# Your Mac accidents



## Giaguara (Mar 1, 2004)

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 *iPod*s. 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?  )


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## chevy (Mar 1, 2004)

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


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## Ricky (Mar 1, 2004)

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.


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## monktus (Mar 1, 2004)

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.


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## chevy (Mar 1, 2004)

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


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## Ricky (Mar 1, 2004)

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.


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## ziess (Mar 1, 2004)

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!


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## soulseek (Mar 1, 2004)

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 ???


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## Giaguara (Mar 1, 2004)

the tea on keyboard I think was a 12 inch one .. sure a powerbook.


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## soulseek (Mar 1, 2004)

cool... that means i can drink coffee while on my powerbook(once i buy it)


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## Giaguara (Mar 1, 2004)

If eou drink it sugar-free I guess so


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## mindbend (Mar 1, 2004)

I was in a car "incident" once where a dog ran out in front of me so I slammed on the brakes and my Power Tower Pro 225 was thrown into the dashboard. (I had been carting it back and forth from work to home). Once at work, I realized it wouldn't boot, so I opened her up and started playing around. Turns out the whole box had ben knocked out of whack so the PCI slots were off kilter. With a bit of nudging a hammering, I got it more less back in shape and everything worked again.


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## michaelsanford (Mar 1, 2004)

chevy said:
			
		

> but my son killed my keyboard with hot chocolate.



I can beat that 

One day last year I had a power failure, at night, and decided to use the time to clean my apartment and wipe my keyboard while my computer was off since it's usually on 24/7.

Being night time, I had to light candles to see what I was doing. I had one about 15 feet away, which to me still seems a reasonable distance, even though it obviously wasn't. As I was air-dusting my keyboard a tiny bit of propellant met the candle and flowed back to the air duster, effectively turning it into a flame thrower.

bye bye keyboard  but thank God it wasn't bye bye hand as well !

The possible lessons: (i) be paranoid about fire, or (ii) never clean anything. I'm leaning toward a mix of the two...


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## soulseek (Mar 1, 2004)

my dad threw coffe once on my apple pro keyboard. 
he opened the whole thing (damn its got lots of screws and really complicated to put back) but it worked fine after he cleaned it !!!


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## andychrist (Mar 1, 2004)

My upstairs neighbor had a funny maccident a number of years ago.  After just a few months of use his Lime iMac suddenly refused to boot, even from the install CD.  After rather a few hours of frustration he finally just really lost it; ripping all the cords from the machine he tossed it from the doorway of his apartment and kicked it down the five flights of stairs to the street.  The iMac showed only some scuff marks but my poor neighbor looked completely bedraggled. Oh, well, I guess you had to be there...

I wasn't there last summer when another one of my neighbors decided to make use of my then inactive ethernet cable.  Don't remember exactly how long I had been using it but it was strung from the window of my apartment around the face of the building and up into my first neighbor's apartment, where our router is.  Now perhaps this CAT 5 was not up to the wear and tear of the great outdoors, for some time after transferring its terminus through his window to his computer, it must have developed a tear to its sheathing.  After a particularly heavy downpour, this second misfortunate neighbor found water streaming from his PC, which, you can imagine, was quite shorted out.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Mar 1, 2004)

My parrot pooped on my spacebar once while I was playing Quake III... the spacebar never worked again.  I guess parrot poop has more corrosive elements in it than coffee or juice does... 

I was happy to get rid of that keyboard (it was the first generation G4 keyboards -- the ones with the tiny little arrow keys) and purchase a new Apple Pro Keyboard (black).

Needless to say birds aren't allowed near my computer anymore.


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## bookem (Mar 1, 2004)

The roof leaked at work about 2 years ago, while my iBook was on my desk, powered up.  The screen got soaked - still works, just not very bright.  It still works when connected to a monitor, but they bought me another one anyway


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## Salvo (Mar 1, 2004)

my trusty iBook copped an entire cup of Latté into the keyboard once. I pulled the battery, lifted the keyboard panel and pulled the AirPort and RAM and mopped up as much as possible. The Trackpad was a bit sticky afterwards, but that got cleaned up by the AppleCentre guys when they replaced the LogicBoard under Warranty.

I also read a story of an old Lady bringing an iBook into an AppleCentre. The Polycarbonite was Black, all the paint had sublimed and the screen was warped and black. It was accompanied by a Zip-Lock bag full of 77 little black lumps.
She had used the Oven to dry it after spilling her tea on it, and left it too high.

The guy at the AppleCentre plugged in an external keyvboard and Monitor, removed the battery and hooked it up to a powersupply and voilá, it worked perfectly!


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## stizz (Mar 1, 2004)

My old Bronze Keyboad G3 Powerbook (Pizmo?) has gone everywhere with me since I bought it 5 years ago. It has been dropped several times , kicked once (not by me) rained on and spit on, the monitor hinge is broken, and the case has a few cracks in it, not to mention a full 20 oz coke spilled on it a few years back. Damn thing still works. Now retired to desktop duty with external drives, it runs Panther, and does an admirable job as a web browsing computer. I only hope the AlumBook that replaced it handles the abuse as well.


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## Giaguara (Mar 1, 2004)

I have always wondered why birds fly and poo on the same time. 

I have heard and seen pics of a fried powerbook. There were pics of it .. it still worked. I guess another oven baked apple that still works..


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## Jamesrdorn (Mar 1, 2004)

lol... a Teaboard? that's a new one.


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## dlloyd (Mar 1, 2004)

stizz, that's a Lombard, not a Pismo


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## Viro (Mar 1, 2004)

ElDiabloConCaca said:
			
		

> My parrot pooped on my spacebar once while I was playing Quake III... the spacebar never worked again.  I guess parrot poop has more corrosive elements in it than coffee or juice does...
> 
> I was happy to get rid of that keyboard (it was the first generation G4 keyboards -- the ones with the tiny little arrow keys) and purchase a new Apple Pro Keyboard (black).
> 
> Needless to say birds aren't allowed near my computer anymore.



While you were playing Quake III? What was your parrot doing on your keyboard while you you playing Quake III?!?!?


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## uoba (Mar 1, 2004)

I've destroyed a G3 Powerbook whilst trying to align a badly installed RAM chip (I blamed the store I'd just bought it from, and they replaced it straightaway).

I too can confirm the keyboard as the weakest point... coke damage on my Ctrl key (isn't that a David Bowie song!?)


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## gumse (Mar 1, 2004)

My secretary once spilled a coke in her ADB pro keyboard, no problems pressing the keys, getting them un-pressed a little harder


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## mdnky (Mar 1, 2004)

Made the mistake of not locking my room a few years ago during a party...some younger ones decided to play on the 'cool' computer and in the process a large, full coke found it's way into the USB Keyboard...not fun when the keys require full body weight to press.  Took alot of soaking (keys) and scrubbing with alcohol to fix that.

Spilled a full bottle of Budweiser on top of the desktop once...the first time I ever saw OS X stumble.  It was fine the next morning though.

Same beige desktop was in my last car when some kid pulled out in front of me...got launched from the backseat into the front against the dash (nearly missing me!).  Dash was cracked but the case on the mac held up, never noticed anything wrong since.  The fan noise actually went down after that (still works though), kinda a weird outcome.  Mac 1, Bonneville -5.

Needless to say the iBook is protected much better...and when I get the new G5 it'll be handled much differently.  I've lucked out, but not going to press my luck.


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## MacMuppet (Mar 2, 2004)

Its the sugar in any drink that will screw up your keyboard contacts. We replace about 4 or 5 Apple Pro keyboards a week for our users - they are absolutely incapable of learning, these are people (Quark "designers") who still need me to add a printer for them despite having used the same machine with the same stup in the same place for several years, and have to have font management explained to them at least once a month per person. So in other words absolutely clueless and would have been sacked from anywhere I've worked before this comedy store.
Anyway, we tried out the Macally Icekey and all sorts of others that are marginally cheaper, but the Pro it is.
Anyway, if you spill tea, coffe cocoa, soup, anything in your apple pro keyboard do the following:
Pop out all the keys.
Competely submerge it in cold water for half an hour or so.
Remove and place in an airing cupboard for at least 48 hours, upside-down.
Retrieve, replace keys, plug in, get on with life.

Its not completely guaranteed, but defintiely worth trying before you splurge £40.
I used to spend happy hours with my feet on the desk cleaning these damn things, scraping encrusted sugary tea from between the keys, to save us money. Now of course I don't bother, and chuck 'em straight in the bin as soon as the first apple key goes, if these monkeys can't be bothered to learn the basics then why should I slave away trying to save the company money, they'll only sack each other and bring each other back at twice the salary as a contractor with any money I save them anyway.


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## powermac (Mar 2, 2004)

Wow, I guess the Macs take a beaten and keep working. I myself do not have a story, my work colleague dropped her ThinkPad down the stairs. It no longer worked, the screen cracked, keys popped out, and internal damage. This was a few years ago.


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## fryke (Mar 2, 2004)

I was in a bookstore and showed the owner something on the counter on my dear PowerBook 520c (at the time). I dunno how it exactly happened, but it dropped on the floor. About 130 cm. The screen was a 'dual scan' LCD. The _lower_ half of the screen was fine, the upper half was dead. The Mac worked fine, no problems, but I couldn't see what I was doing and couldn't see the menubar of course. I connected an external display and backed up everything. Then had my screen replaced. I didn't say what happened, but it seems that "these things happened" to that model, since they replaced the screen on warranty (!) for free...

I've dropped my eMate 300 a couple of times. No problems whatsoever. A cigarette has changed the case. Looks nice, actually. Didn't hurt the insides...

And then there was my first computer ever, an Atari 1040 STf. It has a bad power supply (we found out way later) - it sometimes just shut down hard. If you then slapped the computer, it would start up again.


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## uoba (Mar 2, 2004)

fryke said:
			
		

> And then there was my first computer ever, an Atari 1040 STf. It has a bad power supply (we found out way later) - it sometimes just shut down hard. If you then slapped the computer, it would start up again.



Hey, I had one of those cool machines... music machine of its' day! It also suffered from a bad power supply. It nearly killed me!

I got so used to having to change the fuse that eventually I forgot to unplug the power one day, grabbed the dead fuse to replace, and found myself across the room with a dead arm... couldn't feel it for about 1 hour... lesson learnt!


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## jobsen_ski (Mar 2, 2004)

well I've got an Ipod mini - only 5 days old and u guessed it on Sunday when it was 2 days old I droped it (fell out of my pocket when I was running) I took a chip (curl of metal) out of one corner - but it is still working fine!


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## j79 (Mar 2, 2004)

this happened about three years ago.

i have a powerbook g3 (pismo)
use to carry the thing around everywhere in this cheap kensington bag. i thought it was "cool" to leave the top of the bag open, so i could have easy access to the laptop (when needed) and listen to music while on the subway.

one day, i got home, got out of my car, and swung my bag around my body. but, i swung a bit too hard. my bag went around to such an angle that my powerbook slid out. the worst, i saw it (in, what felt like slow motion) as it went from my bag, hitting the pavement on its left front corner. 

i stood there, shocked/frozen/scared s###less to see what damage i had caused. cracked screen?? had to be..
picked it up, opened the lid, and *whew*, no crack screen. started it up, and booted right into OS 9. happy as ever.
the only damage to the laptop is the handle to pop the battery out. it's a bit cracked (not fully - but, enough force would cause the thing to break all the way in half)

my ipod .. man, that sucker has been dropped numerous times.


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## Arden (Apr 29, 2004)

Giaguara said:
			
		

> I have always wondered why birds fly and poo on the same time.


Not always, I've washed enough crap off my car from parking under the tree in the front yard.


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## ElDiabloConCaca (Apr 29, 2004)

Well, if you could fly, would _you_ want to stop for pit stops, or would you rather just keep flying?


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## symphonix (Apr 29, 2004)

At a party a friend managed to spill about half a bottle of vodka and passionfruit over the keyboard of my iBook. The machine continued to function and I didn't even know about the spill until the next day, by which point the sticky stuff had dried onto the keys and the protective layer under the keyboard. I had to carefully remove the keys and wash them in detergent, then clip them back on. The protective shield below the keyboard, and the back of the keyboard itself were washed with a slightly damp soapy sponge. In around half an hour it was as good as new.

It's also had a number of falls and tumbles, but it hasn't ever broken or shown any sign of damage.


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## spitty27 (Apr 29, 2004)

a couple years ago i had a friend over, and i warned him about the rubber feet on the pismo being fragile. anyway, he sat down and moved the computer towards him without picking it up and when he left i looked under and 3 of the feet were off (wtf). i took out some superglue (baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad idea) and put what i thought was enough glue on each of the wholes, and stuck the feet back on. apparently i used too much glue and it overflowed out of the little well, spreading on the bottom of the black plastic of the pismo. i took tissus to clean it off, but then they got stuck to the bottom too. i took out my italian pocket knife and scraped off the tissue crap. flipped it over, opened the lid, and put the superglue bottle on the palmrest. i went to the bathroom, and when i came back, there was a huuuuuge puddle of glue next to the trackpad (i swear it was closed!!!) anyway, took out the knife again and tried to scrape off as much as possible. obviously it runs fine but it looks kinda messed up :-/

also the second month i had the computer, i got an airport card, so i held a screwdriver in my left hand, and walked accross the pb with the lid open, going to take off the keyboard. i looked back at the screen and i had scratched the lcd slightly (im such a klutz).

btw, for the people with pismos: does everyone have a crack from the mouse button to the button to open the screen lid? how about the corners of the lcd frame?


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## Veljo (May 1, 2004)

I remember my Physics teacher once knocked an iBook off a table and it hit the floor about 4 feet down. Picked it up, worked fine.


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## Randman (May 1, 2004)

I've dropped my iPod a number of times. However, I had a bout of bad luck with my iBook G4 recently. I was sitting in my rocking chair just doing a little surfing and adding a couple of audible.com audiobooks to my iPod when the iBook slipped out of my hand as I was pulling the iPod out of the dock. It only fell about a foot but it hit at an angle.
  It seemed to be working fine so I put it, then me to sleep.
  The next morning, it worked fine for about 30 minutes then it locked up. I tried rebooting but all I could get was the apple startup logo.
  I took it to the Apple repair shop and hoped for the best but I was without it for about 5 days (including a weekend) as the hard drive had to be replaced. Thank goodness for backups.
  That said, I also have a clamshell iBook and that sucker is pretty robust. The cases were much sturdier with those models.


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## drunkmac (May 1, 2004)

Gotta drop it like it's hot.

Powerbook has been dropped to all hell and back. When im lazy, I scoot it aside with my foot. Thing is a charm. I love you Titanium Powerbook.


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## spitty27 (May 1, 2004)

my mom dropped an iBook 4 feet and now its dead. I am 90% sure its the harddrive. It boots up fine but the apps take forever to load and everything hangs. ive reinstalled, fixed permissions and everything. ill try putting in my old 6gig powerbook drive and see if ittle help.


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## Dorn (Oct 1, 2004)

Ok, so this happened ... oooh 2 hours ago. And on the powerbook i'm currently typing on.

I had a nice large cup of streaming gunpowder tea that i was staring at for oh maybe 30 seconds, my 17-inch PowerBook, my life... i.e. everything i need is on this, including a major lifeline (iChat) to the special one.

So as I'm reaching for this 18-ounces of steaming hot liquid, I noticed the second before I grabbed the cup that, hey, my fingers aren't really near the cup like i thought.

Instance later... it was a recreation of your favorite flood movie... i watched as a the complete cup of tea flooded across the dead center of the powerbook.. Gaaah...

Alright, so i'll admit enough that i actually work for apple in a technical format... in fact, this happening to me is going to fuel stories for years...

Wounded pride in hand, i slunk off to find tools...

(mental note, i'm still staring at 6 or so screws i gotta put in)

Took apart the computer and whew main logic board, and stuff underneath is fine (which surprised me since tea was literally dripping from the powerbook)

The only liquid was on the bottom of they keyboard ... whoa cool...

Ok.. well damn... i need to get online... run around see if anyone has a spare PB i can use for a while... no? grr.. ok 

Well i'm hosed either way, so reassemble the powerbook and power it on. 

Chime - teh win.
Backlight - teh win
Display - whoa i see stuff... ack... and more... 

So oddly enough, the damn thing works... the only problem is that it needs a reaplacement display which now displays about 1/2 of hte screen with double the brightness.

So now after a few hours of use... it still works, and as everyone may know, the second best thing to a hair dryer's heat is a pbg4 

Guess the powerbook knew i needed to get on chat 

(will add pix when i can)

Entertainingly, Dorn


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## DanTekGeek (Oct 1, 2004)

i frequent the majorgeeks.com PC forum, and i can tell you that one never sees stories about how their PC survived an accident. only stories about how they didnt.


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## HateEternal (Oct 1, 2004)

A stewardess spilled soda on my 2 week old iBook. I managed to get it mostly clean, the keyboard is still not the same. The crazy part was that before the flight I was planning on closing my lid when they came around to avoid this. Then when she came around I forgot. I just couldn't beleive that it actually happend.

Metal cases can't take anything. At work we have dropped numerious old surplus machines. The worst I have seen was a dell that fell off of a 4 wheel A/V cart (about 4 feet). The whole chasis was skewed sideways and all the PCI cards had been ripped out and bent to hell.


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## Giaguara (Oct 2, 2004)

Dorn if I didn't know you and have seen evidence .. ie you were a "random person" I would prolly think that that'd be just too weird to really happen. But hey .. green tea is good for hard drives - maybe the Powerbook knew it and wanted to be a better one ..  
Anywayz, hope you get the spare screen asap ..


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## jimbo61 (Oct 2, 2004)

i've ruined about 3 apple usb keybaords...... of course from spillige from my drinks that i always keep near by.


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## garymum4d (Oct 2, 2004)

Many years ago when my son got his new first gen, 5 gig iPod for xmas. He put it in the front pocket of his hoodie. Then he put an OPEN can of coke in the same pocket. This was fine until he bent over to get out of a car and the coke poored directly into the firewire port and filled the ipod up. I think we had one of the first iPods in the UK. And may have the first replacement. After cleaning and drying it out, I contacted Apple and claimed it just stopped working. They replaced it without question. 
 Go Apple!!!


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## GuWenLang (Oct 2, 2004)

The story in short: I lost balance, rolled myself onto the road to absorb the impact, and heard the TiBook hitting the hard surface of the road. My first thought was, 'there goes my TFT...' - but there was only a very minor notch in the display hinge. Worked flawlessly ever after. 

Other examples of my 10 years of portable Macs include milk inside the PowerBook 180c (no harm done), a very major bump in my 1st generation iPod, and some other minor incidents. Also did a bypass operation on a Power Mac G4 logic board once, but that was a colleague disrupting the power rails, *not me*!! See http://kleeworld.de/projekte/loeten_e.html
Hard drives seem to be more susceptible to damage when they're running, seen that a couple of times. 

Best regards, and happy landing.


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## symphonix (Oct 3, 2004)

Our puppy climbed in behind my desk and chewed through several of the cables and connectors for my iBook. Thankfully she didn't bite any power-leads. However, all of the cables had to be repaired or replaced.
Now I've actually re-designed both my desk and the TV-Stereo cabinet to keep the cables well out of her reach.


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## tobiko (Oct 3, 2004)

This is pretty bad.  I have a velco case for my 15inch titanium powerbook.  It was cold out and the pavement was very icy.  I was getting out of a friends SUV and i had the velcro upside down.  The velco unlatches as i step onto the ground. It hits the pavemnt with a hard thud.  The screen, hingh was compleatly broken.  Case damaged.  Well because of the damage they could not just take my old screen out and put it in a new case.  So i payed $900 to get it fixed.  And that sucked


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## MBHockey (Oct 3, 2004)

Funny that i came across this thread today.  Well.  Today i was waiting for a friend to meet up at the dining hall so i was listening to my iPod (4th Gen, 20GB) and i don't know what happened, but it slipped out of my hand and starting falling out of my reach over the railing i was leaning over.

this is the weird part....
there was a kid walking into the building (underneath me, the railing is kind of on an overpass) carrying his laundry basket and my iPod fell directly onto his newly folded laundry.  I couldn't believe it.  it was the most insanely lucky thing that has ever/will ever happen to me, ever.  Very weird i came across this thread today, too.

i went out and bought a case for my ipod, and some glue for my fingers....


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## Salvo (Oct 4, 2004)

Just after I had the Charger for my iBook replaced under AppleCare, and I just Purchased my iPod, I decided to Complete my M4A collection.
I ejected a CD a pushed my Chair Back so I could get to my CD Cabinet without getting up. Unfortunately, the Brand-spanking Cable was wrapped around one of the Coasters of my chair. My iBook came crashing down and the CD Drive was bent at about 30º. AppleCare doesn't cover that sort of stuff.
Luckily, my Rental Insurance does, so after a Au$220 excess, I had a nice new $700 Hitachi Combo Drive.
Now I know why the G4 iBooks have Slot-loading Drives.


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## cbrooks3 (Oct 5, 2004)

not quite an accident, but a stupid story, haha!

Back in April, I took my iPod and iBook to school with me in the same case. i listened to the ipod for a while and then put it in a pouch in the laptop bag where no one could find it, not even me!! i looked all through the bag, classroom, house, car, etc... and couldnt find it. talk about a bummer!!! then i was at my girlfriends house tonight and my phone rings and its my brother calling. he found it in the laptop case right where i NOW remember putting it. that was a LONG summer without an iPod. i had even bought a cd player for the car cause i no longer had anything to use my fm modulator with except ibook (btw,... not to easy to use while driving). now im off to look for the power cord. i have the power brick and case in a bag, but not cord. im thinking i gave it to my sis for her mini when she left for school. oh well.


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## WinWord10 (Oct 19, 2004)

I fell down some stairs at school today.. and my powerbook went down with me. It was pretty funny actually... and I'm fine, but now there's a big dent in my powerbook's case in the front near the cdrom drive. I was able to flatten it out somewhat with a rubber mallet.. and it's pretty much unnoticible.. sucky though. Apple needs to build sturdier casing.


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## Veljo (Oct 20, 2004)

This was back with my LC575...I remember I spilt various juices on it, strawberry ice cream topping, you name it it was done. Never unplugged, never stopped working. Also lots of crumbs


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## Jeffo (Oct 20, 2004)

I have a few:

*story 1
*I saw a buddy of mine spill a "bladder buster" of dr. pepper from 7-11 on his keyboard.  it dried out and worked fine after that but some of the key stuck down from time to time.  he took it apart and cleaned it out and it worked for at least two more years (i quit that job).

*story 2
*i had a performa 630 (headless) in my apartment at school and when i came home from break it had a huge puddle of water on and around it from a leak in the ceiling.  It was still running and the fan was slapping some water out.  i shut it off and pulled it apart and soaked up as much of the water as i could.  i then let it dry out for about a day. turned it back on and it is still running (8 years later).

*story 3
*the same thing happened to my powerbook 520, but a different leak (same crappy apartment).  that one i did not take apart, i just let it dry out for about 4 1/2 days.  it worked great for a few years after that until i sold it.

*story 4
*most recent story is of me and my ibook about 18 months ago.  My "computer lab" is in the basement.  I got home from work and was carrying my laptop in the case downstairs and i took one step down and then shoulder strap hooked on my other foot (carrying the case by they handle).  It pulled the case out of my hand and threw me off balance.  both of us when tumbling all the way down the entire flight of stairs to the concrete.  The ibook still works great and did not even get a scratch.  me on the other hand just layed there for a few minutes and ended up walking with a limp for about a day.


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## Jeffo (Oct 20, 2004)

oh forgot about this one:

*Story 5
*my sis-in-law dropped my brothers clamshell ibook on the corner where the power outlet is while it was plugged in.  it damaged the outlet on the ibook but actually made the plug go into it much nicer after apple fixed it under warranty.


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## Convert (Oct 20, 2004)

If I EVER dropped my powerbook I'd freak out. My dad has a Centrino Laptop which is similar (15 inch though), but it has a much thicker screen, as do all the other laptops. BUt I look at my powerbook, and it looks like I can bend it! but so far no problems.


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## Oscar Castillo (Oct 20, 2004)

I installed Norton Internet Security.

No choice but to reinstall the OS and toss Norton in the trash.


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## smithy (Oct 21, 2004)

well today i renamed my home directory and all my files stuffed up ahaha im such a toss, jokes.


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## lkwoodtrumpet (Jan 13, 2005)

First week of school, decided to head over to my girlfriend's place on the bike.  It was around 8 at night, and I swerved off the sidewalk, and then for some reason decided to get back on.  Well, the ramp that normally comes installed where the sidewalk meets the road at an intersection wasn't there.  I took a hard left, slammed on the brakes and did a frontwheel wheelie.  Minor scrapes on the knees...no biggie...yet.  Got to my girlfriends', and while she's practicing those new nursing skills on my knee, I panically remembered I had my brand new powerbook 15" with me in my back pack. So I quickly grabbed it out, and sure enough, a good dime sized dent in the left back corner near the power port.  I still have problems keeping the plug in sometimes, but it still charges and works perfectly. I sometimes get a little sticking in the screen hinges, but nothing major at all has occured since.  I can guarantee that short of a panasonic toughbook, any wintel laptop would have keeled over by now.  Anyone know anybody in the Applecare department?  Maybe I can claim a spontaneous implosion!   ::ha::


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## quiksan (Jan 13, 2005)

2 boneheaded mistakes:

1 - decided to use some app off versiontracker to remove the extra language packs and regains ome space...
I chose a bad option, and rendered my keyboard useless.  luckily I'd run a full backup the previous night.  reinstalled from scratch and all was well again.

2 - somehow the powerbrick cord connected to my wife's 12" pb got tangled just enough, around my foot.  I went to walk away and pulled it onto the hard wood floor.  partially caught it, but it bent the plug that goes INTO the pb (the plug's no good now).  pb's ok, small dent next to the power port, but it works fine still.  whew!  my wife's first reaction, "You'd have killed me if I did that to your powerbook!"  Yeah, I felt REALLY bad about it..


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## Jeffo (Jan 13, 2005)

*Story 6*

Just a couple of weeks ago my nephew knocked over a glass of water directly onto the same iBook mentioned in story 5.  my sister-in-law immediately picked it up and unplugged the power and so on, but the water ran out of the thing when she tipped it on the side.  my sister-in-law said that she heard it sizzling when she first picked it up.  My brother soaked up as much as he could from every accessable place and let it sit for several days.  it has been working fine since.

*Story 7*

I pulled this same nephew (when he was about 25ish pounds) off of the computer a long time ago.  it was left closed in the corner of the room.  he was standing directly on the top of the computer.  there was no damage to it that time either.


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## MrNivit1 (Jan 13, 2005)

I used my G1 iPod like crazy during college to carry all my information and music around.  Problem was that I plugged and unplugged the firewire cord so many times that the soddering came loose and the iPod wouldn't charge or transfer files/songs without pushing the plug one way or another.  Barely managed to get all the info off of it, that is just before the HD on the B&W G3 tower went! Lost most of my data and am still trying to recover as much as I can of the data that I did pull off the dead drive.  Let this be a lesson: don't keep important info on a heavily used portable device and make backups often!

Second story: I once was witness to a guy bringing in a PC laptop (forget what brand) into CompUSA to have fixed/repaired.  Apparently, he left his laptop on the floor open next to the bed and when the alarm clock that was across the room went off in the morning, he stepped on the laptop and crunched both the keyboard/parts underneath and put a huge splinter crack in the screen (akin to what one would see if the windshield of a car were to get cracked by a rouge pebble).  He had to pay to have basicly the entire system fixed.


P.S.  all the horror stories about liquids being spilled on Power/iBooks just justifies my personal rule for NEVER having any sort of liquid near my PB.


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## Giaguara (Jan 14, 2005)

Oh well.. most of the time I eat and drink in front of a Mac .. at least at work, and home... Imagine 3-4 people in front of a kitchen table, all attached to their 'Books... so far lucky, ...


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## StarBuck (Jan 15, 2005)

I work for an apple dealer in the UK below I have listed two interesting accidents.

*No: 1*

Going back a few years a client brought in a Mac SE30 that had been dropped in the bath.  Turns out she was having a party and someone filled up the bath and dropped the mac in it.

When the client found the machine submerged in the bath she pulled it out and plugged it in to the mains to see if was ok (Danger, Will Robinson! Danger!) The lights went out end of party.

After drying out the Mac SE30 in the workshop the only thing that had to be replaced was the HD and the Floppy Drive.

*No: 2* 

Another client came in telling me his floppy drive was faulty, after catching his son sticking a knife in the floppy drive, he had to pay in cash due to his son losing his credit cards.

We replaced the drive, later on that week I went to send the faulty unit back to Apple, as I was boxing the fdhd up out dropped his credit cards.

*No: 3*

A client left his iPod G1 on the roof of his car pulled off and as he was driving heard the iPod slide across his roof and watched it hit the road in his rear view mirrorr.

He pulled over and ran back to reclaim the unit by this time it had been run over by a few more cars, reclaimed the unit as you can imagine it didn't look to health.

It still worked the LCD was smashed and the case was falling apart.


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## TommyWillB (Jan 17, 2005)

At work we have cubicles. On the tops of some cubicle walls are little shelves holding plants.

 One day the play lady came by to water the plants. When she got to my neighbor's cube she overshot the plant and instead watered his monitor. The monitor instantly sparked and let up a plume of smoke.

 The monitor was dead, but lucklily the Mac 7200 it was sitting on survived.


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## TommyWillB (Jan 17, 2005)

mindbend said:
			
		

> I was in a car "incident" once where a dog ran out in front of me so I slammed on the brakes and my Power Tower Pro 225 was thrown into the dashboard. (I had been carting it back and forth from work to home). Once at work, I realized it wouldn't boot, so I opened her up and started playing around. Turns out the whole box had ben knocked out of whack so the PCI slots were off kilter. With a bit of nudging a hammering, I got it more less back in shape and everything worked again.


Please tell me you did not litereally use a hammer?


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## TommyWillB (Jan 17, 2005)

mdnky said:
			
		

> ...Spilled a full bottle of Budweiser on top of the desktop once...the first time I ever saw OS X stumble. It was fine the next morning though...


That was Mac OS X's subtle way of criticizing your choice of beer. Stick to Micro-Brews and OS X won't get so snotty.





			
				mdnky said:
			
		

> ...Same beige desktop was in my last car when some kid pulled out in front of me...got launched from the backseat into the front against the dash..


Several people here have mentioned sudden car stops.

 I've been laughed at for this, but when I transport my computers I absolutely DO use the seatbelt to secure them. It works!


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## Giaguara (Jan 18, 2005)

Tommy green tea would work even better ... seen 2 Powerbooks not die on having been soaked on green tea. (No sugar though).


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## Ifrit (Jan 20, 2005)

I noticed that a bottle is much more secure if you are drinking in front of a computer. First, if it falls the bottle has to be at a certain (larger) degree in order to spill it's content. This will give you more time to react and catch it. Secondly not that much is spilled 'cause of the thinner bottle neck. It became my second nature to close the lid of the bottle if it is in an area with electronic devices.


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## Decado (May 17, 2005)

just put a full glass of Orange juice over my powerbook keyboard 
pulled everything out. tilted it to get the most out of the machine (not because i was thirsty, i might add). well i'm writing on it now, but the spacebar is sticky as hell.


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## xarcom (May 18, 2005)

Decado said:
			
		

> just put a full glass of Orange juice over my powerbook keyboard
> pulled everything out. tilted it to get the most out of the machine (not because i was thirsty, i might add). well i'm writing on it now, but the spacebar is sticky as hell.



Something similar happened to me as well. I spilled Chocolate Milk all over my ibook keyboard a while back... It was interesting to say the least.  I removed all the keys and cleaned each one individually.  It took 2 hours but it works fine now... no stickiness or anything.. I highly suggest you do the same. Ohh and be warned that if you do, you'll probably be grossed out to see what lives in your keyboard..


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## xarcom (May 18, 2005)

Decado said:
			
		

> just put a full glass of Orange juice over my powerbook keyboard
> pulled everything out. tilted it to get the most out of the machine (not because i was thirsty, i might add). well i'm writing on it now, but the spacebar is sticky as hell.



Something similar happened to me as well. I spilled Chocolate Milk all over my ibook keyboard a while back... It was interesting to say the least.  I removed all the keys and cleaned each one individually.  It took 2 hours but it works fine now... no stickiness or anything.. I highly suggest you do the same. Ohh and be warned that if you do, you'll probably be grossed out to see what lives in your keyboard.. 

for details on how I did this, I followed the steps detailed here: http://mij.oltrelinux.com/ibook/cleaning_keyboard/


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## arri (May 18, 2005)

ok, another one:

i had made my bed about 3 meters up in the air in my room to save space.
one morning me and my girlfriend woke up, and in a goodmorning-hug we accidentally turned to much to the edge.. and fell all the way down, right on top of my desk, which had a beige G3 on it. from there we role off the desk, taking everything on it with us, down to the floor.
the scanner and printer didn't servive. one monitor had collapsed. and the Beige G3 didn't really look as if it were ever to run again: the case was cracked and bended, and opened during the crash. all front-panels had come off.. etc..

but after bending-back pices, reassembling everythjing and pressing the powerbutton: TADAAAAA.. it still works perfect today.

and most important, we didn't get hurt ourselves either.
some angels around i guess

arri


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## Lt Major Burns (May 18, 2005)

xarcom said:
			
		

> Something similar happened to me as well. I spilled Chocolate Milk all over my ibook keyboard a while back... It was interesting to say the least.  I removed all the keys and cleaned each one individually.  It took 2 hours but it works fine now... no stickiness or anything.. I highly suggest you do the same. Ohh and be warned that if you do, you'll probably be grossed out to see what lives in your keyboard..
> 
> for details on how I did this, I followed the steps detailed here: http://mij.oltrelinux.com/ibook/cleaning_keyboard/




just cleaned my keyboard in a fit of work-avoiding. 

small, crap-making little creatures have obviously been _very_ productive in the last six months.... hideous.


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## Lt Major Burns (May 18, 2005)

arri said:
			
		

> ok, another one:
> 
> i had made my bed about 3 meters up in the air in my room to save space.
> one morning me and my girlfriend woke up, and in a goodmorning-hug we accidentally turned to much to the edge.. and fell all the way down, right on top of my desk, which had a beige G3 on it. from there we role off the desk, taking everything on it with us, down to the floor.
> ...



stranger than fiction... couldn't make it up!


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## nixgeek (May 18, 2005)

Well, this is more of an OS 9, older program accident.

I have a Motorola StarMax with both OS 9 and Debian installed.  I decided to reboot from Linux to OS 9 so that my son could play "Mixed Up Mother Goose" on it.  Well, things went well until the computer COMPLETELY locked up.  I actually had to hit the power button on the StarMax and noticed that BootX gave me an error saying it couldn't find the partition with the Linux kernel.  So I let it boot into OS 9 and noticed that the partition wasn't there.  A quick klaunch of the Disk First Aid brought it back up, but it has errors.

Lesson learned: never again will I play old 68k games on the StarMax, no matter what my son says.


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## Decado (May 18, 2005)

nice, Xarcom!
but the powerbooks keyboard looks quite different, so i wonder if the same instruction applies to it. Anyone?
i will try to keep away from the computer for a few days (Ghhaaaa!) to see if it gets solved by drying the stuck juice to powder.


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## riccbhard (May 18, 2005)

I've seen a Titanium PowerBook tumble down 15 cement steps. No damage. Works perfect, and it was even on sleep . It didnt even wake up when it hit the bottom.

Well it dosent involve damage, but I accidently deleted the calculator.app on my Mac . ElDiablo helped me get it back.


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## Giaguara (May 20, 2005)

Powerbook is different, right kallikanzaroi ... it's harder to remove the keyboard. You'd need to lift the keys f2 or f3 and f11 or f12 (around them - I don't remember offhand which) so that you could lift the keyboard .. and in a specific way and specific angle -- as it's not planned to be a user removable part. I think letting the pbook dry a few days to see if it would eliminate the problem might work as well. At least, try that before trying to see what else you can (unless you find the service manual etc).


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