsoft with another product they are going to have to support for well beyond its intended lifecycle.


I couldn't agree more.

 

[dparm]

Originally Posted By: Doog


BTW, FWIW I run XP on all of my desktops and laptops, my servers run Win2000server and Win2003server. I change out the drives every 5 years. Since we never shut them off we find that the system should last about 15-17 years.



So you're running OSes that are no longer supported and are going unpatched/unfixed, and that cannot take advantage of newer hardware?

Also, comparing server-grade hardware to a consumer desktop doesn't make sense.

 

[TxHeat]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: bornconfuzd
Your HP is barely used. Run it till the wheels come off, or until MS stops providing security updates in a few years. What kept XP going for so long was the massive, worldwide installed user base in the business community. Expect Win 7 to stop being supported in 3 or 4 years.


I don't think so. What I've seen in the healthcare sector as well as EDU is that 7 is the new XP. They are avoiding 8 like the plague so what used to be XP was lifecycled out to be 7. The install base for 7 will likely be as big if not bigger than XP was, which leaves Microsoft with another product they are going to have to support for well beyond its intended lifecycle.


Not sure there's a point to arguing what Microsoft might do 3 or 4 years from now, but I wouldn't base my purchasing decisions on the premise that they'll do X or Y and that was the question the OP posed.

While you might well be correct, and I'm sure your guess is a lot more educated than mine, I'm going to stick with my original advice.

Make some minor upgrades to it if you wish, protect it with an ups, install some imaging software and use it, make sure you have reinstall disks and enjoy using your pc.

I don't think it would be prudent to buy a second Win 7 machine "Just In Case". If anything, use that money for upgrades/repairs on the machine you have.

OP asked for input and this is mine. Hope it helps.

Larry

 

[OVERKILL]

Originally Posted By: bornconfuzd

Not sure there's a point to arguing what Microsoft might do 3 or 4 years from now, but I wouldn't base my purchasing decisions on the premise that they'll do X or Y and that was the question the OP posed.

While you might well be correct, and I'm sure your guess is a lot more educated than mine, I'm going to stick with my original advice.


I'm not arguing Larry, so don't take my stance as being argumentative

I'm basing my view as to the lifecycle of Windows 7 on what I've observed in these sectors and it mirrors closely what happened with XP and Vista and ultimately that's what led to XP being supported for so long (roughly 12 years). I'm not saying you have to agree with me, I was just letting you know why I don't share your view here

Anyway, I agree that the OP shouldn't be making rash purchasing decisions in thinking that the product might disappear and the rest of your post is good, solid advice

 

[OVERKILL]

For those wondering about the lifecycle of Windows 7 BTW, here's Microsoft's lifecycle timesheet:

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-ca/windows/lifecycle

Code:


Client operating systems Latest update or service pack End of mainstream support End of extended support

Windows XP Service Pack 3 April 14, 2009 April 8, 2014

Windows Vista Service Pack 2 April 10, 2012 April 11, 2017

Windows 7 * Service Pack 1 January 13, 2015 January 14, 2020

Windows 8 Windows 8.1 January 9, 2018 January 10, 2023


So it looks like 7 will be supported for another 6 years.

 

[TxHeat]

Originally Posted By: OVERKILL
Originally Posted By: bornconfuzd

Not sure there's a point to arguing what Microsoft might do 3 or 4 years from now, but I wouldn't base my purchasing decisions on the premise that they'll do X or Y and that was the question the OP posed.

While you might well be correct, and I'm sure your guess is a lot more educated than mine, I'm going to stick with my original advice.


I'm not arguing Larry, so don't take my stance as being argumentative

I'm basing my view as to the lifecycle of Windows 7 on what I've observed in these sectors and it mirrors closely what happened with XP and Vista and ultimately that's what led to XP being supported for so long (roughly 12 years). I'm not saying you have to agree with me, I was just letting you know why I don't share your view here

Anyway, I agree that the OP shouldn't be making rash purchasing decisions in thinking that the product might disappear and the rest of your post is good, solid advice

I didn't take your post as argumentative....personally. Only in the sense that 7 was almost bound to have it's lifecycle extended.

While on a personal level I might agree with you I just didn't think it was a point that would benefit the op and my intent was to give him advice based on Microsoft's stated end of life, not what I think it might be. By the way, it's the same advice I give to friends and family and I base my own purchase decisions on the same thought process.

MS took about 6 years to get Vista out leaving XP as the default Windows OS for about twice as long as normal for them. That played a large role in the number of installed users. That didn't happen with Vista or 7.

On the other hand, point in your favor is that the "Tick Tock", if you will, of Windows is that it seems that every other Windows release is one that actually takes hold. That precedent suggests that 7 will be a large and popular release and that 8 probably will not be.

I don't disagree with you as to Windows 7 lifecycle. It could well happen as you suggest..........or not. and that was my point.

Thanks for your kind words.

Larry

 

[PandaBear]

My gut feeling is a bad design is the main cause of most failures, and there's not much you can do about it if you are unluckily the owner of one of them, especially the hard drive.

 

[Wingman]

I apppreciate all the replies so far. I am not as interested in how long Windows 7 will be supported, as I am in how long a modern computer "should" last given the conditions I have outlined. I do use a good power supply with battery back-up. I also use a backup hard drive, use back up system image, and have an external hard drive to back up my personal files. I keep the computer well ventilated and clean it out on a regular schedule. So far, it sounds like I should save my money for a few years down the road. I just hope the follow-on to Windows 8 is more accommodating to those of us who do not want to use touch screen computers. You folks are GREAT!

 

[antiqueshell]

Just to let folks know how long things can last.

I am currently using a HP Pavilion 7955 from 2001, that has
XP SP3, a 40GB HDD, 1.25 Gigs of Ram, and a NVida Riva TNT2
graphics card. I use it to surf the web and yes it can play SD video reasonably well, after all these years. Only thing I replaced was the power supply that died a couple of years ago because someone switched the 120/240 VAC to 240 and it was plugged into the 120 VAC outlet so even that only failed because of malicious mischief.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: BMWTurboDzl
IMO heat is the killer followed by unstable power. Keep the insides dust free with an APU on back up.

Absolutely. All the latest failures at home and the office have been unstable power.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

The only Chronic failures I can think of on most brand name desktops in the last decade are capacitors.

Failed capacitors got the best of everyone, it seems. Dell, Gateway, HP.

There was the occasional failed Nvidia graphics card on laptops for a while, but that seems to have gone away now.

Around Syracuse, there are a lot of Nexlink brand computers. Those things pop power supplies all the time. Apparently "Sparkle" brand power supplies sparkle when they go bad.

 

[dareo]

It is always the hard drive that seems to fail. That failure=data lost=why not just get a new machine?

So we have taken to cloning the main OS drive to an SSD and using that. The regular HD becomes a backup drive only.

Anything other than your HD can just be replaced easily.

 

[Wingman]

Dareo,

Your suggestion of using an SSD as the primary drive interests me. The problem is, I do not have any idea how to do it. Could you give me an outline of how to do it? I do not have much experience with computers, but if you get me started, or tell me where I can find the information, I can usually figure it out. Thanks!