Simple Home Remedies To Save Your Expensive Gadgets!

Our life is full of gadgets. We can't live without them. There are times when your gadgets stop working because of some faults. Ever thought of some ideas that can help you repair these gadgets with the use of simple home remedies? Well, here are some, but, mind you, none of them come with 100% scientific guarantee. But they work! Take a look!

GadgetsOur life is full of gadgets. We can’t live without them.  There are times when your gadgets stop working because of some faults. Ever thought of some ideas that can help you repair these gadgets with the use of simple home remedies? Well, here are some, but, mind you, none of them come with 100% scientific guarantee. But they work! Take a look!

Rescue your cell from water

Cell Phone slashing into waterYou always try to protect your cell from not going into water, but atleast once in its lifetime, it finds its way into water. That’s a very sad moment. But does this mean that it’s time to abandon your cell phone? No! Especially not if you try this home remedy.

  • First of all, take out the phone battery from the cell immediately. This will prevent electrical short circuits within the cell which can even burn the internal parts of your cell.
  • Cell Phone in Uncooked RiceNext, gently wipe your cell with a tissue, and bury it into a jar full of uncooked rice. Yes, rice! Remember that the coconut is kept in dry rice to keep moisture away? It’s the same logic that works here too. It has been found that rice has a high chemical affinity for water. In simple words, it attracts water. So, water doesn’t stick to the cold metal of your cell, instead it is soaked by the rice, thus leaving your cell dry (well, almost dry). That’s awesome remedy, isn’t it?

Extend laptop battery

Most common problem with laptops is that that its battery runs out when you need it. So these are simple tricks to improve your laptop’s battery life.

  • Remove the battery from your laptop when you are using the AC power. This reduces the constant re-charging of the battery. Maintaining the battery at full charge for extended periods can shorten its life.
  • It’s a good idea to remove the charger cord frequently if you are lazy to remove the battery and fix it back into the laptop — at least once a week.
  • A similar trick  works for your iPod too. If your iPod’s battery refuses to charge completely, make the battery completely dry. Next, simply take out the battery from the iPod and leave it outside for 24 hours. Plug it back in and notice the difference.

Print with dried cartridge ink

Canon PrinterIf your printer’s ink dries out just when you are in the middle of printing an important document, simply take out the cartridge from the printer and run a hair dryer for three to four minutes and place it back into the printer and print again while it is still warm. Experts say that the hair dryer melts the thick ink inside the cartridge, thus releasing some extra ink for a page or two. Another good one!

Revive your dead hard drive

Hard Disk Drive (HDD)If you have been hit by the blue screen of death (on your computer) — and the hard drive just crashed — don’t panic! You might be able to retrieve your precious data. The trick is that simply freeze the hard drive for an entire night.
This might sound silly, but the logic is that, many hard drive failures are caused by worn parts that no longer fit with each other, making it impossible for the computer to read from the drive. If you freeze the drive for an entire night, lowering the temperature causes its metal and plastic internals to contract slightly. Thawing it will cause those parts to expand again, and possibly, they will bind with each other. This might not bring the drive back to its life essentially, but give you enough time to transfer your precious data to a safe place. Worth a try, right?

Source: TOI E-Paper

(Image Credits: Gadgets, Cell Phone in water, Printer, HDD, Cell in Rice)


[Editor Note: This post is by guest blogger Gautam. He blogs at Technology Area about technology.

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26 Comments

Gautam March 19, 2009

2nd post of mine to be approved 😀

Vaibhav Kanwal March 19, 2009

Interesting Read!
Next time, I’ll try to use those tips if the need arises.

p@r@noid March 19, 2009

Love the 4th tip “Revive your dead hard drive”

Meanwhile I appreciate your view point on 2nd topic “Extend your laptop battery”

Seriously most people dnt take it seriously and coz of it ..they loose their cellphone batteries before an yr or so..

Gautam March 19, 2009

@Vaibhav
Thanks 🙂

@paranoid
Yeah, you’re right. Even i don’t take care of my laptop battery and the maximum charge in it is now 5 minutes, so I can’t even follow those solutions 🙁

Ankit March 19, 2009

Nice post!

Gautam March 19, 2009

@Ankit
Thanks!

Ankit March 19, 2009

You’r welcum!

Bapun March 20, 2009

hehe.. the hard drive trick sounds funny 😀

Good job Gautam 🙂

Gautam March 20, 2009

Thanks Bapun 🙂

Gagan March 20, 2009

Revive your dead hard drive

Yes, heard of this method earlier but never tried this !! Anyone who has tried this methd ??

Bapun March 20, 2009

One PJ from me 😀

Boy : Maa, mera hard drive kharab ho gaya. DW mein Gautma ne likha hai ki usko freezer mein rakhne se woh theek ho jayega. Rakh doon freezer mein?

Mother : Uss Gautam ki toh aisi ki taisi. Usko itna bhi nahin pata ki freezer se nikal ne ke baad woh hard drive hard nahin rahega, soft drive ban jayega. Fir data ko makhan ki tarah spoon se nikaloge kya? 😛

Sorry… as i said, very poor joke… but could not resist..

Ankit March 20, 2009

Good joke 😛

Gautam March 20, 2009

@Gagan
Actually my HDD never crashed so I didn’t get a chance to give that solution a try, but if it will crash then will surely try and tell you 😉

Gautam March 20, 2009

@Bapun
Lol…. =)) =)) 😛
makhan ki tarah spoon se nikaloge… lol =))

Pasaltha March 20, 2009

nice tips.. i hope its work..

Aditya Cricket March 21, 2009

I will comment on laptop battery part. Some of the laptops dont work without battery. I think laptop batteries have life of 1-2 years not more than that. After that they will work but will not give performance. The battery minutes will be down sharply.

Gautam March 21, 2009

@Pasaltha
Thanks….

@Aditya
Yea, some laptops don’t work without batteries but you can use the 2nd tip if the 1st tip doesn’t works. Even my laptop’s battery is 1 year old and it’s performance has come down 🙁
Sony batteries rock! 😛

Gautam March 21, 2009

@Bapun
There’s a typo error in your comment.
You have written Gautma instead of Gautam 🙁 😛

Bapun March 21, 2009

@ Gautam

Oh sorry mate. Few times I forget to revise my comment after writing 🙁

Also.. there is a saying, “Naam mein kya rakha hai?“.

Right, Gautma? 😛

Gautam March 21, 2009

@Bapun
Naam mein bahut kuch rakha hai 😛
naam tumhari pehchan hoti hai 😉

Bapun March 21, 2009

@ Gautam

On a serious note… yup, you are right.

Gautam March 22, 2009

@Bapun
Lol

Harsh Agrawal March 24, 2009

@Gautam
I use Dell Studio which give me the option to stop the battery charging..but for others who are good and quick with hardware..you can remove your Laptop battery of you have constant power option…and run you laptop on Direct power supply

Diti November 6, 2009

the hdd trick does work…Its a proven method for disaster recovery on the cheap..Get er done!

alfred January 12, 2010

One of the most common problems faced by inkjet printer users is the drying up of the liquid ink in the printer cartridge ink tanks. Not only would this cause printer nozzle to clog up, but would allow you to print lesser amount of pages. This is because when a printer tries to clean a clogged up nozzle, it would require a substantial amount of ink to unclog this.

prash January 10, 2012

rice bowl trick worked for me
nokia phones are best