Life expectancy of a 'new' refurbished Lenovo W520

Hello everyone!

I've recently bought a refurbished Lenovo W520, with a brand new SSD and new ram as well. The model dates back to 2011, and actually looks rather new in it's overall appearance.

These are bought from firms whose users, I assume, have probably used them less intensely and probably with greater care than the average user.

My question is; How long should I expect this machine to function? It already got what I assume to be around half a decade on its back, and while certain essential parts (SSD and Ram) are brand new, I'm still anxious about the longevity of the rest of it's internal components.

Thanks in advance!

- Philip

 

At least 3 years I guess, under normal circumstances. But you'd never know, it might vary depending on your usage. Overheating greatly reduces your laptop's life, so I suggest you do maintenance every now and then. Normally the first ones to break are the hard drives, but since you have a brand new SSD, your laptop's lifespan is increased significantly
But yeah, obsolescence is another issue of course.

 

Thanks for your reply!

Three years, I'm hoping for at least five (Since a university degree takes just that)

Apart from doing the usual clean ups, how does one prolong a laptops life and what kind of maintenance are you referring to?

- Philip

 

At least 2 to 3 years is reasonable. It's hard to say where a refurbished system has been, and whether it only needed software restored and added back to a perfectly working hardware system, whether it needed a keyboard replaced (light and easy fixes that any long-term laptop is fine to have done at any time), or if the refurbished system needed repair to the motherboard, a new cooling system, had an issue with a usb port, or the DC jack was loose and resoldered.

Little things like that which are unknown quickly become known if they are still an issue later on. Usually this is not the case, but unless the manufacturer/refurbisher tells you, there isn't a way to really know until then.

Usually it's just software and a few hardware upgrades to make it worth your while, but whenever there are preowned systems being purchased, there aren't too many ways to know whether or not the system has ever been bumped, dropped, or had other wear on the hardware which wouldn't be made known to the new buyer, even when the system passes recertification and is sold "like new" again according to factory standards.

I've had pretty good luck with refurbished systems, but I can work on them any time I need to, too. Users may not always be able to work on or repair things they see or find in a half-price refurbished system, or have a technical friend on hand to help them do so for cheap or for free. Normally a refurbished system should come with a minimum of a 6 month to 1 year warranty. If it doesn't, it could (and probably should) be a deal breaker at that point and the user should buy new if the hardware can't be guaranteed for at least that long of a time.

 

@IBMPC8088 "Normally a refurbished system should come with a minimum of a 6 month to 1 year warranty. If it doesn't, it could (and probably should) be a deal breaker at that point and the user should buy new if the hardware can't be guaranteed for at least that long of a time."

This is the rule of thumb for me when and if I want to buy refurbished! I bought a refurbished Panasonic point and shoot camera before, and warranty is the first thing I looked for, and the option to return!

 

Laptops are the sum of a bunch of components. Each component will have a different life expectancy. Usually the first thing to go is the battery, depending of the whole number of cycles that the battery has completed it could be near the end of its life. Even without use the battery degrades with time. You can use a program to check the battery's health. This will give you a reasonable time frame.

Another thing to go are hard drives, specially mechanical ones, since you say that you have a brand new SSD that's almost guaranteed to outlast the whole laptop, same with the RAM.

You weakest link here appears to be the battery, you could check if they still manufacture those and you can buy them new, because, as mentioned, buying used batteries makes no sense as they degrade in time anyway.

 

Your title is slightly misleading, as technically there is no such thing as a new refurbished laptop - it's either new or it isn't. Refurbished really just means that all parts are either in working order or have been replaced. Good question though, I've just bought a Lenovo and took out insurance and was wondering how long the life expectancy would be.

 

Well according to everyone refurbish isn't the way to go and new is best and one day the computer will die too. Guess we got to be careful when we buy our next laptop and thanks all for the educational advice and knowledge!

 

For second hand items, the standard here is 2 years of good and worry-free performance. However, any uesd electronic items particularly a computer cannot be guaranteed a long life. On the other hand, there are refurbished computers that last longer than expected. Our old computer was bought by our neighbor in 2009 at 5 years old then and is still functioning until now.