Reed

The USB/Ethernet/all other ports on the back of my iMac have stopped working. I plugged a USB cable in and it touched a...

Brand-new MacBook Pro (less than one month). It was working fine this morning. I put it to sleep with 10% charge. Now it...

The touchpad on my MBP makes a "click" sound but doesn't actually register the click. It's infuriating.

I got my PS3 in February of 2008. About four or five months ago it stopped reading discs. Neither Blu-Ray nor DVD are...

The sleep/lock button on the shoulder of my iPhone (original) only works if you press it incredibly hard. I have to press...

I bought my MBP in September (five months ago) and this problem appeared about two months ago. It progressively got worse, until I was unable to draw in Photoshop, drag windows around, or resize stuff. What a pain. And pretty disappointing for a brand-spankin-new Apple laptop. After the quarter ended and I could be without it for a while, I had a genius look at my laptop. As you might have guessed, the entire trackpad assembly was to be replaced. It was a $135 affair, but covered by warranty. The new trackpad works great (three days post repair now), and I really love the laptop.

If it starts making sounds you haven't heard before, it's a good sign the disk is failing.

You may want to see this question: iPhone sleep/lock button doesn't work

Down is the most common way to scroll the mouse, so it gets much dirtier than the other directions. I've seen this problem with many Mighty Mice, and the solution is simple: Use rubbing alcohol to clean the scroll ball. Dab some on with your finger, or perhaps use a paper towel. Roll the ball around for a while to get the alcohol spread around, and then dab it off. Repeat a few times, until the mouse is scrolling correctly. Don't drown the thing, but be somewhat generous.

Are you using the device more? 10 hours does seem pretty quick, but I've never had an iPhone that could last more than about 36 with any real usage. Did the decrease correlate with the update to OS 3? Did you re-pwn the firmware for the upgrade, or just auto-update in iTunes? I've seen some weird things happening with jailbroken 3.0; if you built your own, you might want to consider reinstalling it.

Location services is a huge battery hog. Try turning it off (Settings > General) for a couple days and look for improvement. Do you have Bluetooth on? It shouldn't be the problem, but might as well check. Is your phone jailbroken or unlocked? Those may also make a difference.

I've heard that covering the device with rice is a good way to help suck water out :)

Do you have pictures of the dings? The color is most likely under the clear epoxy, so surface repairs shouldn't damage the color directly. Repaired spots will probably be "foggy." You can fix this by sanding the spots with fine-grit sandpaper and then wiping with board wax.