This is for real.
I use a laptop for 99% of what I do; work and blogging. My laptop is starting to die in the same manner as my last lap top. The battery does not take a charge and now the connection made by the cord in the back of the machine is starting to have problems.
I spend about 75 hours a week on my lap top, seriously. Does anyone know, are laptops not meant for that kind of use? I am on the couch when I work with the computer on a pillow, on my lap. The set up is such that the cord is bent a little bit but it is not positioned in such a way where it seems like it would obviously break.
I may get a Mac but I need to find out if Schwab trading platform will work on a Mac or not.
The help I am asking for is whether the use I have described is a clear and obvious path to short life. Since both laptops have had the problem I have to wonder if it is a behavioral issue.
Any suggestions for especially durable laptops? After I get a new one, when I use it should I not plug it in and then charge it after the battery runs down?
Any help or input along these lines would be appreciated. Thank you.
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30 comments:
I'm not sure any of what i have to say will be applicable to your situation but FWIW.
The best way to manage your battery as far as I know is to let it run down until your laptop sleeps automatically and then fully charge. On the other hand, if you keep it plugged in most of the time that shouldn't cut down your battery life that much.
I use my Powerbook G4 in much the same way as you describe, on a pillow in my lap but only about 2 hrs/day, 5hrs/day at our beach house a few weeks a year. No problems after 2 years. My Sony Viao was used for 3 yrs in the same manner.
Have you looked into the Panasonic Tough Books?
As for Schwab I don't know about Macs but Fidelity's Active Trader is Windows only which is one reason I still have a desktop PC but with the new Intel Macs you have the options of Boot Camp or Parallel's multi OS software. You might double check your satellite ISP's compatability with Macs as well if you still use that.
I have had the same problem with the power cord.My yse is the same amount and way as yours.
to solve the power cord problem i have taped the cord along the bottom of the cover so as to relieve the presseure on the cord where it plugs into the laptop. while a portion of the cord is always attached to the laptop, it no longer breaks.
As to the battery, i have been told that letting it frequently discharge and then recharging it , is the best way to maintain its life.
Roger
A few comments-When using your laptop on a pillow make sure that the inlet and outlet for the cooling fan are not blocked. almost all laptops have a fan that cools the processor, motherboard, hard drive, etc. If you block the inlet or outlet for the airflow the machine runs hotter. A hotter machine equals shorter life.
The best way to maximize the life of the battery (probably lithium ion) is to make sure that you completely charge and discharge it at least twice a week (based on 75 hours use/week). Start this early in the life of the machine/battery. This means run it on the battery until it dies and then fully recharge. This will ensure that the full potential of the battery remains available for as long as possible. Using the machine with the power cord all the time will cause the battery to develop a very short life very quickly.
Thanks for all your great advice and commentary.
A newbie
Here are some good tips on extending battery life:
http://laptopmag.com/Features/Five-Tips-For-Better-Notebook-Battery-Life.htm
Note, you only have to fully charge and fully discharge once according to this article.
My son and a couple good friends have purchased Acer's within the past year and like them a lot. I use both PCs and a Mac G5 desktop but I have zero experience with the Mac laptops.
i use my laptop 60-80 hours a week. i end up replacing mine every 18-24 months. partially because of all the use, but partly because i am a developer and i constantly need to upgrade my hardware to keep up with the requirements of software development and database engines.
The biggest threat to laptops is heat. I use my laptop on my lap, but i have a laptop cooler (google "laptop cooler" and you'll find a bunch) with fans that run off my usb port. Makes a world of difference.
Also, i take my battery out and keep it in a cool place, unless i am on the road.
Batteries have a finite number of charge cycles. Also batteries will have a longer life if fully drained before recharged, though this is becoming less of an issue in modern batteries.
I currently own an HP dv9010 17"-screen laptop and I love it. My previous one was a Dell Inspiron and it worked well too. I tried a no-name in between to save few bucks and ended up giving it away and getting the HP.
Dell and HP often have discounts and rebates. If you have a Costco near you then you can buy top of the line HP laptops for under $1200.
As I said, heat is the enemy. The factors that contribute to the heat are the screen size, bigger uses more power and thus generate more heat, and graphics cards. Discrete, top of the line graphics cards use up lots of power and thus generate more heat.
If you are not into games, get a 15.4" screen with integrated graphics card that uses shared memory and you should be all right.
Pillows are very dangerous. Air circulation is EXTREMELY important for cooling laptops due to their form factor. You definitely want a solid surface underneath. A laptop cooler with air channels (grooves in the body) does the trick.
Not sure about your power cord, you are probably just mistreating it. usually the part where the cord connects to the brick falls apart first. i am sure a little care would solve any issue with the cord.
Laptops are like sports cars where desktop computers are trucks. The design compromises to get from a desktop computer to a laptop make for a stressed and high strung little beast.
I sort of do lap top computing. I have a Compaq tower that resides in a cubby hole in my desk. I sit leaned back in my comfy chair with the keyboard on my lap and the mouse and its pad on a book on the arm of the chair.
Fred
I second what Sami said.
Also, some laptops have software that will help you optimize the battery life and more importantly set the recharge threshold. I set my low (~70%) so if the does not constantly partial charge...
Your battery might be kaput anyways so you might want to get a new battery assuming that you laptop itself is fine. only use this new battery when you travel...
Be careful with taking the battery out and having a dodgy power cord! I tried the "take out the battery things" but knocked the power cord... of course the laptop turned off...
FWIW, I am been a fan of thinkpads and they are pretty durable... Not sure about the newest Lenovo designed line though...
AI
Daughter in law who is a CPA and travels a lot swears by her MAC. She is a California girl.
Son has had his Panasonic at sea, in Iraq, in the jungles of the Phillipines and South America. It is still working.
I have a Dell. Friends hate them, but mine has worked smoothly. I always back up my data, just in case of a Dell meltdown.
I learned quite a bit reading other posts here. Thanks, everyone.
A few additional points about power cords. First, the female sockets (the thing you plug into) on these things are small and poorly made. In the 1950’s sockets on audio gear (as an example) where made with strong, long lasting, steel spring contacts. With electricity it’s important to have a tight contact, steel spring contacts keep their pressure essentially forever. Alas, modern equipment uses cheep (lossy) copper contacts on female sockets. Little copper contacts go weak, fairly quickly. They should be made of steel on one side and bonded copper on the other to avoid rusting over time and provide a decades long tight fit. It is possible to open the computer case and rebend the socket contact to restore pressure. But the more you bend copper the weaker it becomes.
As for batteries, they all die or become very anemic after a year or two. Discharging fully, after the first charge, will allow your battery to function normally, but what is normal? At best a couple of years use, then the manufacture has got you, and charges double the honest cost for a replacement battery. One way around this is to buy an external battery that plugs into your DC "in" jack. Here is a useful link that describes the concept:
"http://www.mobilephi.com/product/battery/external_laptop_battery.htm"Shop around to find the lowest price and be sure to match the DC voltage on your laptop with the voltage range on your external battery. You can find the voltage printed on your computers power cord brick. Most are about 12 volts.
IBM Thinkpads are considered, by many, to be the best.
Better yet, buy a small desktop computer and get a wireless keyboard and mouse. Use your desktop most of the time, use your laptop occasionally.
That should be:
http://www.mobilephi.com/product/battery/external_laptop_battery.htm
The newer ThinkPads from Lenovo/IBM have battery optimizers... they can do the battery reconditioning overnight for you. They also have a few optimized settings for whether or not to fully charge the battery, etc. that can help extend the life of the battery. I have a T60 with the big battery (9 cell) and the battery lasts over 4 hours. Half the time when I'm moving about I don't even take a power cord with me.
You should be able to get a new battery and a new power cord for much less than the cost of a new laptop if the rest of the computer is fine... And you'll save the time and hassle of setting everything up on a new computer again.
Try a lap-desk that has a hard top to it. If you use a pillow, the laptop won't have much air circulation... there are little rubber feet on the bottom of most laptops that keep it slightly off of a desk, but a pillow eliminates that benefit. Laptop coolers are good too if you want to go that route.
As for the power cord -- they shouldn't wear out that easily; it should last at least two years though I've had several for more than 4 years now. It is possible you have undue weight on it if the cord is somewhat taught between you and the wall outlet. Try an extension cord/surge suppressor to bring the power cord closer and with less weight on the connection to the laptop.
StreetSmart Pro from Schwab is Windows only. You probably can get it to run on a Mac, though you have to compare that risk with everything else. I know I wouldn't run an unsupported platform for something as important as my trading -- but you can have the website as a failback, depending on your tolerance and need to trade rapidly.
Oh, and IBM used to have a thing where shareholders got special pricing on ThinkPads... not sure if that is still around after the sale to Lenovo.
Good luck.
Lenovo/IBM is the one to get... if you like small and light, the X series is great... if you dont mind a little weight the T series is good... I use an X series machine about 15 hours a day on average and its never missed a beat... as another poster said they have a built in optimizer which will keep the charge at 98% when plugged in so you dont have to alter your work to condition the battery... the Thinkpad is by far the best laptop, far better than an Apple even... the design and build is just way ahead of the other manufacturers even after the IBM sale to Lenovo... the machines may not be in the league of the old IBM tanks but they are so far superior to other manufacturers that if you need a laptop, there is really no serious alternative
Andrew J
Roger, I've been using an iBook since the dual-USB model introduced in 2001. I can't say that I've been using the same iBook, as I've been through 5 batteries, 4 power cords, 3 RAM chips, and probably 5 motherboards ... across 2 laptops. I'm still using a G3 though. I do a lot of sitting around like you describe, and eventually the power cord goes to tatters around the junction before the male connector which plugs into the computer. It's happened to 3 of mine already. Thankfully, all you need to do is replace the cord.
If you do go the Apple route, don't do it without their extended AppleCare warranty. I won't buy another Apple product without it, nor would I recommend anyone else do so. I don't think that Apple is any better or worse than any other manufacturer. Laptops are not nearly as durable as I'd like them to be. They're far too disposable.
As for your Schwab trading platform, it probably makes a difference whether it's done in Java or not. I've been fighting the good fight to convince the financial world that traders work on Apple systems for a long time. There used to be some major bugs in the javascript implementation (swing) in OSX, but imho java on OSX is top notch nowadays. Now I only run into problems with Windows Media files, for things like conference calls.
I use a ThinkPad R50e as my trading/personal office and have been very happy with it's performance.
The battery life has gone from 3 hours down to 2 but I haven't had any other issues with the computer, a real solid travel laptop imo.
I spend around 70hrs a week on my laptop as well and it has accrued plenty of travel miles as well.
My laptops:
Dell - 5 yrs
IBM Thinkpad 5 yrs
Mac Powerbook 3 yrs
For Windows, IBM Thinkpad was my favorite. Rugged, light, dependable.
Powerbooks are also great machines, well-designed, elegant - in a class by themselves, really. Mac OS is also elegant, but requires a little re-learning on some things - mousing is subtly different. Consider keeping your Windows machine until you're fully comfortable on the Mac.
Another tack: diagnose the power cord problem - might be a simple repair. With that and a new battery (and perhaps some Windows housecleaning) you'll be back to the performance you had when it was new. .
Get the warranty extension for any laptop - they're just subject to more mishap than a desktop, and repairs are always more expensive.
Roger--you've received excellent comments. Remember that rechargeables have some weird memory issue. So if the battery never goes to 0 and then it is recharged, it ends up with some half life like your cell phone.
Definitely get a laptop cooler. My daughter was complaining about her laptop's degraded performance. A $30 cooler (that runs off the PC's power through USB) worked.
Pillows--a no-no. Go to the following link ad see some of the lap tools that levenger has.
http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=category=5-344|level=2-3|pageid=1096|Special=featured|Lnk=txt
my two cents: i recently converted to a mac over a year ago, i'll (at this point in time) never go back, i swear by them. however i cant answer your question about the schwab platform... (and i know this is most likely the most pressing issue) none the less they are tough, the batteries last a long time, they dont crash, and you dont have to reboot all that often, the screens are very pleasurable to look at and the whole OS is just a lot more fun. the relearning mentioned goes quickly and once complete is makes it all the more enjoyable... oh yes, the new isight will make the broadcasts easy to do...
good luck!
Check out www.lapinator.com I've had a Lapinator for about 6 months. Portable insulatedLaptop Computer desk. Fits in your computer bag too. I wouldn't be with out it.
Go with the Apple and you wont be let down. I would call Schwab Trader services and make sure they are comp with Apple IBooks.
kingofsouth
For the application you are describing, a semi-rugged panasonic toughbook (CF-74) seems be appropriate:
http://www.panasonic.com/business/toughbook/notebook-computers.asp
A couple of comments. You can think of toughbook like a Treasury Bond; not the fastest, flashiest (13.3") but definetly the toughest. Also, although it is a Windows XP machine, some applications do not function perfectly on them. Finally, you may want to wait for the lunch of Vista (you may get better pricing or a better computer {mac or win). Best of luck.
CA
I like Thinkpad. I had dell and hp, both had power cord problems as you discribed (those cord are just poorly designed).
You want an IBM ThinkPad (Now Lenovo) no question, nothing comes close, Apple does not come close, there is a reason that they are more expensive.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLwWxVpXhRA
I have a 8 year old Thinkpad that can barely run any new programs but still works. Dropped multiple times and even caught fire once!
They usually do not have the latest media features like a Sony but they are made %100 for business users.
You don't want the Panasonic unless you plan on using a laptop outdoors, it lacks way too many features.
Thinkpad:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ENQ1dUavI8
This videos are no joke.
as for OSX and Windows software: you have 2 choices, either you use BootCamp (which comes with your new Mac) to decide which OS to boot (aka you can install XP, Vista,...), or you install Parallels, which will let you run Windows and OSX side by side. Check out the 'coherence mode' here: http://youtube.com/watch?v=tKsW0v90zRg
As for hardware: most notebooks are using the same batteries as we know since the battery callbacks earlier this year. Considering your usage, any battery won't live longer than 18 months. Cooling will help though.
Finally, I'd keep an eye on the next version of OSX, which is likely to be released in the next 3 months. If you liked the iPhone interface, imagine what the next OSX will do. Also, new MacBook Pro will be released this spring (Apple updates them twice a year, but the last updates were rather small, so we'll probably see a major update next), which is why I suggest to wait for a new release (which will then come with the new OSX) and stick to your old notebook for the remaining 2 months.
The Labinator is a cool portable device. But this kind a lap table might be good for use in the home on your couch:
http://www.stacksandstacks.com/html/11494_table-mate-woodgrain-portable-table.htm
Here is one as well; but it's way overpriced:
http://www.levenger.com/PAGETEMPLATES/PRODUCT/Product.asp?Params=category=5-22|pageid=734|level=2-3|special=content|Lnk=Img
Want a truly bullet-proof laptop?
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/04-07-2004/0002148068&EDATE=
More rugged units:
http://www.ruggednotebooks.com/aboutus.asp
I understand the profit margin is much higher on laptops than on desktops. Therefore it's in the manufacturers' interest to keep the laptop life expectancy shorter.
http://www.iesproducts.com/platforms-laptop-beanbag.html
This will allow you to use the lap top on your lap (there's an idea) without overheating.
DL
Hi Roger,
http://www.laptopbattery.net/notebookbatteries_life.html
http://www.laptopbattery.net/
Hope those links will help you...
Daniel,
Finance Guide 101
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