Why shouldn't I hit my laptop when it starts to make noise?

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My 19 year old college-age brother (who should really know better) hits his laptop every time it starts to make noise until the noise stops (I haven't heard the noise, myself, but the descriptions I've heard lead me to believe that the noise is caused by a loose component, dust buildup [it's a 2 year old system and he's never cleaned it or had it cleaned], or a combination of the two). I've offered to give his system a full cleaning for him, make sure all his cards and whatnot are firmly in place, and check for faulty components, but he'll hear none of it. Since this idiot* apparently won't listen to his older brother any more, I was wondering if anyone has come across a guide that explains in vivid detail why hitting delicate technology is generally a counter-productive way to fix it. No laptop care and maintenance guides I've perused thus far have made this point -- primarily, I assume, because it's so ridiculously obvious. Even posting a detailed and dispassionate answer here would probably be enough, since I can always direct him to this thread. Thanks in advance if anyone can help.

* I use this term affectionately, of course.

 

I don't really have a guide... but the answer is that it breaks the soldering and causes head crashes.

Actually, try to find a guide for hard drive head crashes, and then calmly explain that every time he hits it he runs the chance of permanently losing everything on that hard drive.

 

Thanks. I'll start there.

 

I'd say the biggest threat is damaging the hard drive since the heads are floating on a cushion of air that's only a fraction of a mm high (actually, the distance is measured in angstroms...so that should tell you how close the heads are to a spinning disk.)

As for breaking soldier pads, I'd say you only have to worry about that if any external ports have a heavy cable plugged in to them, and it's exerting stress on the jack. Power jacks are notorious for breaking off the motherboard...

 

It's kind of ironic, actually. He finally "got it" when I told him how a hard disc works and how fast the hard disc spins -- and pointed out what happened to his copy of Final Fantasy 10 when he bumped his ps2 while the disc was reading.