Laptop hazards

by billso on Tuesday, 4 March 2008

Yes­ter­day I dis­cussed how lap­top com­put­ers are designed. One impor­tant point I should men­tion is that lap­tops are not designed for user ser­vice­abil­ity. The screws are small, the parts are tightly fit­ted, and one wrong move might ruin or destroy the unit. There’s enough energy in a lap­top bat­tery to start a fire, as I dis­cussed in my posts from 15 August 2006 and 1 Octo­ber 2006.

Most lap­tops have small doors that users can open to replace and upgrade RAM and hard disk dri­ves. Almost every other kind of repair or upgrade should be per­formed by a pro­fes­sional who has the tools and expe­ri­ence for the job.

If you really want to look at some com­puter hard­ware, check my Pow­er­Point file in this 17 Feb­ru­ary 2008 post.

Warn­ing!

Never attempt to open or ser­vice a lap­top com­puter while the bat­tery is installed, or while the com­puter is plugged in to AC power. Dis­con­nect the power sources, but be care­ful, because the computer’s parts are still charged with a haz­ardous amount of elec­tric­ity. To remove this charge, press the computer’s power switch for at least 10 sec­onds. This will dis­charge the capac­i­tors inside the computer.

See these web pages for more safety tips:

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