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A new survey finds that PCs have become more reliable in recent years as manufacturers have improved designs. However, one in every six new notebooks still needs to be repaired within a year after purchase.

Research firm Gartner says failure rates of both desktop and portable notebook computers have improved in the 2005-2006 period compared with
2003-2004.

Analyst Leslie Fiering says a failure is defined as a repair incident in which a component needs to be replaced, ranging from something as
trivial as a notebook latch or as significant as a motherboard.