Somewhere on teh intarwebs Ryan P. wrote:
> On 10/16/2009 9:02 AM, Mark Shapiro wrote:
>> I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
>> Have firewall, virus protection, do
>> all updates, don't open attachment,
>> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
>> Every year, the hard drive dies with
>> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
>> replaced it. This time I'm not going
>> to replace the hard drive.
>> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
>> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
>> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
>> web sites. Why do hard drives die
>> so fast on Windows laptops?
>> Or is my experience rare?
>
> I think its luck of the draw. I have a Compaq Presario R3000 that I
> ran over with my car (accidentally) and the only thing I've ever had
> to do to it is replace the LCD screen (because of the car) and buy a
> new battery, because of age. Still works great, and I find it more
> responsive than my newer HP DV6000. Although its much heavier. :)

LOL, this cracks me up! How do you run over a laptop accidently? Do you use
it for a parking brake and forgot to move it? Did you drive over the couch
it was on? Or are you just in the habit of leaving it in the driveway?
Hehee, amazing....
--
Shaun.

"Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's
warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet, 'Jingo'.

In news:hbb3k0$k60$3@news.eternal-september.org,
Barry Watzman typed on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:37:15 -0400:
> Give me a break. Re: "Mac laptops use high quality hard drives which
> can handle shock far better than the average PC hard drive"
>
> That is just BS.
>
> Mac laptops use the same drives ... made by Hitachi, Seagate, WD and
> Fujitsu ... as PC laptops. They are no different, overall.

If you believe what you are saying, then you have a case to sue Apple.
And I say go for it Barry. I love to see how far you get.

http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm

I also noticed you failed to touch on why their Mac doesn't go through
hard drives every year like their Dell does. Why is that Barry? My guess
is that you are just clueless. ;-)

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 701G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Windows XP SP2

On Fri, 16 Oct 2009 07:02:06 -0700, Mark Shapiro wrote:

> I got a Dell XP laptop 3 years ago.
> Have firewall, virus protection, do
> all updates, don't open attachment,
> don't use file sharing, don't move it.
> Every year, the hard drive dies with
> no warning. It is gone. Twice I
> replaced it. This time I'm not going
> to replace the hard drive.
> Why do PC laptops die so quick?
> I have a 10-year old Mac laptop that
> still runs fine - if I don't go to modern
> web sites. Why do hard drives die
> so fast on Windows laptops?
> Or is my experience rare?

How about heat and poor ventilation? It is amazing how much dust can be
sucked into case.

On 10/17/2009 5:35 AM, ~misfit~ wrote:
> Somewhere on teh intarwebs Ryan P. wrote:

>> I think its luck of the draw. I have a Compaq Presario R3000 that I
>> ran over with my car (accidentally) and the only thing I've ever had
>> to do to it is replace the LCD screen (because of the car) and buy a
>> new battery, because of age. Still works great, and I find it more
>> responsive than my newer HP DV6000. Although its much heavier. :)
>
> LOL, this cracks me up! How do you run over a laptop accidently? Do you use
> it for a parking brake and forgot to move it? Did you drive over the couch
> it was on? Or are you just in the habit of leaving it in the driveway?
> Hehee, amazing....

It was during the process of packing up my truck while moving from my
apartment to my new house. I had a whole armful of stuff, so I leaned
the laptop case against the rear wheel, packed the truck, got distracted
by something, took care of the issue, got in the truck, shifted into
reverse, and didn't hear the laptop fall as the rear wheel stopped
supporting it, but I did feel the front wheel roll over it as I backed up.

But, thanks to ebay, $40 later, it was impossible to tell I ran over it!

I deal with hundreds of laptops a year (buying, refurbing, servicing and
selling them) and while drives do fail, the drives in most laptops will
last the life of that laptop. The situation described by the author of
the thread is simply not typical.


BillW50 wrote:
> In news:hbb3k0$k60$3@news.eternal-september.org,
> Barry Watzman typed on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:37:15 -0400:
>> Give me a break. Re: "Mac laptops use high quality hard drives which
>> can handle shock far better than the average PC hard drive"
>>
>> That is just BS.
>>
>> Mac laptops use the same drives ... made by Hitachi, Seagate, WD and
>> Fujitsu ... as PC laptops. They are no different, overall.
>
> If you believe what you are saying, then you have a case to sue Apple.
> And I say go for it Barry. I love to see how far you get.
>
> http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm
>
> I also noticed you failed to touch on why their Mac doesn't go through
> hard drives every year like their Dell does. Why is that Barry? My guess
> is that you are just clueless. ;-)
>

Barry Watzman wrote on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:49:18 -0400:
> I deal with hundreds of laptops a year (buying, refurbing, servicing and
> selling them) and while drives do fail, the drives in most laptops will
> last the life of that laptop. The situation described by the author of
> the thread is simply not typical.

And I have read posts from thousands of users over the many years who
has suffered data loss do to a failed hard drive. While you or I may not
see this personally, there is a huge number out there who has.

> BillW50 wrote:
>> In news:hbb3k0$k60$3@news.eternal-september.org,
>> Barry Watzman typed on Fri, 16 Oct 2009 20:37:15 -0400:
>>> Give me a break. Re: "Mac laptops use high quality hard drives which
>>> can handle shock far better than the average PC hard drive"
>>>
>>> That is just BS.
>>>
>>> Mac laptops use the same drives ... made by Hitachi, Seagate, WD and
>>> Fujitsu ... as PC laptops. They are no different, overall.
>>
>> If you believe what you are saying, then you have a case to sue Apple.
>> And I say go for it Barry. I love to see how far you get.
>>
>> http://macs.about.com/b/2009/08/10/s...rpm-drives.htm
>>
>>
>> I also noticed you failed to touch on why their Mac doesn't go through
>> hard drives every year like their Dell does. Why is that Barry? My
>> guess is that you are just clueless. ;-)
>>

--
Bill
Asus EEE PC 702G4 ~ 2GB RAM ~ 16GB-SDHC
Xandros Linux (build 2007-10-19 13:03)

On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:49:18 -0400, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>
wrote:

>I deal with hundreds of laptops a year (buying, refurbing, servicing and
>selling them) and while drives do fail, the drives in most laptops will
>last the life of that laptop.

Hi, Barry,

how is your experience with the fans in LG X110?

Aribert
..
--
How a sect kills YOUR children

http://www.pharmamafia.com

The industry sells 100 MILLION additional new laptops per year,
worldwide, and there are HUNDREDS of MILLIONS in use (not only those
sold this year but all of those sold in the past; the total number of PC
in use worldwide is in the billions). OF COURSE THERE ARE MILLIONS OF
DRIVE FAILURES PER YEAR. There are probably TENS of millions per year.
And I have a clue for you: SOME OF THEM ARE EVEN IN MAC LAPTOPS.

Your posts are becoming absurd. You have no statistical evidence to
backup your claims. And, further, if you open up a Mac laptop, and look
at the hard drive, you will find it's a standard 2.5" SATA hard drive
made by one of the major drive manufacturers. It's not a "special"
model. There is nothing particularly unique about it, it's likely a
model that you or I could buy from Newegg or ZipZoomFly and that other
laptop makers use in non-Mac products (given the cost of Mac laptops, I
would however hope that it would be a higher-end model, in terms of
rotational speed and cache size).


BillW50 wrote:
> Barry Watzman wrote on Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:49:18 -0400:
>> I deal with hundreds of laptops a year (buying, refurbing, servicing
>> and selling them) and while drives do fail, the drives in most laptops
>> will last the life of that laptop. The situation described by the
>> author of the thread is simply not typical.
>
> And I have read posts from thousands of users over the many years who
> has suffered data loss do to a failed hard drive. While you or I may not
> see this personally, there is a huge number out there who has.
>

I've never seen an LG laptop (I work mostly with Toshiba, and also but
somewhat less with Gateway, Dell and Lenovo).

The fans in laptops are pretty much all the same, from what I've seen.
And I don't see any real difference from one brand to another. Some
percentage of them do fail (generally, this means they become noisy).
Sometimes the cause of the noise is not the fan itself but an
accumulation of dust, dirt and hair inside the fan and heat exchanger.
It is not uncommon to disassemble the cooling system of a laptop and
pull out one to two CUBIC INCHES of "dust/dirt/hair-ball" as a solid
mass. A mass that sometimes grows to the point of actually contacting
the fan blades and stopping them from turning.


Happy Oyster wrote:
> On Sat, 17 Oct 2009 23:49:18 -0400, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I deal with hundreds of laptops a year (buying, refurbing, servicing and
>> selling them) and while drives do fail, the drives in most laptops will
>> last the life of that laptop.
>
> Hi, Barry,
>
> how is your experience with the fans in LG X110?
>
> Aribert
> .

On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:28:53 -0400, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>
wrote:

>this means they become noisy.

That is THE point...


>Sometimes the cause of the noise is not the fan itself but an
>accumulation of dust, dirt and hair inside the fan and heat exchanger.

My first guess was a nosy spider. But I am reluctant to take apart that strange
fan, because it is a drum, not a propeller.

--
How a sect kills YOUR children

http://www.pharmamafia.com

I disassemble and clean fans routinely while refurbishing laptops. It's
usually not a problem, or difficult (of course, by this point, the
entire laptop is totally disassembled with the motherboard removed).
Most of the time you can actually disassemble the fans themslves,
although in some cases they are closed with flared (heat melted) plastic
pins.

Happy Oyster wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 15:28:53 -0400, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>
> wrote:
>
>> this means they become noisy.
>
> That is THE point...
>
>
>> Sometimes the cause of the noise is not the fan itself but an
>> accumulation of dust, dirt and hair inside the fan and heat exchanger.
>
> My first guess was a nosy spider. But I am reluctant to take apart that strange
> fan, because it is a drum, not a propeller.
>

On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:47:25 -0400, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>
wrote:

>I disassemble and clean fans routinely while refurbishing laptops. It's
>usually not a problem, or difficult (of course, by this point, the
>entire laptop is totally disassembled with the motherboard removed).
>Most of the time you can actually disassemble the fans themslves,
>although in some cases they are closed with flared (heat melted) plastic
>pins.

The latter is what I am afraid of.

The fan does not make the noise all the time. It starts, and some time later, it
stops. As I cannot see all the time, if the the fan actually works, I do not
know the condition, WHEN it makes noise.

Tilting the netbook 90 degress so that the keyboard pointing towards me, the
noise ends. But there is a sensor, which sometimes shuts off the HDD, I guess.
--
How a sect kills YOUR children

http://www.pharmamafia.com

The fans are thermally controlled and normally do not run continuously,
but rather cycle on and off.

This is probably an easy fix, and probably will not require any parts
(maybe a tiny (TINY) bit of oil or graphite), but it probably will
require TOTAL disassembly of the laptop, which is very dangerous if you
don't know what you are doing OR (note: OR) don't have a service manual.


Happy Oyster wrote:
> On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 18:47:25 -0400, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>
> wrote:
>
>> I disassemble and clean fans routinely while refurbishing laptops. It's
>> usually not a problem, or difficult (of course, by this point, the
>> entire laptop is totally disassembled with the motherboard removed).
>> Most of the time you can actually disassemble the fans themslves,
>> although in some cases they are closed with flared (heat melted) plastic
>> pins.
>
> The latter is what I am afraid of.
>
> The fan does not make the noise all the time. It starts, and some time later, it
> stops. As I cannot see all the time, if the the fan actually works, I do not
> know the condition, WHEN it makes noise.
>
> Tilting the netbook 90 degress so that the keyboard pointing towards me, the
> noise ends. But there is a sensor, which sometimes shuts off the HDD, I guess.

On Sun, 18 Oct 2009 21:33:49 -0400, Barry Watzman <WatzmanNOSPAM@neo.rr.com>
wrote:

>The fans are thermally controlled and normally do not run continuously,
>but rather cycle on and off.

This I know. But when the whole thing is CLOSED, I cannot see the fan turning.
So I do not know if - when it is silent - it is okay and doing its work
properly, or if is shut off.
--
How a sect kills YOUR children

http://www.pharmamafia.com

Somewhere on teh intarwebs Ryan P. wrote:
> On 10/17/2009 5:35 AM, ~misfit~ wrote:
>> Somewhere on teh intarwebs Ryan P. wrote:
>
>>> I think its luck of the draw. I have a Compaq Presario R3000
>>> that I ran over with my car (accidentally) and the only thing I've
>>> ever had to do to it is replace the LCD screen (because of the car)
>>> and buy a new battery, because of age. Still works great, and I
>>> find it more responsive than my newer HP DV6000. Although its much
>>> heavier. :)
>>
>> LOL, this cracks me up! How do you run over a laptop accidently? Do
>> you use it for a parking brake and forgot to move it? Did you drive
>> over the couch it was on? Or are you just in the habit of leaving it
>> in the driveway? Hehee, amazing....
>
> It was during the process of packing up my truck while moving from my
> apartment to my new house. I had a whole armful of stuff, so I leaned
> the laptop case against the rear wheel, packed the truck, got
> distracted by something, took care of the issue, got in the truck,
> shifted into reverse, and didn't hear the laptop fall as the rear
> wheel stopped supporting it, but I did feel the front wheel roll over
> it as I backed up.
> But, thanks to ebay, $40 later, it was impossible to tell I ran over
> it!

Ahh, bad luck (and a bit of carelessness thrown in) then. I've fixed enough
laptops so that I've learned to never, even for 10 seconds, put one in such
a dangerous situation. No point making work for myself.

Still cracks me up though. Imagine explaining that to an insurance company.
"I accidently ran over my laptop". I don't think they'd wear it somehow.

Pleased you got it fixed though.
--
Shaun.

"Give a man a fire and he's warm for the day. But set fire to him and he's
warm for the rest of his life." Terry Pratchet, 'Jingo'.