no crying over spilt water
On Monday afternoon, I suavely got up to go deal with the Internet Box From Hades, and promply emptied I-don't-know-how-much water onto my keyboard, where it proceeded to fly all over and seep through the keyboard, a speaker (well it came out of there later so I'm guessing it went in), and god knows where else. I did as best I could in a short amount of time -- tried to let some run off, tried to dry some off, and then *click*. Off.
There is nothing quite like that moment of quiet panic when you realize that your dear beloved computer, which, sorry, you cannot dream of affording to replace right now, especially since you already spent well over 300€ on it in January, has just turned off because of a bunch of water just ran into all its essential parts.
I took the keyboard off, I learned how to take the silly Airport card out (and its metal bed with associated tiny screws), I popped off nearly all the keys (intimidating, then fun!), and I tried to figure out 1) how much water had gone in, and 2) how much water might remain? The thoughts going through one's mind as one watches water drip out of one's computer are special ones indeed. Water all over the sofa, water running out of a speaker, water all over a good deal of my keyboard, droplets of water on my memory, and thus probably elsewhere...water near the battery contacts, though whether it came from above or below I'll never know...
Delightfully, I had the presence of mind to crack open the other computer here and ask Internet -- Google: "water ibook." Got some excellent advice (give it at least a couple days, open it up as much as you can, don't blowdry), a bunch of terrifying information ("you are SOL if it passed the keyboard"), and then one repair dude who said "rarely are things ruined by just water; I've seen a number of 'dead' computers that are fine once the water dries and stops creating short circuits. The important thing is to wait until you really think the water has evaporated, or you could do more harm turning it on." (I thanked my lucky stars I'm not a soda drinker.) So I waited.
And tonight I started putting keys back on, and I put the battery in, and I plugged in the computer, and by golly when I pushed the power button it started right back up. Bless her little technological soul.
Also I've been high on mail the past couple days and finally finally finally wrote a few people I've been owing postcards to forever. And it is GREAT.
There is nothing quite like that moment of quiet panic when you realize that your dear beloved computer, which, sorry, you cannot dream of affording to replace right now, especially since you already spent well over 300€ on it in January, has just turned off because of a bunch of water just ran into all its essential parts.
I took the keyboard off, I learned how to take the silly Airport card out (and its metal bed with associated tiny screws), I popped off nearly all the keys (intimidating, then fun!), and I tried to figure out 1) how much water had gone in, and 2) how much water might remain? The thoughts going through one's mind as one watches water drip out of one's computer are special ones indeed. Water all over the sofa, water running out of a speaker, water all over a good deal of my keyboard, droplets of water on my memory, and thus probably elsewhere...water near the battery contacts, though whether it came from above or below I'll never know...
Delightfully, I had the presence of mind to crack open the other computer here and ask Internet -- Google: "water ibook." Got some excellent advice (give it at least a couple days, open it up as much as you can, don't blowdry), a bunch of terrifying information ("you are SOL if it passed the keyboard"), and then one repair dude who said "rarely are things ruined by just water; I've seen a number of 'dead' computers that are fine once the water dries and stops creating short circuits. The important thing is to wait until you really think the water has evaporated, or you could do more harm turning it on." (I thanked my lucky stars I'm not a soda drinker.) So I waited.
And tonight I started putting keys back on, and I put the battery in, and I plugged in the computer, and by golly when I pushed the power button it started right back up. Bless her little technological soul.
Also I've been high on mail the past couple days and finally finally finally wrote a few people I've been owing postcards to forever. And it is GREAT.