Your Mac accidents

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.
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While you were playing Quake III? What was your parrot doing on your keyboard while you you playing Quake III?!?!?
 
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!?)
 
My secretary once spilled a coke in her ADB pro keyboard, no problems pressing the keys, getting them un-pressed a little harder :-)
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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. ;)
 
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. ;)
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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!
 
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!
 
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.
 
Giaguara said:
I have always wondered why birds fly and poo on the same time.
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Not always, I've washed enough crap off my car from parking under the tree in the front yard.
 
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.
 
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?
 
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.
 
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.
 
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.
 
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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