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DOS was not invented yet when I built it. Nor was the PC.
I have lived with several Zen masters - all of them were cats.
His last invention was an evil Lasagna. It didn't kill anyone, and it actually tasted pretty good.
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Cp-Coder wrote: I wonder what the average age is for computers that belong to Code Project members?
Since I've started dabbling with Linux, I've been known to collect laptops from anyone who wants to get rid of them. Reasons generally range from "it's getting old and slow, I want something new" and "it's infected with viruses and not worth anyone's time to try to rebuild". Of course if your goal is to blow away the OS and don't care about the data, the presence of a virus isn't much of a problem. So I collect old laptops (and 2.5" SATA drives if the bay is easy enough to reach, just to swap the OS).
I like to try out various Linux distributions, and some of them simply don't like virtualization environments, so I use physical laptops for those. Since a lot of Linux distributions are much less demanding than Windows, most of them perform just fine.
I think the oldest laptop I have right now that still sees frequent use is about 15 years old (it's still got a "designed for XP" sticker). It's the first laptop I was handed when I started my current job; it was already a few years old when I got it, and I've been there for 12 years now (it's long been returned as it was no longer suitable as my daily driver, and the boss was going to put it at the curb during the last purge). It spent the summer in the gazebo in the backyard, and I've spent a number of weekend afternoons using it for general browsing and the like. Except maybe for bootup time, I had very little reason to complain about performance.
In terms of towers, I still have a Pentium III, but that hasn't been powered on in years (though as I last left it, it was functional). I have another Core 2 Duo-based tower hosting a bunch of RAIDed drives that I only power on once a year or so to update an additional backup set. No need for speed to do that.
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I hear there has been great advances in sock technology in the last 25 years :P
On a more serious note, I was driving an old car and last year upgraded to a more modern one. It's definitely much nicer to drive, especially with things like aircon and other small luxuries. Both cars got me from a to b, but it's more comfy in the newer car.
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It's a fan. Cpu, case or power supply.
As long as it's making noise, you're ok.
If it ever goes quiet, whatever fan was making noise has stopped and what it was to cool is going to overheat unmercifully. Then you must shut it off and have it serviced or replace it.
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Computers are powered by smoke. If the smoke escapes, they quit.
My main machine is 5 years old, I recently purchased a 6 year old workstation to control the surveillance cameras (BlueIris software). We have a Dell server in the office that is about 10 years old, runs 2 VM's 24/7 (ESXi).
I agree with the thought of fan noise. Peel the labels back on the fans and give them a drop of oil.
Lou
If you can keep your head while those about you are losing theirs, perhaps you don't understand the situation.
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It will be ok if the new computer has the right color 
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Do computers smoke electronic cigarettes?
Apart from my bad jokes, my wife is like that too. I'm thinking on buying a new "shared" laptop (hers is decrepit, mine is too but I have a recent performant desktop PC) to replace both for the same reasons.
GCS d--(d+) s-/++ a C++++ U+++ P- L+@ E-- W++ N+ o+ K- w+++ O? M-- V? PS+ PE- Y+ PGP t+ 5? X R+++ tv-- b+(+++) DI+++ D++ G e++ h--- r+++ y+++* Weapons extension: ma- k++ F+2 X
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Cp-Coder wrote: So there is no need to replace the machine till it catches on fire?!
Her being very frugal is fantastic, but I wonder if I shouldn't just surprise her for Xmas?
As long as she's not frugal to the point where she doesn't see the need for you to replace the smoke alarm batteries (which you will probably want functional when the computer does catch on fire)...
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... than to speak and remove all doubt.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: ... than to speak and remove all doubt.
She always reminds me to answer brief, and to only answer, not to speak.
Still I always manage to remove that doubt, even without speaking much 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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Yes || No || Maybe - I like to cover all bases 
modified 8-Dec-19 15:17pm.
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you are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike
"I have no idea what I did, but I'm taking full credit for it." - ThisOldTony
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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Contrariwise, I'm in the Ice cream aisle.
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Keyboard not found?! 
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I've been using a WD external spinner as a 'data drive' for the last 2 years. Up to now, it's worked great, mostly plugged into my main system, but also travelling with the laptop as needed...such as yesterday. This morning when plugging it in to my main system, Windows complains that it is unreadable or corrupted! 
I'm now scanning it with Defender (going on 2 hours now) as a preliminary to trying anything else. The 'Estimated time remaining' got down to < 11 minutes (about an hour in) but has since been increasing as the number of files scans flies past 2.5M. 
I intend to try chkdsk once the Defender scan is complete...if it ever does. (time remaining still climbing)
So, back to the subject line. Given the current price/GB, performance, and reliability of SSDs, I highly doubt that I will ever buy another spinner. Even if I'm able to recover the current drive, I don't trust it anymore and will be replacing it asap.
Question: Has anyone here actually experienced a failure with an SSD? Just last year, I retired my first one (64GB Patriot) after 5 years as a server OS drive, not due to failure, but as part of the server upgrade. Personally, I've not had any issues whatsoever with them.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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kmoorevs wrote: Question: Has anyone here actually experienced a failure with an SSD?
Yo (Yes and No).
No because the laptop continues working as always, no performace lost, no error messages or whatever I would say it is having problems. Several checks successful, diagnostic tools found nothhing...
But yes, because I don't know why (and I have tested a lot of things) I can't do a successfull image anymore. I mean:
Same SSD has been in Lappie, since I gave it to my wife. I have done my standard procedure a couple of years (meaning... restore image once or twice a year, updating what needed to be updated and doing a new image to restore from next time). But somewhen some months ago... it stop restoring from the backups. I can do them, they are OK if I scan with the ghost emulator, but every try I have made to restore has been unsuccessfull.
I now sync the data partition with external drive every X days, but System partition is "in the wild mode"
Same SSD serie (a bigger model) is on my pc and nothing...
kmoorevs wrote: Up to now, it's worked great, mostly plugged into my main system, but also travelling with the laptop as needed...such as yesterday. This morning when plugging it in to my main system, Windows complains that it is unreadable or corrupted!
I have had similar messages randomally after using the USB-Drives in other system.
Win 7 offers to "check", "restore" or "do nothing". I select "do nothing", save content to the pc, do a fast format... message is gone next time I plug the stick in.
With tiny USBs, no issue, with bigger ones I just keep hitting the "do nothing" until I have time, mood and space to move the content to another place so I can do a fast format.
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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Didn't Richard Nixon once store a short audio clip on one?
modified 8-Dec-19 14:20pm.
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: Didn't Richard Nixon once store a short audio clip on one?
Not sure the drive would have the failure in that case! 
BTW, I have HRC's private email server in my basement.
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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A few ideas:
If you look for a reliable SSD, take a long hard look at the Samsung Pro series (not their EVO drives). The pro series make use of a slightly different technology, that is proprietary to Samsung as far as I know, and that is supposed to live longer than the regular SSD drives. They are, however, more expensive.
I have had two SSDs fail utterly over the past six or so years. They do not have an unlimited number of write cycles before failing, but I have never had a Samsung Pro fail on me.
I also firmly believe in WD Black drives for spinning disks, and had just a couple develop bad sectors over the years. However, you have a good chance of recovering most of the drive when you run chckdsk /r. I have never been able to recover a bad SSD in this way. When they die they die good!
Best of luck!
modified 8-Dec-19 13:49pm.
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 Thanks, just the type info I was looking for.
Indeed, chkdsk /f recovered the drive and contents. 
"Go forth into the source" - Neal Morse
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kmoorevs wrote: Question: Has anyone here actually experienced a failure with an SSD?
Not yet, but one of the three should be close to failing.
All three are mostly used for reading; installed applications on there. For data I use pendrives, attached to the router. Cheap and easy to replace, and the SSD's live longer if you don't write that often.
Still got a 1Tb spinner in the main machine - it's a gaming machine built by someone who is good at that stuff. The spinners work well in an environment that doesn't involve moving them. If it moves, you want a drive without moving parts.
Did not get the RAID-pendrives working yet. Once it does, it won't be very fast, since it is limited by a USB2 hub. In the end, that's where I want my data
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
"If you just follow the bacon Eddy, wherever it leads you, then you won't have to think about politics." -- Some Bell.
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kmoorevs wrote: Question: Has anyone here actually experienced a failure with an SSD?
Yeah, my work laptop always had an SSD C drive and a HDD D drive.
When I quit my job I bought the laptop and it had to be formatted.
After that I only had a C drive, but I didn't think much of it (I just thought I had multiple partitions before, which were now removed to one big partition).
However, my laptop often failed to start after that and when it did it took minutes instead of the usual seconds.
Every morning was a struggle to start the laptop...
So I called Dell support and it turned out my old C was an SSD and my new C was the HDD.
The SSD got busted for some reason and never could be read after the format.
A Dell engineer replaced it (just within the warranty!) and I never had issues again.
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