laptop damaged and worried about not getting paid!

The Corinthian

No one is going to court over this. Does anyone here even know under what laws or procedures this would even fall under? My guess is that even if you did bring him to court, the court costs would dwarf the cost of the laptop. Additionally, if over 18, he can just claim he can't afford to pay and you'll end up awarded €5 p.w.

So was it your fault or his or somewhere in-between? The answer is 'who cares'. The best you're likely to get is half the price - I don't think you have any other options. Tough.

Put it down to experience. Never trust a flatmate who you feel may not be responsible - so this means next time don't leave a laptop in harms way when you share with a moron.

Overheal

Ishindar wrote: »

put the lappy in the hot press for a couple of days there is a decent chance it will work after that.

a fine post for the hall of shame here.

Ishindar

Overheal wrote: »

a fine post for the hall of shame here.

eh? im an electronic engineer with 15 years experience in maintenance at the top level.

dr.bollocko

Bully for you!



OP The one thing I will say is that it sucks you lost your files, but at least from now on, particularly with University data, Back it up! Again and again and again. It could be a situation where the climax of your education is dependant on whether or not some fool spills something on your PC, or just that the PC burns out. I know it sucks, but from now on, backup all important data. There's no use crying over spilt megabytes.

gamer

Put the laptop ,on adverts .ie ,for sale as broken laptop, parts, sum1 with the same model,will buy ,it as spares, psu,memory is worth sumthing, say you get 70,take 70 off price,plus 70for your fault, ie leaving laptop,on, on a kitchen table is asking for trouble.Thats 140, so ask em for 350, laptop shops,dell sell brand new 1,s for 500euro.get 10metre network cable,maplins ,use that to plug into kitchen socket.PUT hardrive near rad to dry it out.

board om

if you were claiming off your house insurance then you wouldnt get the full price you paid for the laptop nearly a year later. you would get the price of what it would cost to buy the same laptop today. so you can hardly expect his parents to pay you the amount you paid nearly a year ago. that is just unreasonable.

as for calling your room mates parents in the first place, very childish. your in college now and supposed to be standing on your own too feet. sort it out between yourself and your room mate without bringing parents into it. it is called being an adult. wen you are finsihed your degree and you go job hunting, if you dont get the job you want are you going tell your parents about the mean interviewer who didnt give you the job?

you could as another posted said claim it on your parents house insurance. even if it isnt named as an item that is covered outside the home. most household policies have a certain value they cover items outside of the home for. it might only be €1500 or it could be €10k. you would have to check it out.

the other thing i would do is check out what insurance is on the Griffith builiding. you might find that they have content insurance on the builiding wich means students items may be covered. if thats the case then problem solved. that would actually be my first call before i did anything else. and dont tell them it happened days ago becaue a lot of the time you have to report it within 24 hours.

good luck with it.

Overheal

Ishindar wrote: »

eh? im an electronic engineer with 15 years experience in maintenance at the top level.

In my own experience electronics just arent the same after liquid spills. Partially usable yes, but certainly impaired. Certainly worth a shot but to be honest this detracts from the need to get the lappy replaced by the OPs room mate.

Dr.Bollocko wrote:

OP The one thing I will say is that it sucks you lost your files, but at least from now on, particularly with University data, Back it up! Again and again and again. It could be a situation where the climax of your education is dependant on whether or not some fool spills something on your PC, or just that the PC burns out. I know it sucks, but from now on, backup all important data. There's no use crying over spilt megabytes.

oh yes, thats the truth. Had a project on my USB key, plugged into the front port of my PC. Come home langers drunk one night, use my foot to power on the PC in the pitch black and then all I hear is *crunch* - I'm after snapping the piece of **** in two Now I have 2 external Hard Drives where I store copies of all of my vital data.

nadimmu

Im not expecting his parents to pay for what i paid for almost a year ago, im tryin to tell them to pay for how much it costs today.
i didnt call his parents. he did. sorry if i didnt make that clear.
I dont have house insurance in ireland, only back home in Dubai, the insurace companies there wouldnt bother sending inspectors all the way to ireland.
i already am working, he isnt, he hasnt gone to college since november and has been gettin money off his parents to just party away.

btw thanks for the help, dont get me wrong, but it kinda opened my eyes a little bit. i'll go to the griffith office tomorrow and tell them.

board om

nadimmu wrote: »

Im not expecting his parents to pay for what i paid for almost a year ago, im tryin to tell them to pay for how much it costs today.
i didnt call his parents. he did. sorry if i didnt make that clear.
I dont have house insurance in ireland, only back home in Dubai, the insurace companies there wouldnt bother sending inspectors all the way to ireland.
i already am working, he isnt, he hasnt gone to college since november and has been gettin money off his parents to just party away.

btw thanks for the help, dont get me wrong, but it kinda opened my eyes a little bit. i'll go to the griffith office tomorrow and tell them.

sorry man, i assumed you called the parents which was unfair of me. my apologies.

i would defintily chase up with Griffith. they must have some kind of Content Insurance. if they do your sorted.

also, dont stop checking it out just becuase your house insurance is in dubai. i know in ireland some items on your house insurance would be covered abroad so check out if it is the same in dubai. they wouldnt send an assessor to assess a laptop, they would probably just look for a receipt from where you tried to get it repaired but the shop said it was beyond economic repair. they only send out assessors if it is a claim relating to the structure of the building.

but personaly i would be following up on the possibility that you may be covered under Griffith.

good luck

craichoe

Overheal wrote: »

a fine post for the hall of shame here.

He's 100% correct on that one, nearly any electronic device will work after being dried out, however it may require a certain amount of dismantling, in this case it was just water (hopefully) which in 99% of situations will work after drying.

I've had 2 mobile phones, a laptop, a keyboard (hell i've washed a keyboard in a sink with de-ionised water)

Plug it out, take off the keyboard, battery, memory cover, hardrive and any other external parts you can, leave it in the hot press for 2 - 3 days and re-assemble. Chances are it will turn on.

The harddrive is a different story, their normally hermatically sealed but have a breather hole on the top, its possible some moisture could have gotten in this way. That would be a professional job to ensure the data isn't damaged.

At the end of the day a laptop is a just an electronic device like a pocket calculator, mobile phone, remote control and it only runs on low voltage anyway.

I'd say moving this to the HW forum might be appropriate, from looking at the posts alot of people don't have a clue what their talking about here.

Also, if somebody damages your property, they are liable. A Portable (Manufaturers no longer refer to them as laptops for various reasons) is a portable device, there is no specific instructions on where they should be used, living room, garden, train, plane etc. The environment is irrelevant, the damage that was caused, was not caused by you and you should not have to pay out for the consequences of someone elses actions.

The housemate should pay out for equipment that will allow you to perform the same tasks that you performed before with this device, that may be through repair, replacment or financial compensation.

dudara

Not a PI.

Moved to Laptops - mods, apologies if this isn't the right home.

To the OP - you were a wee bit of an eejit to leave a laptop in a kitchen. Consider it a lesson learned. Accidents do happen.

BostonB

Accept the offer and learn the lesson.

Tom Dunne

Moved from Laptops.

Seemed the more appropriate place for it, apart from the Recycle bin, that is.

Thirdfox

Lol - this thread has gone on a fine trip hasn't it?

Not suitable for this thread either as the OP would be asking for legal advice...

Our man in Havana

Naughty, legal advice is a no no here.

weeder

and it lands in ah

i would suggest not putting it in the hot press as the added heat would make the components expand and possibly damage it more leave it somewhere that stays room temprature all the time ,as another poster said, hard disks are sealed, so you could find another hard disk of the same make and model and swap the external pcb and it might work. though if it was left on i would say the pcb is definitely friend and you need a new one

if your laptop had a bios password it might of also locked the hard disk (the unlock code being the bios password) and a locked hard disk would spin up, show in device manager as working fine but you wouldnt be able to read anything off it though i think its only IDE drives that are lockable and being that new might have a sata hdd.

Ishindar

craichoe wrote: »

He's 100% correct on that one, nearly any electronic device will work after being dried out, however it may require a certain amount of dismantling, in this case it was just water (hopefully) which in 99% of situations will work after drying.

I've had 2 mobile phones, a laptop, a keyboard (hell i've washed a keyboard in a sink with de-ionised water)

Plug it out, take off the keyboard, battery, memory cover, hardrive and any other external parts you can, leave it in the hot press for 2 - 3 days and re-assemble. Chances are it will turn on.

The harddrive is a different story, their normally hermatically sealed but have a breather hole on the top, its possible some moisture could have gotten in this way. That would be a professional job to ensure the data isn't damaged.

At the end of the day a laptop is a just an electronic device like a pocket calculator, mobile phone, remote control and it only runs on low voltage anyway.

I'd say moving this to the HW forum might be appropriate, from looking at the posts alot of people don't have a clue what their talking about here.

Also, if somebody damages your property, they are liable. A Portable (Manufaturers no longer refer to them as laptops for various reasons) is a portable device, there is no specific instructions on where they should be used, living room, garden, train, plane etc. The environment is irrelevant, the damage that was caused, was not caused by you and you should not have to pay out for the consequences of someone elses actions.

The housemate should pay out for equipment that will allow you to perform the same tasks that you performed before with this device, that may be through repair, replacment or financial compensation.

reminds me of a funny incident at work long time ago(14 years), when i used to work on dublin bus ticket machines.
we got this machine in one day that had fallen into a hedge and was forgotten for a week. it was eventually pulled out of the hedge and sent into us. needless to say it was full of water and moss had started growing on it etc. we emptied it out, dried it off and turned it upsidedown in the corner to dry fully for a few days. we then scrubbed off the corrosion etc and powered it up and low and behold it worked :cool:

from a technical point of view. the enemy here is corrosion of connections. HDD is sealed and is an electromechnical device so it can survive some water. Mobos and ram and ics are all sprayed with lacker during manufacturing which protects from water damage and corrosion. the main vunerability is corrosion on connections.
its also significant weither the Lappy was powered up or not at the time of the water spill as connections could short circuit if it was powered up.
even still i would give it a good chance of working after a few days in the hotpress

Banana_montana

It's nobodys fault, it was an accident, and if *I* had spilt the water I'd personally offer to pay towards getting it fixed but if you called my parents and demanded them to pay full price I'd have serious words with you. Anyway you are sharing the house, take the laptop into your room. A kitchen is a STUPID place to keep your laptop.

axer

Banana_montana wrote: »

A kitchen is a STUPID place to keep your laptop.

Exactly, both the housemate and the OP messed up and are both to blame but I would say the OP is moreso to blame. If someone leaves their car parked in the middle of the road and someone comes around the corner and hits it then I think the person liable for the damages is the person who stupidly left it in a completely inappropriate place. Thats why i think the housemate's parents offering to pay 50% is more than fair. Although if I was the housemate and the OP threw a tantrum like he is doing then I would tell him to go f'uck himself and not pay anything.

Demonique

KdjaCL wrote: »

dont see why anyone should pay for something they didnt mean,
kdjac

You sound like a parent whose child has just broken something belonging to someone else, I'm always hearing "but he didn't meannnn it" and "but he's only a chiiiiiild"

Genghiz Cohen

Boston wrote: »

You left it on the kitchen table. Your fault.

If you park your car on the side of the road and someone crashes into it it's still your fault?
Unlikely.
The person who did the damage is responsible and should pay for the damage.

EDIT, just saw the post above referencing a car crash, great minds think alike

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

can't wait to see the love that the OP gets in AH.

OP: Simple Rule: never ever contact someones parents to complain about them unless you are aged about three years old

Overheal

Wow this thread went for some trip: PI>Laptops>Legal>AH

I've had one water drenched device and I have to say it was just never the same. But I never used the hot press so hey, it could happen I guess. If its not going to be covered under the warranty theres nothing to lose.

Demonique wrote:

You sound like a parent whose child has just broken something belonging to someone else, I'm always hearing "but he didn't meannnn it" and "but he's only a chiiiiiild"

And even then its your child, you're responsible. In this case the flatmate is the responsible party unless his parents accept the damages.

It wasnt a fantastic place to leave it but common sense to - well to us technically orientated folk - would be if youre gonna have liquids around a laptop its going to be your head (says I as I hover my coffee over my laptop) - if he wasnt using it the flatmate could have very well closed the lid: anything spilling on top of it would have more than likely saved the laptop in full.

axer

Genghiz Cohen wrote: »

If you park your car on the side of the road and someone crashes into it it's still your fault?
Unlikely.
The person who did the damage is responsible and should pay for the damage.

EDIT, just saw the post above referencing a car crash, great minds think alike

Except we are using it in completely opposite sides of the argument.

Yes, if you park your car on the side of the road and someone hits it then they are at fault *if* it was legal to park the car there in the first place i.e. to park in a place that is expected and safe to park.

My analogy is that if you park in the *middle* of the road - somewhere completely stupid and not the correct place at all then don't be surprised if someone hits your car and be prepared to take responsibility for the situation.

axer

Overheal wrote: »

It wasnt a fantastic place to leave it but common sense to - well to us technically orientated folk - would be if youre gonna have liquids around a laptop its going to be your head (says I as I hover my coffee over my laptop) - if he wasnt using it the flatmate could have very well closed the lid: anything spilling on top of it would have more than likely saved the laptop in full.

Common sensical folk would know that if you are going to have a laptop in a kitchen or leave it anywhere where it could get damaged then either move it or at least close the lid (although just closing the lid doesn't make it any less stupid of a place to leave it). I mean ffs it was left on a coffee table! what does one expect to be left of a *coffee* table?!

Dudess

If Consumer Issues isn't suitable for it, by all means send it back to After Hours - I think all avenues will have been exhausted by then.

Thanks.

Sully

KdjaCL wrote: »

hard drives are fairly strong devices, you should move that part of the thread to Comp tech as every hard is recoverable unless its smelted

Aye, but depending how damaged it is - its not going to cost 50euro to fix. Recovery of files is more expensive and is going to cost a fortune if you bring it to the companies who specialize in it. At least, from what I have experienced.

Wibbs wrote: »

If it spins chances are very high it can be recovered. There's a crowd on the north side of dublin whose name escapes that will get the data back. There's a few services online and overseas that will do the same thing. Costs a few quid. naturally way more expensive in Ireland.

I assume its not a general IT Repair company but a company who deals with recovering lost data. Its going to cost a bit of cash to recover the data from them, and I wouldn't pay it unless I had some important files I needed as its going to be close to the price of a new laptop.

Voodu Child

Dudess wrote: »

If Consumer Issues isn't suitable for it, by all means send it back to After Hours - I think all avenues will have been exhausted by then.

Thanks.

Curse you Dudess!:mad: I had typed out a hilarious AH style post with multiple useage of the word 'cnut' and mucho abuse thrown at the OP and his flatmates. Wouldn't be suitable now Curse these slow fingers...

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

tbh its not a consumer issue. putting thread out of its misery and closing it, but tempted to send it somewhere else for the giggles.