Toshiba laptop failing after only 3 years.

[3Pig]

Its adequate when the CPU throttles down to 1.6 ghz . My pc could actually do mild tasks without crashing, because its a desktop with a massive heatsink with plenty of airflow. This was with a 3.7 ghz (its like 4 gens old) overclocked cpu @1.52 vcore.

 

[Dr_Evil]

That's one reason I like to avoid HP, Sony and many of the other cheap laptop brands. That cooling is absurd.

 

[ultimatekaiser]

True, and the thing with laptops is that they are continually being pushed to be as small and thin as possible, and as light as possible or they won't sell. they also don't run at full power continually, so the heatsinks don't need to be large and hold tons of heat like desktops do. because they are often not under load continuously. so rather than storing the heat, they do their best to not generate it to begin with, and what the do generate goes straight to the fan to be displaced immediately. This is why it is so important to keep them clean and keep the exhaust port unblocked. They need to breathe. The other part of the problem is that most people don't know how to open and clean one out. Laptops are mobile, so naturally they are exposed to all sorts of environments, and get dirty fast, the heatsink fins are often closer together, so they get clogged just that much faster and easier. I think you'll all agree that a tower is far easier to work on. just lift the side cover. laptops often are not easily serviceable depending on design.

Also, Laptops have a shorter natural lifespan in today's market, astonishingly short. around 2-3 years on average before they are traded for a better one. The 2.5" drives are also unlike 3.5" drives in the way that they are moved around, especially while in operation. This is, and always will be bad for them, so their average lifespan is lower, especially when they're already pushing the limits on what they can do, particularly speed wise. those 7200+RPM drive motors get really hot for example, and many laptop makers don't heat-sink them very well, so they're continually getting bumped around while simultaneously getting cooked by their own heat, unlike their larger brethren. Laptops were originally designed to be work computers, not for games and labor intensive things, and I often think people forget this. The were not made (originally) to handle a lot of the things we make them do today. which is another reason SSDs have come down from the server market to be used in residential machines. For the longest time, the sole improvements on our computers have been things like the processors and graphics, while the hard drives just keep clacking away. It has gotten to the point to where HDDs just can't keep up easily with certain tasks, so if we want something faster, you gotta make it go digital instead of mechanical.

If you want storage space, get a HDD, if you want speed and lower power, get a SSD. I actually mix the two, putting my OS and low-write/ read-only stuff on the SSD, and all my heavily re-written, vital storage, and misc files on an HDD.

 

[Bionic-Badger]

The thing about an SSD on a laptop is that if you have more than about 8GB of RAM, which is not uncommon these days, you don't even need a swap file. The SSD will read files so quickly that it isn't even worth prefetching and caching in RAM, which is one of the major uses of the swap file except when you have a huge amount of things open (like on a desktop).

Even then, wear leveling is pretty good, especially in newer generation SSDs, and they come with good warranties too (e.g. the 850 Pro series). By the time you wear out the reads you can just get another drive with even larger capacity at a low price and save yourself having to use some slow-ass hard drive (unless it's one of those nicer hybrids).

 

[Pi R Squared]

Thanks everyone for the comments and suggestions. Yes it often ran hotter than I thought it should so maybe that shortened its life. It finally quit for good, it wont boot, it just gives an error about the "Boot configuration data file".

I hadn't shopped for a hard drive in several years now, I had no idea how cheap they are now and that includes the SSD's so I think I'll buy one in the near future and try it in the Toshiba, but now I have no way to install Windows on it. I had no way to backup the old drive, just the important stuff.

I am very pleased with the new Lenovo, it has a much better keyboard, I don't know how to describe it, take a look at one if you have the chance. The screen also looks better, it has led backlighting instead of the old fluorescent type, it is also the thinnest screen I have ever seen on a laptop, I hope they don't break more easily.

Alan

 

[Bionic-Badger]

I'd get a Lenovo too, but unfortunately the whole-touchpad-is-a-button/no-dedicated-Trackpoint-buttons pointing device system is a complete abomination and I won't buy that brand until they fix it. Lenovos are known as a premium brand because of their keyboards and pointing device systems, and it is a shame that the idiots who are running the company now are undermining decades of reputation with this garbage.

 

[Pi R Squared]

I'd get a Lenovo too, but unfortunately the whole-touchpad-is-a-button/no-dedicated-Trackpoint-buttons pointing device system is a complete abomination and I won't buy that brand until they fix it. Lenovos are known as a premium brand because of their keyboards and pointing device systems, and it is a shame that the idiots who are running the company now are undermining decades of reputation with this garbage.

I didn't know about that, It may be they are fixing them now on the new models because the touchpad on mine has the usual two buttons and works the same as the Toshiba did but again it seems to be a little better than the touchpad was on the Toshiba.

I had another problem, my internet access quit on me and I was without it for two weeks, that's why I haven't posted lately. I use an iPad as a mobile hotspot for my laptop, there is no wired internet access available here. I finally went to a Verizon store and only needed a new sim card. I got a new data plan now that gives me twice as much data for about the same price. I had to be careful before to not use too much data.

I was still checking in to read the latest posts on my Android phone but the screen is so small its not very useful. I need to upgrade to one of those huge phones with a 5 1/2 inch screen but I doubt I can do that anytime soon.

Alan