sideways

is it safe to stand a laptop on its side?

i wish to read sheet music off of mine, but the normal (landscape) proportions are a pain in the g-clef.

i know they sell special monitors for this, but if i could just turn the laptop 90 degrees, it would do the job just fine.

not only sheet music, i can think of other applications where "portrait view" would be helpful. hence phones and tablets which rotate nowadays. but a laptop? i dunno.

 

i wasn't thinking about air flow, i was thinking about the HDD operating at an angle it wasn't really designed for.

i'm not expecting anything to BREAK outright, but will it introduce stress/torque/warp which could build up over time? i.e. will a "good for 4 years" HDD lock up after 2 b/c i been running it upside down and sideways?!

 

Many slimline computers (Dell for example), if in the vertical mode have the HD and CD drive that way.

 

yes, but those were designed with that in mind. mine is a run-of-the-mill flatlander with the usual "power down while carrying" warning in the manual.

i am reminded of the time i turned a TV on its side and it went dead within days. some circuitboard or something dislodged from the unexpected weight.

also...it's not just the HDD -- i'm a bit concerned about the HINGES as well. i wouldn't say the stress of being on edge is great, but it is obviously more than they're used to.

do manufacturers do tests for just this sort of thing?

 

Have you also given any thought to how difficult the typing is going to be?:confused

 

ok, i will defer to your experience, seeing as it is out of warranty aniwes. normally i hesitate to do things which the manual says DO NOT DO..... :cry

one question, tho - how do you get it to STAY UP? i do not trust the angle between the halves as suffient, given how top-heavy it will be. one power chord (on the keyboard) and i can see it toppling over on the piano lid.

i cannot imagine they sell any sort of base/bracket for propping it up? i suppose i need one if i ever want to run it off AC aniwes (jack is on the side which needs to go down).

 

just to clarify (mr attitude) -- what have you repeated or answered more than once? sure, manufacturers ship them in all sorts of angles -- TURNED OFF -- and people put them in bags at all sorts of angles -- TURNED OFF. that doesn't necessarily mean it's safe to USE them in those positions, and i don't think the question was a stupid one. many people on these very boards have warned me never to carry around the laptop powered up.

by extension of your answer, you would say that that is fine to do as well?

no, i'm not arguing, i'm asking for real. i'm sick and tired of powering up-down-up every time i head to campus, etc. especially since getting w7 which doesn't really need the 15 reboots a day that XP did.