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How long did your macbook or macbook pro last?

plinden said:
My wife is still using a rev A MacBook from May 2006.
Click to expand...

Me too, although the AppleCare was totally worth it after...

1 logic board replacement, 2 power adapters, 3 batteries, 1 topcase/keyboard replacement, and 2 SuperDrives. The third battery has just failed prematurely and now the screen inverter seems to be on its way out.

So I'm not sure if that constitutes a genuinely "still working" computer.

I just upgraded to a 13" MBP - muuuuch nicer and will hopefully be trouble-free.
 
I'm currently using a Macbook (1,1) Core Duo 2 GHZ from September 2006. It's holding up ok. I'm thinking of replacing it, mainly because I routinely use the computer in ways that require more RAM than can be put into this MB. Performance-wise, I'm otherwise still quite happy with it and wouldn't really feel the need to replace it. Unfortunately, it also gets quite hot - seemingly more and more so with time. I've recently cleaned out its fan casing that had a lot of gunk stuck in it, and that has helped a bit.

Over the course of its life, a hard drive, that I bought myself, died on me and was subsequently replaced by Hitachi. I also did have to pay for a new battery at some point.

A few things had to be repaired or replaced over time, but at least Apple paid for it all despite the fact that I didn't buy Apple Care.

Within warranty:
  • The power cable frayed, at the end where you plug it into the computer
  • The Superdrive died

Out of warranty:
  • after about 1,5 years: cracked Top case
  • after about 2,5 years: Again - cracked top case & display bezel
(The display bezel is starting to crack ever so slightly again where the distance holder bars are located, but the latest top case has held up fine so far.)

I'll probably replace this Macbook with a MBP one of these days, but I'm not in any rush. I can also expect to still get about €400 for mine in case I sell it, which is pretty good after almost 4 years.


My parents own a Macbook 1,1 from early 2006, which they still use as a secondary computer. Its top case is heavily discolored, but at least it never cracked. Apple seem to have changed the material for it by the end of 2006. The Macbook's screen has started to often flicker for a short while directly after wake-up, but otherwise it continues to work fine.

My sister is still using a 15" Powerbook from 2004. Its hard drive died at one time and had to be replaced. Also, the battery was recalled by Apple and replaced free of charge. One of the RAM slots seems to have died after about 4 years, which has limited the maximum amount of RAM for the machine. Nothing else really wrong with it - still fulfills its duty and looks fantastic, too. Tiger's running on it which actually feels quite speedy on that laptop.
 
G4 Titanium PowerBook

I have a G4 Titanium PowerBook 15" 667GHZ I've upgraded the HD to 250GB 1.5GB RAM and a dual layer burner about 4yrs ago. I just purchased an i7 17" w/256GB SSD 8GB RAM. I passed along the PowerBook to my wife and it's still doing great. I take very good care of my gear and this PowerBook is in really good condition no scratches or dings. The hinge has some wear marks around the hinge area but functions perfectly.

I am a user that uses his gear daily and to the bitter end I still have a 1st gen iPod and iPhone that work perfectly and still in use. Take care of them and they will take care of you.
 
Still running my good old iBook G4, must be 5 years old now. She has 1 GB of CTO ram though. Just need to stay away from YouTube HD... or generally anything with "HD" :p Even my photo editing goes fine with Pixelmator and a 20" LCD. But really, nothing replaced or even needed fixing, original hard drive and everything. I've been simply amazed. Now I'm worried about the reliability of the more recent Apple stuff... anyone ready to reassure me?

Just about to pull the trigger on a new baseline i5 MBP. Paying as much as I am, it better last me as long as the plastic iBook! Now, according to GeekBench, I'm about to get at least 7 times the processing power (among everything else)... wtf! Lightroom, here I come! What's that? 3.0 already? Ooh am I late...
 
Got my MBP rev A on June 06, so it's 4 years old now. Changed logic board twice in the fist year for graphic card issues; upgrade RMA (2GB) and HD(320 GB 7200 rpm). I'm still using it daily although the battery is not charging normally and only last for less than one hr with a full charge. Also, there's weird water marks on the edges of the screen, all four edges. I don't want to get it fixed since I will definitely order a new MBP this year, however I might wait for the rev B with USB 3.0 and better graphic card. And I will prefer the option of matt screen in regular res. Lucky, I ordered a new imac for my wife, so I took over her old rev A iMac, it has pretty much same spec as my MBP, but has zero problem!:D
 
6 years +

My early 2004 iBook G4 is still running (typing on it now). In the 6 years I've owned it, I upgraded the ram to 1.25 GB, put in a 160 GB HDD, and replaced the speakers.

It is slow and so I will likely get a new MacBook Pro soon, but I intend to keep the iBook as a second computer. The battery, which is original, needs replacing as it only gets half capacity.
 
I'm still using my PowerBook G4 1.33

It has taken a crash of a bookend onto the speaker (dented) surface 4 years ago which also cracked a key cap but has held up extremely well.
I am on my second battery, a new AC adapter with frayed and smoked out, and the Superdrive is flaky about releasing discs, but otherwise it has been great. Oh and the screen hinge has been wonky. Have to put something on the right corner to keep the lid from popping open.

Typing on it now, though I just last week opted for a MacBook Pro 17 - i7.
The G4 is a 6+ year workhorse but has past its prime for video and anything graphic intensive.

Of the 11 Macs I have owned and more or less retired since 1985 (still have 9 of them), from the original 128K to my recent 24" iMac, only one has needed service and all will still boot. Two are older Black PowerBook G3 (Lombard - bronze keys) and the PowerBook Duo 230.

Got to call that more than good luck I think.

~S
 
IMO the Mac laptops really don't last as long as non-Apple hardware. I'm on my 3rd. I had 2 different Powerbooks and now I have a new 17" MBP and a Mini. My prior 2 were used about 5 years each before they died. I've never had a PC laptop die. I've probably had 15 over the years. I still have a Compaq (yes, before HP), a Micron, and a Thinkpad that are still alive and kicking.

With that being said the prior dead laptops were not the new unibodys. The new machines seem to be built a lot better than the prior Powerbooks. I'm hoping this MBP will last much longer.

For the record I had to bring in my late 2009 (current model) Mini because the audio stopped working. Turns out the ribbon cable managed to work itself loose for some reason. On PC's I've owned a lot more and besides a power supply and hard drive here and there they pretty much never die.
 
Late 2008 MBP bought NOV 06 2008 lasted until May 16 2010. MLB failure on second one now. Check my post Colonel Blink Blink. Not sure I will ever buy a portable computer again:(
 
In general if you look after Apple stuff and as long as you didn't get a lemon, it should last a good while.

1st Gen iPhone is still working perfectly and I routinely get between 4-6 days in between charges. My 3 and a half year old MBP works perfectly, looks as good as the day it was bought and runs all the latest software pretty well. It did need a Logic board replacement which was covered under Applecare, as was the battery replacement as the first one's performance was also sub par.

A lot of people complain about the Apple tax and their stuff does obviously cost more. But in my experience it lasts longer and more importantly stays useful for longer as well.
 
3 years. have had to replace cracked palm rest twice in that time (both covered by apple care) but no other issues. is excellent and plan on keeping this until the next gen macbook! :)
 
I'm sitting with my dads old Dell precision m60. the screen constantly flickers, it won't charge unless your twirl the charger around in the socket for 5 minutes, and the trackpad is the size of my thumb nail and its slowly loosing its sensitivity! :) I cannot wait to get my 13 MBP. (25 days!!):p
 
khunsanook said:
Me too, although the AppleCare was totally worth it after...

1 logic board replacement, 2 power adapters, 3 batteries, 1 topcase/keyboard replacement, and 2 SuperDrives. The third battery has just failed prematurely and now the screen inverter seems to be on its way out.

So I'm not sure if that constitutes a genuinely "still working" computer.

I just upgraded to a 13" MBP - muuuuch nicer and will hopefully be trouble-free.
Click to expand...

Wow! Did you call customer service and tell them to replace your computer? My computer had an uneven/dark spotted screen, top case replacement, battery replacement, audio jack replacement, logic board replacement, and it came back once with the camera cable disconnected. I called customer service after the logic board replacement last week still didn't fix a sleep issue and they're sending me a unibody MBP! It should be arriving tomorrow hopefully. I never thought I would be one of those people who would eventually get their computer replaced by Apple. It's a bit sad how much trouble I had to go through and how bad their quality has become.

PS. All this happened in the span of 2 years so get AppleCare! I can't stress it enough. It seems if you get a good Mac, it lasts. If you get a lemon, no amount of fixing will help.
 
The whole point of a mac is that you can actually save money because you can keep using it for years, whereas with a pc (except for your fancy alien wear ;)) you pretty much have to replace it every 4. If you upgrade to more ram and then in 4 years an ssd (hopefully it'll be cheaper by then) your computer will still be faster than most pc's.
 
2007 15" MBP just had its logic board fail, fortunately in the last month of AppleCare. Apple fixed it. I hope everything else keeps working!
 
I have one MacBook Pro that is used as a family computer that is about 4 years old and runs like a champ ... but I can tell you from surfing the forums for several several months that there are plenty of Mac folks on this forum that are on Apple laptops that are approaching 10 years in age!

Apple makes awesome laptops!
 
Still rocking my 15inch - 2GB RAM, 2.16ghz MPB from 2006. I do web development for a living and I can't come up with a good enough excuse to get rid of it.

Still blazingly fast on Snow Leopard for common tasks like multitasking, movies, music, photo editing, etc. The only difference I notice in speed compared to the i7 iMac we've got lying around is when compressing video or processing XML.

I can be pretty rough with my laptops and I have to say this one has held up fairly well. I've only had to replace two items over the past 4 years:

- the HDD went out at about 1yr 5mo (comp froze after bringing it back from screensaver, when I restarted, my OS was toast and the drive had unfixable errors)

- and my SuperDrive got in the habit of continually ejecting CDs at about 3yr 2mo, so I elected to replace that.

Combining the cost of those two items would still have been less than AppleCare if I were to have purchased it. I now have an SSD in the MBP and it does some things quicker than the new stock MBPs :). Overall, I'm pretty happy.
 
I have a white macbook from april 2007, and everything about it is still perfect. I've taken extremely good care of it, and have absolutely no problems--it works as well as when I first took it out of the box.

The LCD screen just seems a bit dim but that's bound to happen to any laptop after years of use. Otherwise, everything else is fine; the dvd burner still burns and reads perfectly fine.

Only real changes I made to the device were the hard drive (upgraded from the original 80GB) and the RAM (it initially came w/ 1GB).
 
Dgpsx7 said:
I would like to know your experiences on how long your Macbooks and MBPs lasted. I plan on keeping my 13" MBP for around 4 years. Am I expecting too much?

Please state the model or specs of your macbook or MBP and how long it lasted. Please include details of what problems you had during the life of your laptop (e.g. hard drive failed, logic board, etc..)
Click to expand...

PowerBook G4 667MHz lasted for 20 months until screen broke (physical damage, not to blame Apple for it)

PowerBook G4 1.25GHz lasted for 40 months until I sold it (no worries ever)

MacBook Pro 2.2GHz still going strong after 37 months but I'm tempted to buy a new one which has "10 hour" battery compared to this old less-than-two-hours-of-realworld-use garbage that would need to be replaced.

So yes, I would think it is fair to expect using that MBP for a long time. Unless *you* break it, it should last, and unless *you* begin to think of needing a new one, it should serve you well.


EDIT:

To add to this, my father has had an iBook G3 600MHz since 2002 and it's still great for livingroom web surfing and such. That's 8 years and counting! Though he replaced it with a MacBook last year, it was his primary computer for 7ish years and the only reason he upgraded was constantly full hard drive in which he became tired of moving stuff to external drive(s) all the time.
 
I've had my mid-2007 Core 2 Duo Macbook Pro for just under 4 years and it has needed two logic board replacements, one new keyboard, a superdrive replacement and one new battery in that time. Having said that, all of those were covered 100% under AppleCare and the machine runs pretty much the same as the day I bought it. I would consider myself a pretty heavy user and I take it everywhere so I've been very very pleased with it's longevity.

That's not to say I'm not tempted by the new Sandy Bridge models though... :)
 
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