So a couple of days ago as I was boarding a plane to fly back to Ireland I dropped my powerbook on the runway.

I’ve dropped it several times in the past but that was on carpet or floorboards. It also landed flat in those instances so the impact was spread over a larger surface area. In those cases there was no damage.

In this case it landed directly on the corner and actually bounced. There was a nasty sound, the sound that the brain associates with something breaking. Powerbooks shouldn’t bounce so I was worried that this time I had actually damaged it.

[1]

The machine still worked fine but the metal around the corner that it landed on had twisted and warped a bit. This is the corner where the power supply goes in and the protruding metal meant that the power connector no longer fit into it’s socket. The case had bent outwards preventing it from fitting into the socket.

[2]

[3]

I tried to take the case off but couldn’t get it without the risk of pulling out some of the circuitry. I took out every screw in the case and went at it with a leatherman but still couldn’t get the case off without some of the internals coming with it.

At this point I tried hitting it with a hammer to flatten out the bent aluminium. I don’t think hitting your laptop with a hammer is a good idea but I think these older powerbooks are very sturdy and resiliant to abuse ( Baked [4] Apple [5] anyone?) so I was prepared to risk it (Also, since December, it’s no longer my main machine and all my data is backed up).

Anyway that didn’t help as the force wasn’t focused enough to change the shape of the metal. So next I got a very small chisel and hit this with the hammer at the points where I wanted to force the laptop body back in. This worked a treat and after about 10 minutes of hammering and chiseling at selected points I was able to charge my laptop again.

[6]

[7]

This powerbook is almost 3 years old (G4 Al.) and has taken a lot of abuse in that time. I bought a padded laptop bag for it but I never used it - I just throw it into whatever bag I’m using to carry the rest of my stuff. Up until December I’ve been using it practically all day every day since I bought it. But this was the most stressful test of it so far. I’ve been reluctant to upgrade because I don’t think the newer apple laptops are as sturdy or reliable. Hopefully it hasn’t suffered any permanent damage beyond cosmetic. So far it seems ok.

Conclusion

• Try not to drop your laptop on concrete.
• These old powerbooks are very sturdy.
• Beating your laptop with a hammer and chisel is fun.