Anyone here ever drop their Laptop? Did it survive?

Discussion in 'Miscellaneous' started by Dream, May 16, 2013.

  1. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2001
    Location:
    Derry, Maine
    I just dropped laptop yesterday. I was going to the library and was holding a pile of books in my hands, the strap on the bag that was around my arms that held my laptop detached and the entire bag hit the hard cement. I was scared as hell and when I went back home I quickly saw that the corner (it's at the far back right when the laptop is opened) of the laptop damaged, the power button was permanently pushed in.

    Luckily the screen was undamaged along with the keyboard. I nervously turned it on and breathed a sigh of relief when it came on, the power button still works as long as I make sure to put a bit more pressure pushing it to turn it on. I think the ONLY reason my laptop survived with minimum damage was that it was in the laptop bag, which had a little padding. This must have been dumb luck.

    The lesson I learned today? NEVER carry a laptop bag around your arms with strap, always carry it in your hands.

    Anyone else also drop their expensive laptop/computer/electronic device or somehow damage it on accident? Was it able to survive?
     
  2. Ar-Pharazon

    Ar-Pharazon Admiral Premium Member

    Joined:
    May 19, 2005
    Location:
    Far North Chicago Suburbs
    Does it have an SSD? A standard hard drive will suffer most from dropping.
     
  3. thestrangequark

    thestrangequark Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Aug 8, 2006
    Location:
    Brooklyn thestrangequark
    I dropped my work computer (the big and massively expensive macbook pro) on a city sidewalk when the strap of my bag broke. That was last winter and it's doing fine. I dropped my own macbook pro (the smaller and slightly less massively expensive) off my bed, which is pretty high up, when I tripped on the speaker cord. It survived too!
     
  4. Third Nacelle

    Third Nacelle Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Apr 4, 2013
    Location:
    The Denorios Belt
    I have a nine-year-old ThinkPad that's survived drops, coffee spills, puppy pee, being left on a dashboard on a hot summer day, being violently crammed in the overhead compartment, more power surges than I can count, and the rupture of its own battery. It's still chugging along nicely, and it's only on its second XP install.

    My Dell laptop that I've had two years? Dying as I type this, takes numerous tries before it will power up, freezes about every half hour. Never been dropped.
     
  5. Dream

    Dream Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 2, 2001
    Location:
    Derry, Maine
    Thankfully, the label on my laptop says HDD drive.
     
  6. Tora Ziyal

    Tora Ziyal Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Feb 27, 2010
    Yes, and yes.

    I slipped on ice and sprained my ankle. My laptop flew about 10 feet before landing. I remember someone being horrified when I said I didn't care about my ankle; all that mattered was that the computer was okay. But, hey, this was the winter of 1991-92, laptops were expensive, and I knew the sprain would heal. :lol:
     
  7. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2007
    Location:
    Randyland
    Yes I did, and no, it didn't.

    Lousy lack of balance.
     
  8. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    Yes. IBM Thinkpads are nearly indestructible. I had one a number of years ago, and it took a tumble down two flights of steps. Picked it up, popped the battery back in, started up without a hitch.
     
  9. Marten

    Marten Captain Captain

    Joined:
    Jan 3, 2010
    Location:
    Southern Sweden
    I've dropped mine a few times. Most computers can take a punch or two. Milk through the keyboard though, not so much.
     
  10. lurok

    lurok Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 15, 2011
    Location:
    Lost in the EU expanse with a nice cup of tea
    Drop? No. But various ones have suffered odd mishaps and survived. The bummer is when things like the hard drives die for no good reason.

    A few years back the UK's Gadget Show roadtested an allegedly indestructible laptop. Drove over it with a truck and blew it up with explosives. Fun.
     
  11. RandyS

    RandyS Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Nov 9, 2007
    Location:
    Randyland
    Sounds like you got lucky. Mine was dropped down one flight of stairs and was ruined. I might have saved it, but at the time I was more concerned with making sure I didn't break my own neck in the fall.
     
  12. Amaris

    Amaris Fleet Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    Dec 25, 2002
    Location:
    United States
    A week later, I dropped it off a 5 foot high porch onto concrete, got a hairline crack in the lid. Popped the battery back in, worked like a charm.

    This was an IBM Thinkpad T21.
    800 Mhz Pentium III, 20GB HDD, 128MB RAM, CD-ROM.

    That sucker is still around, too, though I don't own it anymore. I sold it, and have kept in touch with the new owner, who still has it, and says it still runs.

    Also, glad you were okay!
     
  13. auntiehill

    auntiehill The Blooness Premium Member

    Joined:
    Feb 7, 2006
    Location:
    on the couch
    Have I dropped MY laptop? No. I have, however, dropped hubby's laptop---twice. Which is why I now have my own. :lol:

    Luckily for me, the laptop never got more than cosmetic damage--messed up the hinges a tad, scuffed the edges a bit, etc. The hard drive survived, so that was all that mattered. Plus, hubby being Super I.T. Man, anything broken can be fixed and/or replaced with spares.
     
  14. Retu

    Retu Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Dec 4, 2005
    Location:
    Finland
    Modern hard drives have accelerometers which, if sensing a free-fall, will signal the drive to park its read/write heads. That way heads won't crash on the disk surface, which would lead to data loss.
     
  15. Ain Jalut

    Ain Jalut Lieutenant

    Joined:
    May 18, 2013
    Once or twice but only within my own home.
     
  16. stoneroses

    stoneroses Rear Admiral Rear Admiral

    Joined:
    Apr 5, 2001
    Location:
    Herford, Germany
    A colleague at work had his new mac book pro trashed by his cat who knocked it off a table causing irevicuble damage. However he got a new one from his house insurance.
     
  17. Halmirdax

    Halmirdax Lieutenant Commander Red Shirt

    Joined:
    Apr 21, 2013
    Location:
    Studio
    Dropped by a friend onto concrete, (lesson: carry your own laptop.) Laptop has quite a dent but it all still seems to work, the friend didn't do so well.
     
  18. Velocity

    Velocity Vice Admiral Admiral

    Joined:
    May 19, 2001
    Location:
    In the back of beyond
    Dropped my Toshiba laptop when i carried it into the kitchen to show my husband something and the cord caught on a cabinet knob and jerked it out of my hands and it hit the floor. Yeah, stupid, but the laptop is fine. My heart almost popped though.
     
  19. Awesome Possum

    Awesome Possum Moddin' Admiral

    Joined:
    Mar 13, 2001
    Location:
    Earth
    Not a laptop, but my cat knocked my Mac Mini off my desk the first day I had it. Some cables were unplugged, but other than that it was working perfectly the whole time.