Do computers have a shelf life?

[jacksonbb]

Would a laptop that is 10 years old but still sealed in the unopened box be just as good as it was 10 years ago? Or do electronics have a shelf life? Do things like circuits corrode over time and depreciate electronics? I've seen expiration dates on batteries. Do the other parts of a laptop also have a shelf life?

 

[master_shake_]

it'll be as good as it was 10 years ago.

the cmos battery might be dead though,

 

[Mike64]

The circuitry itself will be fine, but

a) the battery that powers the internal clock might be dead;

b) the rechargeable battery that powers the laptop overall might be dead; and most importantly,

c) while corrosion won't have "depreciated" the electronics, 10 years of advancing technology and dropping prices will certainly have depreciated its usefulness compared to current models, and of course, its resale value.

It will indeed be "as good as it was 10 years ago", but that's not saying very much unless it was a particularly advanced model at the time, and even if so, at best, it won't be "advanced" by today's standards. (If nothing else, presumably you'll want to upgrade the OS from Windows XP...)

 

[VirtualLarry]

10-year old laptop? If it's a mobile Core2 or something, those are still somewhat usable. Especially if that have an NVidia system chipset / IGP, or a discrete mobile GPU.

The battery will need to be replaced, as will the CMOS battery, if it has one.

 

[jacksonbb]

Thanks for the comments, guys. I appreciate it. I do understand that old technology will be outdated. But I'm wondering if it goes bad like a carton of leftover Kung Pao chicken in the back of a refrigerator and long forgotten.

I did some google searches and it seems the others have asked related questions...

How will the 3D-22 nanometer copper circuit lines in a modern microprocessor hold up over this amount of time? These circuit lines lines are so fine that the 22 nanometer width is only about 70 atoms.

http://www.indium.com/blog/electronics-with-40-year-shelf-life.php

Someone wrote a thesis on the shelf life of capacitors.

http://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc3104/m2/1/high_res_d/thesis.pdf

 

[Chaotic42]

Linus Tech Tips did a video about this, comparing a well used GTX 480 to a fresh out of the box 480. They noted no difference in performance.

 

[jacksonbb]

Thank you for sharing the video. It was an interesting test. The comparison of the two cards tested used vs unused but the benchmarks are also comparable with the benchmarks when the card was released for a comparison of performance over time... around 4.5-6 years iirc.

The video did say that "hard drives and SSDs will degrade over time" (around 6:11) but didn't go into details about other components

 

[Puffnstuff]

The OP didn't say whether or not he's actually in possession of such a beast but if it's a free item get it otherwise just pass on it. My laptop is almost 5 years old and dell/alienware don't support it beyond windows 7 and now amd has stopped gpu driver support for its graphics card and the cost of buying a replacement gpu is just too high. I don't plan on getting rid of it anytime soon as the core i7 cpu is still fast enough and even with sata 2 ports the ssd's are still fast enough for what I use it for.

 

[Mike64]

The video did say that "hard drives and SSDs will degrade over time" (around 6:11)

I didn't watch that video, but that statement basically sounds like an ignorant throwaway line. I would expect neither to "degrade" over any relevant time frame. Data stored on drives may degrade (willl degrade on an non-powered SSD), but apart from the potential issue of the capacitors you mention, over a very long time period, the hardware itself should remain solid for as long as could be relevant to most merely mortal human beings, especially sealed in protective wrapping and whatnot.

 

[mindless1]

Yes they have a shelf life, far more so with modern equipment than stuff made a couple decades ago.

1) CMOS battery will be dead or near enough.

2) Li-Ion battery pack will have drained to a non-recoverable state, practically speaking.

3) Electrolytic capacitors will have diminished function. They might re-form the foil if left powered on for a while (while most people would see a crash and turn it off instead, and in such a state, damage from overvoltage is more likely), or they might still be good enough to work considering there was no operational stress. Something made today will be less likely to have this issue as modern laptops tend to use solid/polymer capacitors in the switching power circuits that place the greatest demand on capacitors.

4) Hard drives will degrade. It's a mechanical device and needs to move every so often so metal migration and lubrication remains within check. That is not a guarantee that it won't work right after 10 years, but it cannot be assumed it will work correctly, still be within tolerances and not rapidly decay from excess bearing heat or wobble to cause head crash.

5) SSD will potentially degrade too but the problem is not isolated to SSD, rather the whole laptop as mentioned next.

6) Tin whiskers. Once the industry switched to lead free solder, anything with fine pitch solder leads and pads is prone to growing solder whiskers that cause electrical shorts. This is not corrosion, does not depend on external humidity or temperature extremes, although an ancient laptop built back when solder flux was rosin based instead of water soluble acid based, could have the flux absorb moisture form air and slowly cause corrosion, but while I can't put a date on when *most* of the industry switched away from rosin based solder, AFAIK every brand had by 10 years ago. Ironically something old enough to have rosin solder (or more often separate flux), would have lead based solder so no tin whiskers.

 

[jacksonbb]

Thank you for the interesting replies, guys. :thumbup: I had never heard of tin whiskers. Neat. Data lost is a topic that is of particular interest to archivists so there's a lot of info available. But I haven't previously seen much discussion about the life of other hardware/components. Perhaps it's because the hardware will be outdated long before it "expires" so it isn't given much attention. The 10 year old laptop was just a hypothetical that I used as an example. 10 years was chosen arbitrarily.

 

[Wall Street]

I have a 2004 laptop that is still in use daily as a 'browse internet from the sofa' machine. It still works fine except the battery is long since dead. The notable issue with 10 year old tech is that the internet in 2016 isn't the same as the internet was in 2004 and 'modern' web video uses codecs that chokes this thing to around 5 fps.

The 12 year old CPU, RAM, original thermal paste, capacitors, screen, hard drive and all other electronics are fine. Then again, my example is a thinkpad, so I would expect it to last longer than some other cheaper machines. On the other hand, you have a new in box example, whereas my laptop has actually had 12 years of use (although only the first 5-6 years were as a primary everyday machine).

 

[John Connor]

So why do satellites get redirected to the ocean for burn up?

 

[tortillasoup]

Would a laptop that is 10 years old but still sealed in the unopened box be just as good as it was 10 years ago? Or do electronics have a shelf life? Do things like circuits corrode over time and depreciate electronics? I've seen expiration dates on batteries. Do the other parts of a laptop also have a shelf life?

typically what expires are things like electrolytic capacitors. Some have worse designed capacitors than others. I took a motherboard out recently as a backup spare because the one in its place had failing capacitors. I was sorely disappointed to find out that the backup board that had never been open also had failed capacitors as well.


But most everything else, if not exposed to excessive temperatures or moisture should not be affected as they're all solid state circuitry. Hard Disk drives are another thing that could be prone to failure over time of non use but I haven't seen that yet.

 

[:emaN resU]

I have a Sony VAIO S360 that I got over 10 years ago. It still runs and has the original battery and it does hold a charge. It runs windows xp and I use it to program my cars computer. It has a large music library on it so I had it connected to a garage stereo up until recently that I used a couple times a week. Like above user this laptop struggles with modern websites but is usable.

 

[bryanl]

Electrolytic capacitors are rated for a shelf life of 2 years.

Hard disks are supposed to be run every 6 months.

I can't find anything about LCD storage life.

Replace very old lithium batteries even if they charge normally since they leach pure lithium metal that can cause a fire or explosion hazard.

 

[Oyeve]

I have a 2002 laptop that still has kazaa++Lite on it. I havent turned it on in years. Would be interesting if it still works.

 

[whm1974]

So why do satellites get redirected to the ocean for burn up?

They run out of fuel and most of them are in low earth orbit anyway.