When Disaster Strikes Your Laptop

Stuff happens. We've all dropped our cell phones, spilled on our keyboards and found our chewed Bluetooth ear piece in the dog's bed. In some cases you just have to write off the loss and go shopping for new, but in the case of your laptop computer you may not have that luxury. So what do you do when the data hits the fan? We hear from tons of people who have spilled water or another liquid on their laptop. Hopefully its just water, because when you bring any sort of sticky substance to bear, you know your problems are going to be more serious. In some cases (if you are super lucky) and you turn the laptop off immediately and unplug it immediately, if you give you machine time to dry out everything may come back up and running. The key is avoiding any kind of short circuit from the nasty combination of electricity and water. Step by Step: 1. If your used laptop, refurbished laptop or new laptop is plugged in, turn it off and unplug it immediately. 2. If the AC power adapter got wet and the battery got wet, remove the components and wipe them off. 3. Remove cards in the PC slot and dry them carefully. 4. Remove and clean any liquid off the display. 5. Remove the memory module from the laptop and dry it thoroughly. 6. If you spilled on the keyboard remove the affected keycaps and dry and clean them individually (if you spilled something sugary, bring in some cleaner as well). If the substance was coffee with milk and sugar, or some other sort of sugary juice or soda, you may have more work in store. If you are computer enthusiast, this is when you may want to seek replacement parts for your laptop - specifically the keyboard - because really, what is more annoying than a sticking “p” key? If you seem to be having trouble with “internal” issues, i.e. spyware and virus problems you may need to do a lot of work to get back to where you began. A couple of good products out there can make your life a lot easier though. For spyware, we've had a lot of luck with SpyWare Doctor () which won best of 2005 from PC magazine and is user friendly, constantly updated and very effective. If you are having consistent virus issues, GriSoft's AVG anti virus is free for personal users (they make their money on professional licenses) and it a great tool. Again, this is a user friendly tool that updates frequently and catches just about everything out there. If your laptop has been very badly infected, our best advice is to back everything up and then re-install your OS. It may seem drastic but you can't be too careful these days. Finally, if your problem is just too severe to troubleshoot yourself you should make your way to your local laptop repair person and pay the money to diagnose the problem. You may be able to fix it or you may learn the sad truth that you need to start saving your money for a new used laptop or refurbished laptop. Obviously, in order to make any problems with your laptop less catastrophic we do recommend backing up your system weekly (if you are a frequent computer user) or monthly or more! Additionally, try to keep liquids and food away from your computer if you really care about its longevity. Blair Stephens is an experienced writer and proud member of the www.UsedLaptops.com team. Used Laptops specializes in providing customers with the best possible used laptops and refurbished laptops at bargain prices. If you need computing power at bargain prices, Used Laptops is the place to go!