Your Mac accidents

[Giaguara]

Macs have an image of being design objects - thus vulnerable. At least when seen by Windows users.

I think I have heard and seen enough stories that .. speak for themselves. These above are by persons I know enough so I can verify them (and I have seen them, except one of the iPods).

Add yours

[But I don't suggest trying these at home just for fun.]


One friend has a studio office in two levels. He was working on the higher level, and by mistake hit the precious. The iBook, dual USB 500 MHz, dropped to the first floor (14 feet/ 4 m down). The wooden floor up to date has a visible hole where the iBook corner hit it. The iBook worked perfectly after. No scratches, no cracked hard drives or screens etc. A cable needed replacing, but untill that I had thought the iBooks were as fragile as they looked. This happened maybe 2 years ago. I have seen both the iBook that it happened to, and the floor in the studio. The iBook was still scratchless, and looked like new.

Two friends have forgotten their precious to their pocket when washing clothes. So they got very clean music on their iPods. One was a 2nd generation model, the other a 3rd. Both worked fine. The owners let them dry a few days, prayed, and they were back in life. Amazing - but still I'd probably get a heart attack if I found my or anyone else's iPod in the washing machine or among the newly washed clothes. (Has anyone yet tried this on the iPod minis? I hope not..)

The most recent one sounds amazing as well. A lamp fell from the shelf while writing, and it hit a huge tea mug 2 feet from the Powerbook (an alubook, the recent ones). The liquid flew of course to the worst imagineable place, keyboard and not just a few drops. (I would have got a heart attack at that point). A quick forced shutdown, removing the battery and the cables, drying the worst of the spills, and putting the 'Book to dry tilted slightly so that the back and the ventilation holes could get air and help drying the inside. Again, I assume, praying for a day or two, or untill it could have been dry. He put back on the battery, hit the power button - heard the chimes, logged in and like nothing had happened. The clock had moved to January 1970, and the disk utility found something to fix, but nothing else. I can't imagine what normally happens when liquid hits the keyboard, or what happens if it hits a pc keyboard.

And I keep wondering how Macs are made. I find it really incredible that these things can work after such. After being drowned in a washing machine (poor iPods), after having hot liquids on keyboard (PowerBook), after 14 feet free drop to wooden floor (iBook). I haven't heard similar stories about pcs, maybe because I don't frequent pc forums, or maybe because those stories are so rare. What do you think? (Anyone has a Rio, Dell or Vaio to get rid of to get a Mac? )

[chevy]

I would like to have such lucky story, but my son killed my keyboard with hot chocolate.

[Ricky]

I spilled a rather large glass of water into my Apple Pro Keyboard once. It survived -- but the spacebar malfunctioned for a half-hour or so. Letting it dry for about an hour, plugging it in to check it periodically and unplugging it again, did the trick.

[monktus]

I've dropped my iPod quite a few times and it's still fine. My G4's also stood up to a lot of moving around. No drops or anything but I did forget it was in the back of my car when I went over some large speed bumps at about 30 mph.

The only accidents I've had involved keyboards. Spilt some coke on the ADB keyboard from my 5200 and it survived, although some of the keys were a little sticky. Did the same with orange juice about a week after I got my G4 (end of 1999 I think) but it killed the keyboard. However my AppleCentre were nice enough to give me a new one free of charge.

[chevy]

It confirms that the keyboard is the weakest part of the computer.... all mistakes come from the keyboard... including this message.

[Ricky]

Oh! I forgot to mention. A couple of days after I got the flat-panel iMac I am using now, I put it in the back of my dad's SUV, thinking that it would transport as easily as my old gumdrop iMac. It seemed to be holding up just fine, but we went around one corner and it fell over. The screen hit a plastic bag with clothes in it. For a couple of months, you could see the wrinkles of the plastic bag sort of imprinted on the screen. You would never guess that that had happened now, though.

[ziess]

I once spilt a double of whisky on my keyboard (Pro keyboard in white) and it survived. I didn't even have to shut down (suicidal nutter that i am!)
I just found a webpage that detailed how to clean and dismantle the keyboard, disconnected it and fixed it while navigating the page with my mouse!
Bombproof!
Or at least whisky proof! I was gutted though! It was a realllllyyyy good whisky!

[soulseek]

i just have bad experiences with my first generation iPod. it has fallen down so many times. and some of them were really strong impacts, but the beast kept on playin


any powerbook 12" stories ???