The Rarest and Most Shocking Laptop Breakdowns I’ve Witnessed

As a laptop repairer, I have encountered a myriad of unique and challenging situations. From the worst conditions a laptop can be in to the weirdest stories, my career as a bench tech has provided me with an array of memorable experiences. Read on to discover the most shocking and bizarre conditions a laptop can find itself in.

Story 1: The Apple IIe with a 'Mouse Home'

Central Louisiana, Late 1980s
While working as a bench tech, I encountered an Apple IIe with a very unusual condition. A mouse had made a home in the computer, leaving droppings and excrement everywhere. The boards were in serious need of cleaning, but the computer was not beyond repair. I carefully took it apart, washed the internal components under running water, scrubbed them with a brush, and allowed them to dry. Upon reassembly, the machine worked perfectly fine. This instance teaches us that sometimes, extreme conditions can be reversed with careful refurbishment.

Story 2: The Bench Tech's Experience with Corporate Laptops

A Corporate Laptop Depot, Mid to Late 1990s
In a corporate laptop depot, I encountered a user who claimed that their laptop stopped powering up one day. Upon investigation, I found the placement of a strange odor that quickly identified the smell as ammonia. This event led to the conclusion that the user had let a cat urinate on the laptop. The user had tried to clean it up and even to hide their mistake. Clearly, this was not a typical case of a coffee or juice spill, but an unfortunate encounter with bio-waste. After consulting with the boss, we decided to remove the hard drive to save the user’s data.

Story 3: The Carjacked Laptop

A High-Alert Incident in Central Louisiana, Early 2000s
In another memorable instance, I was handed a laptop that had been shattered into several pieces. The case was open, with parts of the plastic missing, and the screen and mainboard were cracked. This was a rare and peculiar case, possibly caused by someone backing over their laptop or leaving it on a car before driving off. The user requested that we recover the data, and through luck, the hard drive was still intact. After a quick inventory check, it was discovered that the user had already received a spare laptop and only needed the data transferred. When he arrived to do the transfer, he revealed an even more astonishing story: the laptop had been thrown out of a moving car during a police chase. The police had managed to pick up most of the pieces and had it in evidence for a few weeks.

Conclusion

These anecdotes highlight the variety of mishaps a laptop can face. From bio-waste to accidents, laptops are often put to the test in ways we would least expect. My experiences range from the mundane to the bizarre, but each has one common theme: resilience and the human capacity to survive even the most extreme conditions. For all the laptops I've repaired, these stories remain some of the most memorable.