Heal Your Hardware

By Zack Stern, PC World

PC won't boot? Dead battery in your iPod? Water in your cell phone? Don't scrap your broken tech. Fix it yourself with our step-by-step repair guide.
You know to call 911 in a medical emergency, but what should you do when your gadgets face a similar life-or-death scenario? If you spill coffee on your laptop, for instance, reacting quickly could save your hardware and data. The correct procedure -- such as dismantling your laptop's keyboard or installing an inexpensive replacement battery in your iPod -- can save your faltering hardware, giving it another chance to age gracefully. And the laptops, cameras, cell phones and iPods of the world will thank you.
Here we present a series of nine articles on how to help your gear recover from such emergency scenarios:

* Replace an iPod battery
* Revive a stuck LCD pixel
* Dry a submerged phone
* Clean a spill on a laptop
* Reseat loose components
* Remove a mini-CD from a slot-loading drive
* Clean a clogged port
* Clean a dusty PC
* Clean your dirty camera

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