Battered laptops suffer from holiday abuse

LONDON: British technophiles can't bear to be parted from their laptops and

some computers are suffering from sunburn, water ingestion and excessive alcohol

after holiday trips, according to a PC retailer on Friday.

"September and October is when a lot of laptops come in for repair after

being taken on holiday and being damaged," said Colin Middlemiss of high

street retailer The Computer World.

"Some have been left too long in the sun, some have been dropped in

swimming pools and other have had booze spilled on them," Middlemiss told

Reuters. He said the retailer's repair technicians recently found sand, stones

and several tiny hermit crabs in the one laptop sent in by its worried owner.

The Computer World said an online survey showed that nearly 40 per cent of

laptop repairs in September were related to problems caused with taking machines

on holiday.

"We were pretty amazed that of our 1,000 respondents 35 per cent said

they went away with their laptop. But then surfing the net and e-mailing can be

addictive," he said.