From dust 'til dawn

The subreddit r/techsupportgore discourages the posting of pictures of computers that are merely dusty. We feel confident in asserting that the subject of this thread is not merely dusty.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Curse of the Chromebook

According to the Redditor behind this thread, this laptop was “left in the bleachers.” Was a fan using it as a seat cushion?

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

R.I.P.

According to the thread, this mouse died on the battlefield after a game of Battlefield.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Bedbugs!

According to the Redditor, a customer brought in this laptop for repair. On the bright side of a grim-looking picture, all the bed bugs were dead.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

The battery blob

Approach bags of “iPopcorn“–sorry, bulging lithium-ion batteries–with caution.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

The swarm

According to this thread, that’s a cable box with an “active wasp nest” inside. Must be part of a new premium package.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

A million tiny pieces

Per the title of this thread, this smashed-beyond-recognition smartphone was “only dropped…a little bit.” A whole lot of times, apparently.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Psycho printer

According to the thread, the glue on this HP LaserJet printer gives “new meaning to hardwired.”

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

It's not alive

The hive mind’s prognosis for this iPad is grim.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

The sitting

According to the thread, the owner of this Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 8.0 claimed to have sat on it “by accident… for a split second.”

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Creepshow

There are corroded batteries, and then there are corroded batteries.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Jeepers creepers

With apologies to this MacBook charger setup, aluminum foil is not among CNET’s top tips for fixing a frayed cable.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

(Not exactly) child's play

“Cable spaghetti” is how one Redditor described this unwieldy scene.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Re-animator

When it comes to your laptop, sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do–and can afford.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

The laptop screen crack'd

According to the poster behind this thread, this brutalized, school-issued Samsung was fixed–so the students “can break it all over again.”

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Bloody murder

According to this thread, this smartphone’s litany of horrors includes a bent frame.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Death by nicotine

Per this thread, smoking is bad for your health–and for your (formerly) translucent iMac G3.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

They say it's sugar

Here’s the punchline to this scene, per the thread: The computer with the cup of sugar inside (“at least”) was brought to the shop for a forgotten password.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Crack up

A user on this thread said this poor smartphone looked as if it “was used as a crowbar.”

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Roadkill

The poster who initiated this thread reported that a customer ran over the laptop, on purpose, and apparently with a good deal of force. A replacement, it was said, was not offered.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Stranger things

This iPhone features duct tape, rubber bands, and, per this thread, “almost certainly” a swollen battery.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Something wiry this way comes

As a Redditor on this thread put it, “That looks like a standard messy network room until you see the router sitting on the ladder.” “And,” the original poster added,”the duct tape on the port switches.” Other than that…

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Watch out, it's a ... something!

According to this thread, this set-up was found at the poster’s new apartment. It’s a modem, a router and “two cables not plugged in at all, so f—— god know what those are supposed to go.”

Sweet.

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Killer resolution

“It was just a small drop.” That was the backstory on this ThinkPad, per the poster behind this thread.

Approach with caution

According to the thread, that’s an uninterruptible power supply (UPS) device with, uh, its original battery.

“[T]he UPS tech was in a full suit & gloves,” the poster wrote. “We knew something was wrong when we kept hearing, ‘Oh damn, oh wow’ over and over.”

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Mousetrap

To hear this thread tell it, this is what it looks like when an Anker gaming mouse is “dragged along 300 miles of road…by mistake.”

SEE: Tech Nightmares, Disasters, and Spooky Gifts (TechRepublic Flipboard magazine)

Diagnosis murder

tThat’s an iPad, per this thread. “A mashed one at that,” the original poster noted.

Also see

• The 29 coolest USB sticks for tech pros (TechRepublic)
• How to buy a high-performance computer from a boutique builder (TechRepublic)
• The 51 coolest laptop stickers of all time (TechRepublic)
• Photos: The 10 most underrated office gadgets of all time (TechRepublic)
• Gallery: Modern home security products feature ingenuity, flair, and plenty of IoT (TechRepublic)