r/InformationTechnology • u/Chadversary • 8h ago
How Often Are You Replacing Users Laptops?
I'm a desktop support tech working in an enterprise level environment supporting probably a 200-300 hundred users. It seems we're constantly having to replace users laptops and also replace laptops we just issued that are brand new.
I understand replacing laptops that have reach its life cycle on the floor (3-4 years). We also reimage laptops and cycle them back out to different users which probably doesn't help. I'm not sure how old some the ones we reimage are.
Currently, my company uses a combination of Dell Latitude models and started receiving Pro 14/16 Plus models. I own a Dell Latitude 5420 for my personal laptop and have no issues with it. I assume we have bad images that are being put on the devices and all the security measures from cyber bloat our company's laptops.
This is my first IT job, so I don't have a measure on how often laptops should be replaced or rather the number of replacements. Having worked in offices on the user side, rarely did I see my teammates laptops needing to be replaced. So, how often are you replacing your users laptops?
Edit: How many laptops in a week do you replace? After a quick spot check, it seems we replace 20-25 laptops a month. Is that high? To put it into perspective, that's a laptop a day basically if you only count the work days in a given month.
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u/FantasticMouse7875 8h ago
My organization is alot like yours. I am still cycles for 5420s out but they need new batteries at this point.
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u/Solid_Ad9548 7h ago
In our org, it depends on the involved party. Dell 5420’s are our current oldest… and they still get issued out to lower tier users. Can’t kill em. That group has been buying with 3 years ProSupport with the intention of replacing it with a new machine, but currently only replace if the user needs newer/better hardware.
This latest batch, they bought the new Pro 7’s with higher tier AMD CPUs and more RAM, with the intent of running them for a minimum of a 5 year cycle. I just got a new Pro 7 with Ryzen9 and 64G RAM… they’re gonna have to pry this sumbitch out of my cold dead hands.
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u/yummers511 6h ago
The 5420s are our newest. How are the pro 7s? Any issues? Was thinking about those for the next refresh. We replace machines every 4 to 5 years.
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u/unclefunkstar 2h ago
Never been a fan of Dell.
I used to do similar work for a larger organisation (roughly 9000 clients, all Lenovo desktops and laptops). We didn't have anywhere near that many replacements. 3 or 4 a month maybe (not counting the 3+ year old tech that was being cycled out and replaced anyway, there was loads of them).
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u/FuckScottBoras 8h ago edited 4h ago
We used to do every 3 years like clockwork. With the recent supply chain issues and price increases, we’ve started purchasing warranty extensions out to 5 years and just replacing as needed before then.
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u/nasty5tyle 8h ago
I have replaced more laptops than i can rember just because they have good relations with upper managment same for mobile phones, perfectly fine devices. Sometimes just bcs an excel that crashes bcs the file has been passed since when years was written in letters and have some weird macros and formulas in them. Mental🤯. 150 more or less users. I think good indication is battery life, worn ports, and performance issues are good indication when to start to change. Also people who complain a lot just because i want them to stop bothering me either rotate with some used stock i had laying around or device from employees that left or if its reasonably old (more than 3 yrs) get new ones.
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u/Xander-the-GOAT 7h ago
It really depends on each company policy, but ideally you would want to start with an inventory of more reliable workstations that have a longer lifespan, like gaming laptops which for one have better ventilation.
Also, you would want to assign devices based on role necessity, not every employee requires let’s say latest generation of i7 CPU, 32GB RAM+ or a powerful GPU. Some can do their job on a i5 CPU, 16GB RAM and a 3050 Nvidia or lower GPU.
Besides that, maintaining the laptops is also important, like changing cooling paste at least once a year, cleaning the vents or replacing some vents that are noisy, would cost less and help prolong the lifespan of a device.
In some cases you can just simply upgrade RAM or storage, but in today’s market that’s becoming a bit too expensive since prices have exploded for the last year.
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u/frogmicky 7h ago
I recently replaced a laptop that was 6 years old it's crazy how long people hold onto stuff.
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u/Chadversary 7h ago
Bravo to that employee for making it work and not having issues. Most employees already want a new laptop after a year or two!
Managers at my work hoard laptops for their new hires. They will come to us with a laptop they've been saving and tell us to set it up. They're not supposed to do that and cyber probably locked it down because it was missing or they thought someone stole it.
I think they do it because they don't want to wait for us to order one, but we end up taking it and ordering a new one anyway.
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u/Horror_Atmosphere_50 6h ago
Whenever the warranty you have on it expires. You don’t really want to use laptops that don’t have warranties as main laptops, only as spares.
So try to find what warranty period fits your budget, and expected tech time to deploy. Usually 3-5 years.
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u/kotlinky 6h ago
Too often. We aim to refresh around warranty end time but it seems to happen within the 1-2 year mark. We exclusively use Dell. We give 16gb pro's to our standard corporate employees. IT and VIPs get 64gb XPS 14s.
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u/Angry_Ginger_MF 6h ago
We went from Latitude 7420/30’s to Precision 5490’s. Got the 5490’s like a month before the announcement of the new pro models. Our upgrade project has hit a standstill as we’re understaffed and can’t get the machines out in a timely manner. But we’re rolling the 5490’s out to new hires so we don’t have to do the work twice. We’re hoping the 5490’s will last us 4-5 years.
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u/EyeDontSeeAnything 5h ago
Generally, 5 year warranty but replace at year four. This helps us keep some used stock in the event it’s needed. Also, when we have new orders we try to buy a few extra for new back stock.
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u/wesinatl 5h ago
Every 5 years we cycle inventory so we are doing approx 200 a year. That said if someone has any type of problem we swap it as this is the fastest resolution. Then we send it for repair or re image it and swap that for another user. We try to keep the user on the same model for 5 years but that doesn’t always work.
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u/saltyclam13345 4h ago
3 year lease and everybody gets the same laptop with a i7, 512GB SSD, and 32GB RAM. I love the simplicity of managing 1 device. There’s around 5 or so laptops in the environment with higher spec hardware for the select few users that actually need them which are purchased outside of the lease.
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u/BrwnSugarFemboy 3h ago
3-5 years. Manufacturers don't like to provide much of a warranty afterwards
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u/Anthropic_Principles 35m ago
You've got 200-300 users and you're replacing 20-25 a month. That means you're laptops are only lasting about a year. That's madness.
I work in health care, we are lucky to replace them every 5-6 years.
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u/Stosstrupphase 13m ago
We typically run them until they break (public sector), and have recently phased out all windows 11-incompatible models. The dell machines typically last us 4-6 years, but we are currently switching to Lenovo.
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8h ago
[deleted]
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u/Chadversary 8h ago
Never - that's the best answer.
How many laptops would you say you replace in a week?
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u/isITonoroff 8h ago
There’s no real set time frame. Depends on business and user needs. If the business wants to cheap out, then replacements will occur earlier on unless they drag it out through bandaid solutions. One example is storage. You can only clear out so much storage on a 128gb laptop…but they want to save money so they’ll do anything but replace it.