When Bad Things Happen to Good Computers
I was recently doing some research on Flickr, looking for photos of melted, damaged and destroyed hardware storage devices (after all, that’s what we help you recover from–sign up today and get 2 GB of online storage free). As it turns out, I hit the mother lode. I expected to find a few ruined laptops and dropped iPhones, but the carnage goes on and on. Here’s a bunch of my favourites, presented without comment:
I know I said ‘presented without comment’, but this one is too amusing to forego. From this photo’s Flickr page:
My buddy Kidd left his laptop in his oven while away - you know, in case of break-in or fire, it’d be safe. We’re all over after grabbing him from the airport, ready to bake some cookies. Preheat the oven to 375, start mixing the ingredients, about ten minutes later, we notice a pretty awful smell. Open the oven door and, surreally enough, there’s a laptop and a backup harddrive staring me in the face.
The cookies, however, were great.
And, of course, no gallery on the Web these days is complete without a LOLCat:
Photos by, in order, GazH, Miguel García, Andrman, William Krapp, Jon Ross, John, Adrian Black, Jason Matthews, Josh Yellin, Lynn Lopez, Grant Hutchinson, Duane Storey, Jim Ray, estherbester, Michael Beattie, Elizabeth Galle, Scotty Perry, zen Sutherland, Simon Jacquier, Johnathan Warner (two photos), arvind grover, HuubK, Andrew Mager (two photos) and Steve Thomas.
Tags: broken, busted, camera, computers, destroyed, electronics, iphone, ipod, melted, old
August 26th, 2008 at 6:11 pm
Ahh, looking at my LCD again in that state brings back fond memories…
August 28th, 2008 at 7:46 am
What a great set of technological weepers! Thanks too for being so diligent in your attribution. My photo was among them and i followed it back here (via stats) to spend a few minutes shaking my head in empathy at others’ computer breakdowns. Ta!
August 28th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
i felt someone just gave my heart a tight squeeze.
September 8th, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Windooooows! And walls. And matches.
September 9th, 2008 at 1:27 am
“Hey lets put my PC in the oven to keep it safe” Who the fuck thinks that? And who cares most about their laptop?
September 9th, 2008 at 2:33 am
Reminds me of my iPod, and my replacement iPod, and my replacement replacement iPod.
September 9th, 2008 at 3:18 am
while im sure the PCs were destroyed on accident due to lightning or some other outside godlike force, im presuming the macs in this presentation were destroyed either out of sport or lack of need.
September 9th, 2008 at 3:20 am
In the last 12 years working as a PC repair tech at levels (home PC whitebox and commercial builds all the way DOWN to supercomputing installations) i’ve seen examples of every damage you had. Absolutely a great lineup of destruction! A long look and my mind thinks back on times i wish i had taken pictures.
September 10th, 2008 at 1:38 am
Is it just me or is the Dell Inspiron (directly after the baked macbook) not broken?
Last I checked, that bezel is meant to come up like that to allow access to the hinges and power button. All you have to do to ‘fix’ it from the way its pictured is press down firmly until it snaps back into place.
I dunno, maybe I missed something.
September 10th, 2008 at 2:27 am
Well done.
lol @ amanda
September 10th, 2008 at 6:53 am
For whoever it was that turned the oven on WITHOUT CHECKING INSIDE FIRST…you’re an idiot. It’s very customary for lots of people to store extra pots and pans and lids inside the oven when not in use.
BEFORE you fire up the oven…CHECK INSIDE FIRST!
September 10th, 2008 at 6:55 pm
Oh looking at these pictures reminds me of many stories of broken school issued laptops here at Northern Michigan University… I witnessed all of my examples myself, especially cause one was mine..
Mine was a IBM thinkpad R60.. I was using my laptop which was on the table plugged in so the battery would charge. The phone rang and i got up and ran across the house to get it but in the process of running i tripped over the chord thus ripping the open laptop off of the table causing a direct hit on the screen from the chair i was sitting on. So with that not only was the screen destroyed the impact was so hardcore that the whole computer was destroyed.
Another good one was my friend who was an art major with her school issued mac book… long story short she ended up dropping it in her driveway and running it over with her car.
And the final story, this kid and his room mate were messing around and one was stabbing at the other with a butcher knife… the playing went too far when the kid accidentally stabbed through the screen of the laptop.
Moral of these stories.. you gotta love the fact that even if you destroy a school issued laptop you only have to pay $50.00 to get a new one
September 11th, 2008 at 3:49 am
Fuck LOL cats…bastardization of language!!!! I liked this until you said that.
September 11th, 2008 at 7:07 am
no, we did NOT need that lolcat. please. do us all a favor.
September 11th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Keep on going guys. You have to replace it and that brings down the cost of the tech.
September 12th, 2008 at 10:36 am
They make the dodgy hinge in my laptop so insignificant
September 12th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
Do you know what you don’t see here?
A single broken CRT!
‘Nuff said
September 12th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
Thats cus cavemen stopped using CRT monitors in the last ice age mate.
September 12th, 2008 at 3:47 pm
No CRT’s?
Because they went out of use in the last ice age mate.
I even recall a story about a caveman putting his hand in his pocket for an upgrade…
Tight git!
September 12th, 2008 at 8:37 pm
That’s cuz they’re all laptops…or do you lug a crt around on the train everyday?
September 13th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
Me wasting a laptop on purpose (dutch):
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1768804081843538194
September 14th, 2008 at 4:08 am
Ahhhh Overclockers…..
September 14th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Quote:Is it just me or is the Dell Inspiron (directly after the baked macbook) not broken?
Ever see a cracked lcd screen techie?
September 14th, 2008 at 8:00 pm
there’s a reason there is no broken crt’s because they don’t break. My son got on top of the desk and somehow got a hold of the crt monster. It dropped with a face plant on uneven ceramic tile. It looked bad, very bad. Then i just replaced a fuse put the bezel back together and it is working right now. i didn’t think it was going to work because the thing is a monster and it sounded so loud. ill post it on my flickr profile. It is an fp2141sb http://www.flickr.com/photos/missingxtension
September 14th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
As you speak about CRT - few seconds ago i realized what is it good for - for quick and precisse killing of mosquito. Refreshing of CRT (even set on 120 Hz) makes passing mosquito much more visible in front of CRT in comparison with LCD ;).
September 15th, 2008 at 12:06 am
burn all of the macs
September 15th, 2008 at 1:38 am
re: Johnny
The dell is not broken, your right, the beveled edge is suppose to snap out so you can remove the keyboard if it breaks which makes it easier to install a new keyboard of course.
Nicely spotted I didn’t notice it till I read your comment 
September 15th, 2008 at 3:57 am
Johnny boy is right that dell inspiron laptop isnt broken at all. Just needs the plastic clipped back in place. Good laptops! i still have mine unbroken after 6-7years now
September 16th, 2008 at 2:14 am
Impressive.
I have a friend who set his fiance’s laptop on top of the truck and forgot it there. Drove away and heard a crash. She was hysterical. Wish I had a picture of it to share.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Ops! that iPhone owner must be crying.. Why don’t people use safety equipments like MCB’s with their costly gadgets? LOL I feel pity on burnt mac, they cost so much.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
wow I can see the virgin mary on the chip from the first pic!!!!
September 24th, 2008 at 11:30 pm
“Toughbook” my ass!
September 25th, 2008 at 4:39 pm
Awww the cat’s cute….
…too bad I gotta kill the little bastard for breaking my laptop!
September 26th, 2008 at 12:51 pm
See, this is what happens when you let the smoke out of electronics! I keep telling people, you gotta keep the smoke INSIDE no matter what!
October 9th, 2008 at 6:25 pm
My water-cooled PC went bang recently:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pah57/2166547682/in/set-72157603634156677/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/pah57/2166560780/in/set-72157603634156677/
October 27th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
ohh damn thats what i call a hard disk crash