Which Laptops Has Survived Life Onboard?

[RAGNAR]

I appreciate all the replies

(I'd love that M30 toughbook -- just to own an electronic something that didn't need to by pampered 24/7.)

Ragnar

[cbayermd]

My iBook G4 is great. It recently FLEW across the cabin in some rough weather and didn't miss a beat.

[captainchetco]

Has anyone ever tried opening a lap top and spraying it with "Corrosion Block" or CRC "Corrosion Inhibitor? I'm thinking of trying it with a garage sale old laptop. Any thoughts?
Not from personal experience, but from a couple who have been cruising since 1997, they have found the life of all of the lap tops they have purchased, (all the common brands, but I'm not sure about "Toughbook") regardless of price, is 18 months to 2 years. They keep a spare one, an external drive for backup, and just buy a new one on this schedule.

[sailingdog]

The two laptops I use onboard my boat are a 12" Mac PowerBook, and an ancient Toshiba Tecra 8000, which is at least eight years old. Most of the applications you use on a boat aren't really all that high powered... word processing, e-mail, web surfing, are all easily handled by even fairly old hardware. Some of the newer navigation software requires a bit more muscle.

I've seen a few attempts at corrosion proofing normal laptops, but the heat inside them generally seems to cause some problems for any type of spray-on corrosion inhibitor. These machines run pretty hot inside.

Ideally, I'd like to get a ruggedized one, but can't justify spending that kind of money, when I can get away with this older hardware for now.

[hellosailor]

Chet, computers these days run above microwave frequencies internally. And at that range, every part of the circuit board, even the traces themselves, are active components. So you will be changing (de-tuning) the circuit board and you stand better than a 50-50 chance of making the computer unstable.

And that's not counting the overheating it can cause.

Might work, might not, but anyone in the business of making those computers will tell you they don't offer them coated--because it would be a major redesign job to try making them work reliably afterwards.

I know folks who find cell phones, CD players, MP3 players, laptops, never last them more than a year or two. And others who get 5++ years from the same devices. Sometimes, the only difference is in how you use and care for them. Treat a laptop like a book, and yes, it will break before two years are up.

[sailingdog]

I've had my Toshiba Tecra 8000 since it was brand new, and it is a PII 266 CPU-based machine...to give you an idea of its age. The only real problem it has, even after two years aboard boats, and another seven plus of being kicked around the country is that the battery is basically kaput. It isn't the fastest machine out there, and I only use it for a rather limited set of programs...but it gets the job done and would do 99% of anything I need a computer to do. Main reason I don't use it for more is I prefer working on my PowerBook... much more elegant OS....better software/hardware integration, better programs for most things, etc.

[Freesail99]

I do bow to Sailingdog,s Mac Powerbook. I am also "sold" on the Mac. I have been since the early Apple's in the 1980's. But on the boat I use a Toshiba Satellite. So far it seems to be a good solid machine.

[Valiente]

Given that very little on a boat...including most current nav programs...require much in the way of hard drive space or vast computing power, once again the case is made for looking on laptops as semi-expendable devices (like impellers, maybe?). That said, you could buy eight three-year-old used laptops for the cost of one new Toughbook or the flashier sort of Mac. Maybe the idea is to buy two or three at a time, back them up to each other once a week or so, and then to keep the "spares" in sealed bags with dessicant. You've have spare power supplies as well.

[sailingdog]

I think, instead of getting a bunch of laptops, getting a small micro-desktop and a decent transreflective IPX7 LCD monitor might make more sense for most people. If I can find a good source for a transreflective LCD, I might start making custom packages for sailors I know.

[toddrtownsend]

I'm not out there yet [but will be April 15, woo hoo] but right now I have a work laptop, a Mac at home, and an older Compaq laptop that is mine. Besides iTunes I don't keep much on any of the machines. I have a 1GB thumbdrive I keep what I need on.

Also, if I want a more failsafe, I send myself an email with an attachment and save important documents on gmail's server.

I am looking at getting one of the larger flash based external harddrives. And perhaps an ipod. I back up what little I keep on all three machines and I back up the flashdrive regularly.

For the penguiny lurkers, my laptop has a small Win2K slice on it [for a side job], the rest is Xubuntu, very fast and up-to-date as well. I had Slackware on it, but I didn't have time to hand dig everything. I miss it but it is gone.

TrT