Elders [Alex Krokus]

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You feel sorry for ze little old computer. Zis is because you crazy. It is just a machine; it has no feelings.
It is working just as well as it was 10 years ago and capable of all the same things now as it was back then. Nothing has changed except your expectations of it. That's right, there's nothing wrong with it -- in reality, you're the problem.
You monster.
- Not really. As it’s been updated over the years with new features the OS has heavier usage on the hardware. Also if it’s still got a hard drive in there chances are it’s dying after 10 years
  
  Running an OS significantly newer than original on a computer gets filed under "expectations." Nobody removed their Amiga can't run Windows 98, either. If it is 10 years old, its original OS was Windows 8, updates for which ended in 2016 (or last year, for Windows 8.1). No new bloat after that!
  But even so, unless the computer in question is a netbook or something it'll be fine. For reference, I have a ThinkPad laptop that was manufactured in 2012 and I still use it daily. It runs Windows 10 just fine. Updates and all. The latest Corel suite, modern browsers, video editing, no problem. PC performance reached a bit of plateau coincidentally... about 10 years ago.
  The MTBF of even a middling consumer hard drive is, if we are being extremely uncharitable, 300,000 hours. That's 32 and a quarter years of continuous usage and there are vintage hard drives in circulation in perfect working order that are much, much older than that. The main thing this laptop is going to need help with is its battery, which probably is degraded a bit by now.
  
  I need a moment to process the fact that Windows 8 was 10 years ago
  
  But even so, unless the computer in question is a netbook or something it’ll be fine. For reference, I have a ThinkPad laptop that was manufactured in 2012 and I still use it daily. It runs Windows 10 just fine. Updates and all. The latest Corel suite, modern browsers, video editing, no problem. PC performance reached a bit of plateau coincidentally… about 10 years ago.
  even then you could just install something like linux on it, and it would probably be lighter than win7 which is what likely shipped with that machine, though i think some sported windows 8 later in the cycle.
  
  need help with is its battery, which probably is degraded a bit by now.
  Kingsener is your friend...
  Also, if windows bloat is bringing your old friend to its knees, time for linux!
  
  As it’s been updated over the years with new features the OS has heavier usage on the hardware.
  windows skill issue.
  Also if it’s still got a hard drive in there chances are it’s dying after 10 years
  too bad they soldered those to the motherboard in a ball and grid arrangement type deal, those suck to remove....
  This is kind of like buying a car and not changing the oil and tires and being mad when it totals and kills your family on the highway.
- Well actually, electronics age just like the rest of us, every electron that passes through wears down the component just a little more creating just a little more resistance with each passing use. So in effect the 10 year old laptop does have something resembling getting harder and harder to wake up
  
  Did you just make that up on the spot?
  
  The name to google is "electromigration".
  It's absolutely not what makes you old computer slow (neither are bad capacitors). But it may be what makes it stop working.
  
  But that is not caused by "every electron" and only happens under very specific conditions.
  
  have there been like studies on this? Or anything that shows any sort of relevant data about it? I've been curious what effect it has on manufactured stuff like this for a while now.
  
  ...maybe lmao
- Assuming that the software updates haven't slowed it down and that it's been kept clean of dust (which also causes it to throttle itself to avoid overheating).
- It is working just as well as it was 10 years ago
  Not if it's running Windows.
- Hello. Why are you French? Thank you!
  
  this comment is fucking brutal dude, i love it.
  
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBqhIVyfsRg
  
  Or german
  
  Swedish; it’s an ikea commercial from, idk, fifteen or twenty years ago iirc
- Hey aren't you that knife nerd?!
  
  You'll never pin a single thing on me, copper.
- in reality, you’re the problem.
  NO, IT'S THE TECH INDUSTRY, NOT ME, I'M PERFECTLY FINE!
- Idk man, in my experience laptops break down a hell of a lot faster than PCs
- Electronics most certainly age like you or I. A new off the shelf device will perform measurably better than an identical one with 10 years of wear.
  
  Silicon doesn't age friend. Heat might degrade circuits and harms processors by thermal deformation. But most electronics are designed to stay well under the temperatures that will harm them with throttling and heat management. So, unless you're incredibly negligent with maintenance or intentionally overclocking, most electronics have a way longer potential life span than people use them for. My 15 year old desktop computer was so beefy when I build it that today it still outperforms this year's off the shelf office units in raw speed and processing power, despite being physically about 12 times larger. It's only recently that new games started to tax it beyond performance goals (60fps at 1080p), but get a lower modest expectation (800p at 30 fps) and suddenly she is back in the game. Only thing I'm missing now is lack of on-board bluetooth connectivity and usb-c ports. Even if I were to build a new one, I bet the old beast could go on as a server for decades more.
  
  That's lovely. When is the last time you bought an electronic device made entirely of silicon including no capacitors, thermal past, electric motors for fans, etc, etc? Electronics may seem permanent, and yes they have an amazing shelf life, but chips do in fact degrade (see solid state ssds), and you're held back by your weakest link.

152 comments