Instructor: In this lesson,
we're going to talk about mobile hardware issues.
Now, mobile hardware issues
come down to three main categories,
overheating damage, liquid damage and physical port damage.
First, let's talk about overheating damage.
Now, overheating damage
is any device that's caused to a device
because it is unable to properly cool itself down.
This can commonly happen with laptops,
tablets or mobile devices,
but most commonly I see this occurring with laptops.
The reason for this
is many laptops are designed with cooling
that puts the hot air out the bottom of the laptop.
Now, when people are using a laptop
on a table or desk or other hard surface,
this isn't an issue
because the little feet on the bottom of the laptop
will keep the laptop off of the desk
by about a 1/4 of an inch,
and that gives enough room
for heat to properly dissipate
out through the fans on the bottom of the laptop
and out of the device.
Unfortunately though, many people also use their laptops
on their lap or sitting on top of their bed,
and when you do either of these,
the laptop isn't able to properly cool itself down
because the fans and the vents on the bottom of the laptop
are now being covered by your pants
or by the comforter on your bed.
In either of these cases,
this is going to lead to the temperature rising
inside of that device.
And if that device gets too hot,
it will either shut itself down to protect it
or it could damage the components inside of it
due to overheating.
Now, another area of concern
is when you're dealing with tablets or mobile devices,
and these can also very commonly overheat.
The reason for this
is a lot of people
will leave their tablets or their smartphones
inside of their car
while they're going into their office building,
especially if they work in a high security environment.
Now, the problem with this
is your car starts to heat up like an oven
when it's sitting out in the sun all day.
So while you're in your nice cool
air conditioned office building,
your smartphone is sitting in your glove box of your car.
And even if it's 80 or 90 degrees Fahrenheit outside,
the temperature in your car
can get up to 110 or 120 or 130 degrees.
And this is because of all the heat
being trapped inside of the car.
I used to work in a high security environment
that didn't allow us
to have our smartphones in the building,
and because of this,
I used to leave my smartphone in my car.
Now, unfortunately, due to the excessive heat
these were being exposed to,
those smartphones and mobile devices that I had
only lasted about 12 to 18 months
instead of the 24 to 36 months
that they normally should have lasted.
This decrease in lifespan
occurred both in the batteries and the components
because of this overheating.
In fact, some days,
my smartphone wouldn't turn on for 10 to 15 minutes
until it had time to cool down
because the temperature in the car was so hot.
In these cases,
I would take the phone
and hold it in front of the air conditioning vents
for a few minutes
to try to cool down the phone so I could then use it again.
Now, another issue that you might have
is what's known as liquid damage.
Now, because our mobile devices go everywhere with us,
it's actually quite common
that a device will fall into liquid.
This might happen
if you're walking along the beach or the river
and you accidentally drop your phone,
or if you're holding your phone while you're in the bathroom
and you accidentally drop it in the toilet.
Either way, that phone is now going to be be covered in water.
Now, luckily, most modern smartphones
do have some ability to resist water,
and this is known as being waterproof or water resistant
depending on the level of resistance to liquid damage
that device is made for.
But in either case,
if you fully submerge a mobile device in water,
there is a chance it can have damage caused by that liquid.
If you're dealing with a device
that has been exposed to liquid
and you're worried about liquid damage,
you first want to dry off any excess liquid
and get as much as possible out of it.
If the device is in a case,
I would take it out of the case and dry it off using towels.
Second, you want to power off that device immediately
anytime you suspect liquid damage.
This will prevent further damage
and prevent any shorts from occurring.
Third, if you suspect there is water inside of the device,
you're going to have to disassemble that device completely
and allow it to dry.
Fourth, once you allow that device to dry
both inside and out,
you also want to make sure
you clean the circuit boards and contacts
using rubbing alcohol.
This will make sure that those contacts
are still pristine and clear
and that they haven't been damaged
with any kind of rust or oxidation on those contacts
from being exposed to the water.
And then fifth, the other thing you're going to need to do
is replace the battery.
Most of the time,
the battery is the most sensitive component
to liquid damage.
So if the device has been fully submerged in liquid
and that battery has been exposed to that liquid,
this can cause a lot of damage to it
and it's a good idea to replace that battery
while you have the device open and fully disassembled.
Now, the third area we want to talk about
is physical port damage.
Again, these mobile devices,
whether they're smartphones, tablets or laptops,
do tend to travel all over the place with us.
That's one of the great benefits of these mobile devices,
is we can take them anywhere.
But because we take them anywhere,
they often do get damaged.
This can be because they're getting bumped
as they're getting thrown in or out of our backpacks
or they're simply falling off a desk or things like that.
Any of these things can cause issues and physical damage
to the different ports on a mobile device.
Even if you're really careful with your mobile device,
your ports can be damaged
simply by the insertion and removal of the connectors to it.
For example, every day, probably multiple times a day,
you connect a charger to your smartphone.
And when you do this,
you are connecting and disconnecting that cable
into that external port.
That port over time will degrade and can become broken.
If that port is damaged,
the connector may become loose in there or no longer fit.
And if there is a loose connection,
it may have intermittency
when you're trying to charge the battery
and things like that.
Now, when these ports are damaged,
the only way to fix this is to physically remove that port,
and this involves opening up the device,
de-soldering that port,
replacing it with a new one,
and then putting the device back together
Again, this will normally be beyond the scope
of what an A+ technician will do,
but you should be able to identify
that the port is the issue
and then send it to a specialist
who will replace that port for you.
Now, when it comes to solving damaged port issues,
one of the best things you can do
is prevent them from happening in the first place.
The most common way
that I see ports getting damaged by people
is by them inserting or removing the connectors at an angle
or pulling the cable out by the cable
instead of by the connector.
In either of these cases,
a little education towards your end users
will go a long way
in preventing problems for you in the future.
So remember, when it comes to mobile hardware issues,
there's really three main types
that you need to be aware of.
These are overheating damage,
liquid damage and physical port damage.