# Do PCs last longer than they used to?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pcs-last-longer-than-they-used-to/1018816>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 26, 2025, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pcs-last-longer-than-they-used-to/1018816 "2025-05-26T12:47:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![wguy123](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wguy123/32/3161_2.png) [@wguy123](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wguy123)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pcs-last-longer-than-they-used-to/1018816/21 "2025-05-27T15:47:41Z")

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I’ve found that consumer Windows laptops have crap hinges while the more expensive business lines have metal/good hinges.

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**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\
**Post date:** [May 27, 2025, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-pcs-last-longer-than-they-used-to/1018816/22 "2025-05-27T17:16:30Z")

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> [@md-2000](#):
>
> I recall there was a time about 2010 when capacitor failure was common. The story was that some capacitor manufacturer in some foreign country used industrial espionage to determine the correct mix of chemicals for electrolytic capacitors - but the company they targeted anticiated this and fed them an incorrect formula. So for a while, electrolytics from that era bulging and bursting and failing were a common problem. Since then, not really an issue.

China IIRC. I didn’t hear that was the cause of the problem, I heard it was just poor quality. But it could have been.

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