Do computers wear out?

[JacobRogers]

Do computers just wear out? We have a laptop, with modest specs I can't tell you right now, but when we first got it, it was responsive and usable. Lately though, even after a clean reformatting and only installing non-intensive software it's still so very slow.

So I'm thinking that the pieces inside have just worn out, and it's time to recycle it? Do you think that's what happened?

[starcraft.man]

Do computers just wear out? We have a laptop, with modest specs I can't tell you right now, but when we first got it, it was responsive and usable. Lately though, even after a clean reformatting and only installing non-intensive software it's still so very slow.

So I'm thinking that the pieces inside have just worn out, and it's time to recycle it? Do you think that's what happened?

Yes, electronics do wear out. Flash memory for instance only has so many writes before its done. HDDs eventually accrue physical errors on drives or issues with the pin (write thing, whats the name?). Batteries fade over time. RAM can go bad. Everything has a shelf life. If you buy good stuff, and it doesn't fail in the first 6 months, sometimes it lasts for years.

My p4 is a prime example, its going on 6 years and the only thing I've changed in it is 2 sticks of 512 RAM (upgraded, old stuff wasn't bad just slower) and a newer 6800 GT. Everything else is original and in top shape, just as fast as the first day I got it if not more so with upgrades. I guess now a days IMO its more of a crap shoot.

[zodmaner]

How did your machine last so long? I never had a rig that last more than 5-6 years. The last rig I had (450 Mhz intel Celeron) lasts for about 5 years, before the mainboard IDE slot went haywire and I had to connect my HDD using CD-Rom IDE slot. :)

[starcraft.man]

How did your machine last so long? I never had a rig that last more than 5-6 years. The last rig I had (450 Mhz intel Celeron) lasts for about 5 years, before the mainboard IDE slot went haywire and I had to connect my HDD using CD-Rom IDE slot. :)

Canadian magic sauce. I'll give you a hint, it comes from trees and is sweet and sticky :p.

No seriously, I've no clue was a fluke good one. Maybe paying a high price (higher than should have in retrospect, but lasting as long as it did was worth the investment), buying at the right time and having it done by IBM played parts (before most of their computer section bought by Lenovo). Other than that, I'm clueless, I don't complain its my linux machine until it dies. At least until I find a quality stable machine to succeed it.

[Alterax]

Hard drives are the fastest to wear out, other moving parts like fans and power supplies (which not only have fans, but the capacitors inside do catch a lot of power spikes that would otherwise fry your PC quickly) are the next. The rest of it slowly ends up degrading due to electrostatic damage and heat that accrues over the years.

You'll add years of life to your machine by opening the cover and using compressed air to clean dust off the boards and chassis about twice a year. I do mine every season, whether I think they need it or not. It doesn't take very long, but it keeps my machines in good running condition.

--Alterax

[karellen]

my current rig - P4, msi mobo, wd hdd, nvidia card - is almost 5 years old (in october it will) and I still had no issues with it, except a fan changed back in 2004

[wolfen69]

in my experience, computers wear out because people never clean them. my last 2 jobs were because they sucked in too much dust and overheated. ez fix.

[wolfen69]

people wear out quicker than cpu's

[JDMT]

Is it possible to keep your case and just get a new HDD and everything, because if not, theres no point in paying $300 for those neon cases.

[jrusso2]

I build my own desktops with quality parts none has worn out yet. The things that usually need replacement for me have been 1. Hard drives. 1. Power Supplys.

Everything else seems to lost forever. This PC is 5 years old still has the original power supply and hard drive and its on 24/7.

The oldest PC's here are 12 years old now and work perfect. I have a 9 year old laptop here running linux and it works perfect still.

I have never had a stick of ram good bad or a cpu.

[SoulinEther]

To answer the OP's question... no, things normally don't get sluggish the way you're talking about. If the hard drive is worn out, I don't think it would necessary run slower... I would imagine it would just simply stop working.

Since most everything is in chips and in PC boards, there's nothing that can "wear out" and affect your computer's speed. Computers don't need to be oiled (thank God!). However, fans, optical drives, hard drives -- stuff with moving parts can go bad as many people said. This would probably lead to complete failure of these devices; the hard drive will no longer be recognized or working, the optical drive will no longer be able to read discs, and the fans will stop running (this can be a complication of something else).

But.. if you want to update your computer a little, you can always buy a new hard drive. I don't think it would really slow down over time, however. But if you're TRULY worried about your hard drive, find a solid-state hard drive and it'll last many years, running at a faster speed than most hard drives.

And they can also quickly drain your bank account, but that's something else :)

[regomodo]

Is it possible to keep your case and just get a new HDD and everything, because if not, theres no point in paying $300 for those neon cases.

yeah. i personally feel pc cases with perspex windows and blue lighting are for loosers.
if i was to buy a new case i'll only pay extra for soundproofness

[Stew2]

I read somewhere that computers go obsolete long before they wear out. I believe this to be true except for the odd fan or power supply crapping out. I had an old 486 IBM Aptiva that I recently recycled that worked just fine until I got rid of it. I also use an old Thinkpad 600X daily (right now actually), that has got to be 6 or 7 years old at least... maybe more. No problems :D. So if your laptop is getting slow I would think its a software issue and not a hardware issue.

[Warpnow]

I ran my old Celeron 650mhz with 256mb of ram for prolly..5 years...and it had been my parents for 2 before that, then they got a new one, and I got to throw out my pentium 1, which I had had for at least 4 years...

Current PC is going on three and running like a charm. I keep it up on my desk, though, so there is no dust. I clean it every time I change or add a part, which is usually every 3 months (simple ****, usually, like a WINtv card last time or my 5.1 audio before that), so it stays pretty clean.

I've never experienced this "wearing out" some people talk about. Maybe its true, but I don't think so. If the HD slows down, buy a new one for your OS and switch it to secondary. If the RAM is running slow, upgrade it...

[stmiller]

I've got an ancient Celeron box running Debian Etch as my server. This thing is ancient. (Hard drives are new, though).

[justin1278]

PC's don't usually wear out, parts start to go bad (fans, HDD, optical drive, etc...) we have a 5 year old Gateway downstairs that works fine (well it is having software issues but that isn't due to hardware). If you take care of your PC then it should last a long time.

[macogw]

Come now, 5 years old? That's nothing. I fully expect my laptop that I bought last July to still be working 2012. It seems a reasonable expectation to me. We have a Pentium 2 still running at my house.

If they do wear out, it takes forever. At work we just drove a 286 to Goodwill because we couldn't use it (and didn't have enough room for it and it didn't have a CD drive which would have let me try to make it serve some purpose), and neither could the people to whom we are donating the Pentium 3. Both the Pentium 3 and the 286 ran fast. Yeah, the 286 was running Windows 3.11, but it probably had 16MB of RAM at the most (they max at 32MB and I'm highly doubtful that the previous owners ever upgraded computer hardware since the Pentium 3 still had only 128MB of RAM). I'm with whoever said they go obsolete before they wear out. However, obsolesence is usually no reason to get rid of it. It can probably still be a file server or something.

[steveneddy]

in my experience, computers wear out because people never clean them. my last 2 jobs were because they sucked in too much dust and overheated. ez fix.

I agree with this. I make it a habit to turn the machine off and vacuum it out once a month or whenever it is necessary. I have a filte n the fan intake of the server to keep it clean. Once a year i take off the heat sink, clean it, polish it, and install new heat sink goo. It is a grease that breaks down with heat like motor oil.

The machine is a 7 year old PIII with 512 mb RAM and runs great. Uptime today is 2 months. Before we moved it was up nonstop for 6 months without a restart. Totally reliable.

Cleanliness is the key to longevity in any PC.

[HermanAB]

Hmm, in general, if you keep something clean then it will last longer.

Apart from the mechanical wear of fans and disk drives, the big computer killer is powerline spikes and brown-outs. If you wish your PC to last almost forever, then put it on a UPS. It will also help a lot if you use power bars with built in spike suppressors.

Silicon devices do not have a wear-out mechanism and could last a million years, but stress caused by excessive heat, moisture and power spikes do cause damage which can kill them.

Unfortunately there are still manufacturers that build very bad quality electrolitic capacitors, but those can be replaced with some effort. Once a year, when you vacuum the dust out of the box, check for distended or leaking capacitors. If you see any, replace the whole lot. You need a very good soldering iron to do that, since one leg of a capacitor is usually soldered to a copper plane, but a Weller can do the trick.

Also keep a check on the cooling fans. If the processor fan stops, the processor may fail, or switch down to a lower clock speed to protect itself against heat.

Cheers,

Herman

[steveneddy]

I've replaced fans and replaced both HD's, but that is just general maintenance.

Keeping it clean and fans working will add years to the life of any PC.

[Compucore]

I've gone around 6-7 years before gettin a new one or getting a free upgrade to something slightly better than what I have had or coming close to the norm of a new computer minus 1 generation to what is the norm of a new computer. Also I find that it also depends on what kind of software you are using that makes a lot of demands of the hardware system itself. And how well the system is taken care of as well. In the office situation it is garanteed that it will eventually be slow. Some offices do take care of defragmenting their hard disk and clear the caches on their computers. And others don't bother at all. I have ran into that at a couple of place where they don't do anything. WHen I took the time to do that on their computers. The end users were happy and tickled pink about it. ANd that was under the windows environment.

Compucore