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There is nothing more distressing than having a crack on the laptop casing in a land far, far away from office.
I was at customer site when I realized there was a crack at the joint – something I did not noticed earlier when I picked up the laptop from the office couple days ago. I did not drop it or accidentally hit the laptop against hard surface. It is an old laptop and it was probably showing it’s age. I was worried though, that this crack will get bigger and damage the circuits inside it (ya, I could see it through the crack).
So, I tried to patch it up temporarily using scotch tape but it was not successful. The crack was not properly sealed. The only solution then (other than going to a computer shop for casing replacement) was to glue it up using superglue. Tricky, dangerous and definitely risky – one accidental drop of the glue into the sensitive circuits and I can kiss the laptop goodbye.
The patch that did not work but it gave some cover against the elements
So, when I got off work yesterday, I rush to the hotel, had a quick shower and then made to the nearest supermarket. There was only one left on the shelf and the big elephant image on the cover was more than enough to convince me that it should work (of course I also read the tiny prints at the back to ensure that it was safe enough to use on a laptop casing).
The crack that needed to be sealed tight
The “surgery” was critical – so, I took my time to glue back the cracked joints. Taking several deep breaths, I started the operation. I was careful because 1. The laptop does not belong to me 2. I needed for work whilst I am in Bangkok. The crack was wide when I close the laptop, so I carefully added the glue to the joint and inside of the crack. Once I had it fully covered with strong sticky glue, I carefully held the screen so that it joins back and it did. After several minutes, the crack had completely sealed but I did not want to take any chance, so I added several layer of glue on the top and added a thick plastic to make sure that the two ends of the crack do not break.
The “patient” after the “surgery” – cracked sealed and kicking
I was happy that I managed to seal the crack with superglue that actually works. However, it was not over yet – I still need to find out whether the laptop works or not. After almost 2 hours (I wanted to make sure that glue has really harden), I switched the laptop and closed my eyes for the worse case scenario. Nothing bad happened. The screen came to live and it was working perfectly. The crack was sealed tight and after several tries of “open-close-open” the casing, the glue held on the crack and the laptop was working perfectly.
The day was saved…
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