The laptop, of course, is very convenient to use, due to its mobility and compactness: it is convenient to take it with you on a trip, to work, on vacation, and so on. At the other side - the laptop is more prone to mechanical damage. The most frequent defects are:
- Falling from a small height;
- Shock during transportation or while the computer is running;
- Accidental spillage of liquid on the laptop (tea, coffee, juice, water).
What can happen when a laptop falls and what to do after that?
When a laptop falls even from a small height, in addition to mechanical damage to the case, it is possible to disable a number of electronic components. For example, if the laptop fell and at the same time the corner of its upper half was slightly deformed, then, in addition to the aesthetic appearance, there is a high probability of obtaining image defects in case of partial damage to the laptop display, which demonstrates themselves as multi-colored stripes across the screen, trembling or flickering, the appearance of black areas, as well as the loss of ability to reproduce image with a completely black screen.
If your laptop is equipped with a hard drive and it fell while it was on, then, even despite the presence of elementary protection in the form of parking of reading heads on the operation of a free fall sensor, provided by the manufacturer, you can damage the precision mechanics of the drive and lose all data stored on it ( photos, videos, documents, games).
A strong impact can also lead to significant deformation of the laptop motherboard, which, in turn, can cause serious consequences: from the loss of contact of electronic components with pads on the board to a short circuit between the layers of the printed circuit board. The result of such damage can be a partial loss of performance of individual laptop systems or its complete failure.
A typical algorithm of actions that you can independently perform after a fall or hit on a laptop screen is as follows:
- After the laptop falls, it is necessary to make a visual inspection and make sure that there are no obvious mechanical damages, and if no changes in the state of the case can be detected, then proceed to the next step;
- Turn on the laptop and pay attention to the image quality of the display and the speed of loading the operating system. If the screen shows any deviations from the image shown by the laptop before the fall, then the laptop's display is probably damaged and needs to be replaced. In the event that you notice an extremely long loading of a computer that did not exist before and a hard drive is installed in your laptop, then it is likely that it will soon fail and all information stored on the drive will be lost. In both situations described, the best course of action to take is to turn off the laptop and contact our service center. Remember that the longer your laptop equipped with a hard drive is on after the above problems are identified, the higher the chance of permanent data loss.
- If no visible damage is noticeable, the speed of the laptop has not changed, there are no problems with the network and peripheral devices, then most likely you are lucky and there were no immediate consequences, however, they may appear after some time, and in this case, contacting service center may be unavoidable.
What to do if the laptop is flooded with tea, coffee or other liquid?
First of all, urgently disconnect the flooded laptop from the charger and remove the battery! If the battery in your laptop is not removable, you should shut down the work - every minute after flooding the laptop doubles the cost of repairs, or even completely can lead it to an unrepairable state.
Do not turn on a flooded laptop even after it is completely dry and do not dry it with a hairdryer! Turning on the laptop after flooding with liquid significantly accelerates the course of electrochemical corrosion of conductors, contacts and leads of electronic components, and a hair dryer helps to give an unusual and unaesthetic shape to the fusible plastic case and keyboard.
Due to the fact that most laptop computers do not have any protection even from moisture, then any liquid, if it floods the laptop keyboard, will most likely damage not only the keyboard itself, but also get on the motherboard, after which it will be necessary to carry out a subsequent inspection of damages and, at a minimum, ultrasonic cleaning in a dielectric liquid of the entire board in a service center.
You should not open a flooded laptop to a non-trained person, because flat cables may break, damage to connectors and other internals, which directly affect the cost of subsequent repairs. It is best to contact our service center for a qualified repair and the sooner this is done, the less damage will be done to the laptop.