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In recent years, quality of laptops have been hit or miss with more catastrophic failures early in the laptop's lifespan. This decrease in reliability was accompanied by many companies decreasing the length of the standard warranty from a year to 30 days. The Covid Pandemic has also brought about levels of greedflation as prices have gone up due to rarity of parts but have not necessarily come back down to pre-Pandemic levels after the parts are plentiful again. Though most machines will last 3 years, users should always ALWAYS purchase warranties for their products for at least 3 years if possible and use Dropbox and/or backup programs like Time Machine on Mac, Windows backup on PC, or Crashplan internet cloud backup to safe guard your data.
From 2021-2023, SHASS IT observed a higher than usual hardware failure rate in computer equipment, including equipment that arrived new in box that wouldn't turn on. We were also observing some new laptops with in this time period experiencing component failures after 1 or 2 years. So far in 2024, the product lines appear to be better made and with significantly fewer reports of outright failures.
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- Acer. All products. Their products have had an unusually high number of defects and failures and it has been reported by users that they are not honoring their warranties.
- Any desktop PCs PCs running 13th- or 14th-generation Raptor Lake Intel Core CPUs. We are recommending users AVOID any PC desktop machine with the affected buggy processors.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-chip-bug-faq-which-pcs-are-affected-how-to-get-the-patch-and-everything-else-you-need-to-know/
These 2 PC machine models are examples of machines that do not use the flawed Intel Raptor Lake chips. They use either AMD Ryzen or Qualcomm's Snapdragon technology (technological equivalent to Apple Silicon's M chips) and are available on B2P as of 12/11/24:- Lenovo Thinkpad P16s AMD G2, AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 7840U 16” laptop
- Dell Latitude 7455 XCTO (Snapdragon X Processor) 14” laptop
- The new chip alternatives to Intel.
- What is the Snapdragon X?
https://www.windowscentral.com/hardware/laptops/what-is-snapdragon-x-elite - What is AMD Ryzen?
https://www.windowscentral.com/what-you-need-know-about-amd-ryzen
- What is the Snapdragon X?
Apple and Dell warranties
Our recommendation remains to ALWAYS get the warranties. This is especially true for laptops which generally have a higher rate of failure due to their smaller micronized parts.
Apple does not warranty their machines for more than 3 years so be aware if your machine fails at year 4 or 5 the repair costs could be high depending on the issuehas a 3 year warranty and a pay year by year warranty. Be aware there is a deadline for purchasing the warranty if you don't purchase it with the computer. Please check with Apple at time of purchase as this grace period has changed multiple times in the past several years. As a general best practice we always recommend purchasing the warranty with the computer so you don't forget later.
Dell does sell service contracts for more than 3 years, however they are more expensive and may not be available for all makes and models. Make sure you purchase the service contract that is appropriate to the length of time you expect to have to keep your Windows machine. It is always a good idea to buy a warranty with your computer.
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MIT Hardware Service Center is now open for computer hardware repairs! It is currently located at its temporary location in the Atlas Service Center. A partnership with ComputerCare, the center is available to all MIT students, faculty, and staff. Technicians will repair computers on site at the Atlas Service Center this semester. The permanent location of the Hardware Service Center is under construction, with an expected opening in spring 2025. Supported computers for repair include Apple, Dell, and Lenovo products. The Hardware Service Center plans to expand services to mobile devices, such as tablets and smartphones, late Fall 2024.
The Hardware Service Center accepts both MIT-issued and personal devices. While there is no charge for labor, they will work with the individual requestors to bill for any necessary parts; costs may apply.
Please be aware the SHASS IT Support Team does not repair machines or recover data. We are not authorized Apple, Dell, or Lenovo technicians.
IS&T is currently in the process of building it's new Hardware Repair Services Center which is now eagerly anticipated to open sometime in Spring Semester 2025.
Lenovo
Lenovo Thinkpads have long had a reputation in business for dependability, durability, and reliability. However this comes at a cost. Lenovo tightly controls the firmware of their machines so non-Lenovo certified parts or operating systems won't work in their machines. This means Linux Distros and lower versions of Windows (like Windows 7) could be blocked from installation. Also users will be unable to tweak the CPU or RAM clocking and hardware to boost performance. This makes Lenovo machines distinctively unsuitable for gaming or application where other non-shipped OS implementations or hardware customizations are required.
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The newest incarnation of the Apple Silicon M3 processor MacBook Air 15 has raised the bar on its historical predecessors and is a good choice for users who need a lighter machine but don't need the power of a Pro or Max M3 chip. If you need the larger 16 inch screen then you have to get a MacBook Pro but if a 15 inch screen is sufficient, the 15 MacBook Air with 16GB of memory and the appropriate sized storage HD storage will serve you just fine for users without high graphics, desk top publishing, or video or music production needs. Make sure you get a hard drive with enough storage to fit all your data from your old laptop plus enough room to grow over the next 3-4 years.
Apple Silicon M chips
At what point should users upgrade if they currently have an Apple Silicon Mac? Based on recent reviews online, it is looking like every fourth iteration. So if you currently have a machine with the original Apple Silicon M1 processor, there are now enough speed and performance improvements to make it worthwhile upgrading to a new Mac with the Apple Silicon M4 processor.
iPads
iPads are not laptop computers. They do not (yet) have a user accessible file system and run on augmented cellular phone processors. Though there are apps that enable iPads to behave laptop-like, we do not recommend using iPads as your primary computer. iPads are really effective supplementary computing technology, life-style tools and devices to show people things on, whether that be pictures, movies, or presentations. Given the amount you would have to invest in both time and money to get the iPad to act computer-like, you would be better off buying a real computer which would do those things much better, faster, and reliably.
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