Liquid and Laptops – A Bad Mix
On Saturday I got a phone call from my friend in Pennsylvania. She said, “I’m having a panic attack and you’re the first person I thought of to call; My son spilled a huge glass of iced tea on my laptop.”
I told her that this has to have happened to a lot of people out there. She said the laptop was not under warranty and then she said, “Not that this would be covered under the warranty anyway.” She and I were thinking out loud basically.
She said she came home after this had happened and her son was trying to turn the laptop on and off, on and off. When she attempted to turn it on, she only heard a crackling sound and shut it right back off again. She said they were attempting to take it apart to let it dry out.
I told her she may want to think about getting the hard drive out of the laptop; that if worse came to worse and she lost this laptop, at least she would have that backup.
Since this event happened I have thought of a few things I am going to keep in mind:
- If liquid gets onto my laptop or a PC, I will NOT attempt to turn it on
(so nothing gets fried) - I will dry the computer out as soon as possible (with laptops tilted)
- Call my computer guy before I do anything (he’s never not been available)
- Before a computer crash of any kind might happen, I will back up my files on my external hard drive (preventive measures)
Things have turned out OK for my friend; her laptop is functioning just fine now and hopefully it will stay that way.
S.L.M. 11.16.09 @ 2:02 p.m.
reflections 