I don’t how the rain’s been where you are this weekend, but all this weather got me thinking about a bit of advice that could come in handy…
You might have heard Tim talk about this before, but it’s definitely worth a reminder every now and then. And that’s what to do if you get your phone or tablet wet.
Unfortunately, most phones and tablets aren’t waterproof. They can handle a few drops on the screen if you get caught out in the rain, but dropping one in a puddle can do a lot of damage.
Here are my top tips if it does happen:
- Get it out of the water as quickly as possible.
- If it’s turned on, turn it all the way off as quickly as possible. It’s the mix of water and electricity that does the most damage, so don’t be tempted to check if it’s still working. You’ll only make it worse.
- Dry it off as best you can with a dry cloth. Take the case off if it’s got one. Pull out your SIM card, and take the battery out if it’s a removable one.
- Then leave it somewhere warm (not hot) for at least 24 hours. If you’ve got any dry rice, putting your phone either in a bowl of the rice or in a ziplock bag with a handful of grains can help draw out any last bits of moisture.
- The longer you can leave it to dry the better – 24 hours hours is the minimum, but some people reckon 72 hours – then turn it back on and see what happens!
Don’t feel tempted to use a hairdryer on it (that’ll just push water further in) or put it on a radiator (it’ll overheat). Just give it time and keep your fingers and toes crossed…
Help! My taskbar’s vanished…
Back in 2005, Tim wrote a book called “Help! My Taskbar’s Vanished” – I remember sitting in the front room at Tim’s Mum and Dad’s house, checking it for typos and thinking it was going to be a great book. It showed you how to solve all sorts of problems that can crop up on PCs (it didn’t cover tablets because they hadn’t been invented yet!).
It was hugely popular – I mean, not many people knew about the company back then – but nearly half of the people who had heard of what Tim was doing went and bought it. Not even Harry Potter got that! So it wasn’t just me – everyone else thought it was a great book, too.
But things change – since then, we’ve got fancy smartphones and tablets to deal with, Windows has been through umpteen new versions and updates and lots of what you used to do on a computer has gone online.
It’s a brave new world. And along with all the fantastic things you can do with this new technology come the frustrations, catastrophes, blunders and predicaments as things go wrong that you don’t know how to fix.
A lot of problems with PCs, tablets, smartphones and other bits of kit aren’t actually that hard to sort out. But as usual, the snag is that until someone’s shown you how, you just don’t know. Which is why we’ve been working hard to bring Tim’s idea from 2005 bang up to date! It’s not finished, so I’m not quite ready to tell you all about it yet but with a following wind we’ll have it finished very soon – and I’ll let you know a bit more about it shortly.
Watch this space!