Lifespan of an Interactive Whiteboard

[enjay]

We're putting together long-term spending plans for IT support and development, and we got to thinking about our interactive boards. We know the rough lifespan of the projectors, but not the boards themselves - will they last forever or should we factor their replacement into things? If so, how many years of service can we expect from a Smart board?

 

With that, what sort of lifespan would be reasonable to predict for a Mimio? We're considering getting these since they're roughly half the price of a Smart board, but have a lot more to go wrong in them, so may not actually represent the saving we think they do when you take a long-term view of things.

[carlk2008]

We're putting together long-term spending plans for IT support and development, and we got to thinking about our interactive boards. We know the rough lifespan of the projectors, but not the boards themselves - will they last forever or should we factor their replacement into things? If so, how many years of service can we expect from a Smart board?

 

With that, what sort of lifespan would be reasonable to predict for a Mimio? We're considering getting these since they're roughly half the price of a Smart board, but have a lot more to go wrong in them, so may not actually represent the saving we think they do when you take a long-term view of things.

 

Hi I would also like to know the lifespan of Smart boards/ Polivision interactive boards. Dose anyone know?

[Ulkary]

We have been using the Mimio Capture for the last six months in our lecture halls, its really fast and accurate, the math proffs love it for writing out streams of calculations.

 

But I don't see the Mimio lasting more than a year only because the electronic pens are flimsy, the actual device is not going to deteriorate too much just sitting on the white board.

 

I havent done proper cost analysis but the mimio electronic pens/ eraser all need batteries and the e-pens need whiteboard markers inside them to operate so over time not sure the cost is much less than a Smart board which we put on a three year replacement cycle.

[witch]

Our smartboards are upwards of 8 years old and still working perfectly

[pete]

Excepting misadventure, we're seeing 7-ish years out of the Promethean boards. The reason we've replaced a couple is due to dead spots appearing.

 

We've replaced a few power supplies, though that may be down to flaky power here.

[Butuz]

Have many promethean boards over 5 years old now. I'd be very unimpressed if a board did not last 5+ years as they have no moving parts.

 

Butuz

[SYNACK]

We have a bunch of Mimios and they seem to last alright, they are not used all day everyday though been a couple of years at least. They do eat batteries though, the old ones at least.

[flyinghaggis]

Excepting misadventure, we're seeing 7-ish years out of the Promethean boards.

 

I think if I had to give a figure for our expected lifespan for them 7 years (on average) would probably be the number I'd go with. They should in theory last longer but you'll always get a few failures and it's always possible that they may eventually stop supporting older boards on newer versions of Windows/etc in time. Plus parts (PSU's/Pens/etc) for older models may become difficult to source.

[ironmaidenrule]

The main problem we have with Promethean boards, is either the Powersuplies burning out or the USB/Serial connectivity leads failing.

[elsiegee40]

My oldest promethean boards are coming up to 6 years old.

 

I had one fail under warranty (it delaminated) and I've had 1 power supply failure in 6 years with 9 boards.

[Disease]

I have Smartboards which are 6 years old and still going strong, we moved from promethian 6 years ago and not looked back.

[Poco]

I Emailed Steljes for you who are the distributor and everything else for SMARTBoards for an official lifespan. The answer came back that the official expected lifespan is between 5-8 years.

 

Hope this helps

 

Also if you are thinking of a whiteboard roll out i would suggest where possible to buy the kit in one. the discount level you can get for purchases over certain amounts is quite high on SMARTBoards. Myself and a colleague next to me both have done one recently and managed significant discounts for schools / companies that buy them in one go. SMARTBoard themselves like to bid for your custom

Edited November 25, 2010 by Poco

[localzuk]

Our older boards (7+ years) are now showing their age. Accuracy is falling, and in one case one side of the board is an inch off, whereas the other side is spot on.

 

Not gonna get replaced though! No money!

[Sylv3r]

I cant comment on the smartboards but we have a Promeathean of over 12 years and still working perfectly. It's had new lamps / projectors obviously in this time.

[laserblazer]

Smartboards have a 5 year warranty if you register for it. We have some that are 8+ years.

[FN-GM]

Some of ours (smart and promethean) are 5 - 8 year old and they are still going strong. I would expect the majority of them to last along time. I should imagine ours will be thrown out still working at some point.

[Achandler]

If your boards aren't aligned on one side but they are fine on the other, delete the reg keys and reorientate them fully. A recent SMART update we had made a lot of our SMARTboards go miss aligned (is that the correct expression) but having contacted SMART we followed a process and this seems to have solved all our orientation problems now, even some older unrelated ones.

[FN-GM]

If your boards aren't aligned on one side but they are fine on the other, delete the reg keys and reorientate them fully. A recent SMART update we had made a lot of our SMARTboards go miss aligned (is that the correct expression) but having contacted SMART we followed a process and this seems to have solved all our orientation problems now, even some older unrelated ones.

 

What reg keys are those please?

[Achandler]

This is directly from SMART

 

"In regards to the SMART Boards orientation being off I would try the following;

 

First delete the previous Orientation settings from the Windows registry. You will need administrative privileges to complete this task. To do this, please first stop the SMART board service in the Diagnostics menu from: SMART Control Panel > About Software and Product Support > Tools > Diagnostics > Service > Stop

 

*Important Note:

Be careful modifying the Windows registry. If you modify it incorrectly, you could possibly damage your operating system. Back up the registry before you make any changes, and if need be, have your network administrator assist you.

 

Then open the Windows Registry. Open the registry editor by clicking Start then Run and type in regedit then click OK. Once the Windows registry editor is open: you should back up your registry keys by highlighting My Computer in the Windows registry editor > go to File > Export. A window will appear giving you the option to save your registry. Please save it to a location you can access at a later time if necessary.

 

After you’ve backed up, you can begin making changes. Please navigate to this location:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SMART Technologies\SMART Board Drivers

 

Delete any key entries that have the word ‘Board’, as shown below:

 

Please also check the following location for Board entries as well, if found, please delete them:

 

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\SMART Technologies Inc.\SMART Board Software

 

After, please close the registry and re-start the SMART Board Service from: SMART Control Panel > About Software and Product Support > Tools > Diagnostics > Service > Start.

 

Next, please reset the controller (only possible on the SMART Board 600 series); pick up a pen from the pen tray and with the tip press in the blue button on the right side of the board for 5 seconds until the pen tray lights cycle.

 

Following the above, re-orient the board with a 9 point orientation.

 

See if that made any change to the orientation being off."

 

 

I hope this helps a few people.

 

We are also chasing up the problems with "SMART Notebook Printer" that we have had when using Windows 7 or Windows Vista, incase others are experiencing similar problems where the "printer" starts to not respond.

[localzuk]

Thanks for that Achandler, but no luck. Still the same behaviour.

[Achandler]

I can only recommend contacting them in warranty or not. If you can get into contact with SMART in Germany then the technical assistant there is usually very good.

[enjay]

@localzuk - possibly wiring come loose in the board. Contact Steljes for an out-of-warranty repair, if memory serves, it isn't too expensive...