Chapter 20
Chapter 20: Ten Quick Solutions ..................................................................................
In This Chapter
Falling to the earth
Burning down the computer house
Jolting a stalled hard drive
Tuning in a picture on your LCD
A
rthur Dent and his buddy Ford Prefect lived through strange adversity
by adhering to the advice of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxyin
Douglas Adam’s wondrous book of the same name: “Don’t panic.” As hitchhik-
ers with laptops, those should be your watchwords, too. Don’t panic if your
computer crashes to the ground, if you spill a cuppa Joe on the keyboard, or
any other unhappy accident befalls it. Take a deep breath, think about the sit-
uation, and then try to save the day.In this section I start you on the way to recovery from 10 possible disasters.
Please forgive me if I begin each lesson with a small guilt trip; I’m merely
trying to stop problems beforethey happen.Your Computer Falls Off the Table.............................................................
Now why’d you go and do that? Always make sure your laptop is on a firm
footing on a sturdy table. Except, of course, if you are working on the seat-
back tray table on airliner — one of the more common locations for laptops
and one of the most dangerous.Anyhow, the computer has fallen. Don’t panic.Laptops are pretty sturdy, and most will survive a tumble of a few feet to the
ground.. .with a few exceptions. The biggest risk comes if the laptop’s LCD
screen was open at the time of the crash; if the front or side of the screen hits