How to deal with high hardware failure rate
Over the past couple years I have been purchasing about 35 laptops a year for our company. We have had the worst failure rate with them; between 60-90% depending on the batch we purchase. I've just been purchasing most them off of newegg or amazon in batches of 10 or 15. Though I have gone through some mainstream vendors, CDW and PC Connections and not had any better luck. I've tried many brands; Lenovo, HP, Acer, and Asus. They all have an incredibly high failure rate. Most crap out within a month of purchase.
Am I doing something wrong? How can I purchase reliable laptops for our emloyees?
Am I doing something wrong? How can I purchase reliable laptops for our emloyees?
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We have purchased HP business level laptops for years and have had a zero failure rate at least in the first year or two. It's not that none of them have never failed, but it's always been at least a couple of years out and then only one or two.
Adding onto the questions from above, do your users understand how to use a laptop? I know this sounds silly, but I've seen some really stupid things that users do to their laptops and it's a wonder we haven't had more issues.
Apple laptops are also very robust. The "downside" is that if you have to have Windows you have to license it separately, but the hardware is first rate. Still, if the user are doing stupid things, even Macs might die as well.
Adding onto the questions from above, do your users understand how to use a laptop? I know this sounds silly, but I've seen some really stupid things that users do to their laptops and it's a wonder we haven't had more issues.
Apple laptops are also very robust. The "downside" is that if you have to have Windows you have to license it separately, but the hardware is first rate. Still, if the user are doing stupid things, even Macs might die as well.
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It's almost always the wireless cards. If it were poor handling I would expect to see hard drives going bad but not wireless cards.
I haven't seen many problems yet with wireless NIC's. In what way do the problems show up? Is it a certain model of wireless NIC?
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I haven't been able to tie it back to any specific model. They are all Intel nics though. They often drop a lot of packets; 10-50%. Some won't pass wireless traffic at all. I thought it might be our router so I bought a Cisco Aironet router but the problem persists. Some of the laptops work flawlessly and others don't work at all. I've taken many of them home and tried them to see if it is a problem with out network but they don't work at my house either.
I agree with Rindi, Wireless NIC failures are almost non-existent in my world. What specifically is happening?
Do you have a lot of cordless phones in your environment and at home? I've seen those interfere before.
You wouldn't also be attempting to connect with a cellular dongle? We've seen issues trying to connect with cellular dongles and having WIFI on at the same time.
The only cause I can think of are the aerials. The wires used as aerials go from the wireless module to the display, maybe sometimes if the display is opened and closed lots of times that might cause the cables to break, or maybe sometimes the cables aren't properly connected to the socket.
or are you located in an aerea with transmitting facily nearby?
that could also be a cause
that could also be a cause
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i'm worried about the fact it is mostly the wi-fi cards...very strange
seems to point to a problem in his environment
maybe Xray scanners, as used on airfields, and harbours?
seems to point to a problem in his environment
maybe Xray scanners, as used on airfields, and harbours?
It may also be a good idea to get business type laptops, and not the consumer versions. Business laptops are usually built more sturdily, might be a little heavier, and probably don't have all the newest nick-nacks built-in. But they will usually last longer.