LONDON -- British technophiles can't bear to be parted from their laptops and some computers are suffering from sunburn and water ingestion according to a PC retailer on Friday.

"September and October is when a lot of laptops come in for repair after being taken on holiday and being damaged," said Colin Middlemiss of High Street retailer the Computer World.

"Some have been left too long in the sun, some have been dropped in swimming pools" Middlemiss told Reuters.

He said the retailer's repair technicians recently found sand, stones and several tiny hermit crabs in the one laptop sent in by its worried owner.

The Computer World said an online survey showed that nearly 40 percent of laptop repairs in September were related to problems caused with taking machines on holiday.

"We were pretty amazed that of our 1,000 respondents 35 percent said they went away with their laptop. But then surfing the net and E-mailing can be addictive," he said.