Surviving That Time Liquid Spilled on My Laptop
For the past 3 days I been glued to my laptop. It's been tense, emotional and at times feeling like a part of me is going to die. What has been the issue? Liquid spilled on my laptop. Urgh.
The devastating moment happened on Thursday night as I tried to recap the weeks activities. For some reason only known to my son, he tosses a pillow at me, which knocks down a cup on the table that spills liquid all over my laptop. When I say all over I mean like ALL OVER.
As I pick my laptop up, liquid pours down from it onto the table. Like a torrential downpour. What the hell?! How much liquid was in that cup?!
As my son take cover in the corner in case I lose it, I go into crisis mode. I have no time to yell at my son right now. My laptop and all my digital files needs me!
What follows would make a great scene for a medical drama. I call out for my assistant, in this case my brother, to get the paper towels. I quickly move my laptop into a dry and clean area where I can perform surgery. I quickly prep the patient and then go in. I'm determine to try and minimize as much damage before going into for major repair. I stabilize the patient, power is still on and I can still see the screen. OK things are OK so far. I quickly turn my laptop off, take out the battery and grab a screw driver to open as many areas possible for a dry out.
As I surround my laptop with paper towels (someone suggested rice but I need that for dinner!) I say a pray and hope for the best.
At that moment I remember my son. *sigh* I couldn't deal with him right then. While it's not his fault, it sorta is. I send him to bed early to avoid yelling and feeling guilty later. We'll talk more about NOT throwing pillows in the morning.
The next following days, I check on my laptop with hourly visits. I know it's not looking good. While I got most the liquid out, I can't login. The keyboard is ruined. Without being able to login I can't save my files. Urgh. This whole years worth of photos and videos possibly lost. Not just blog related digital files but my life also. Our life!
I can't lose nearly 1 year of our life! I keep working on my laptop. For 2 days!
Finally I figure out how to use the touch screen keyboard instead of the manual one. Who knew that was an option?!. Genius who ever designed that feature. I login. I LOGIN!
The next hours are tense as I figure out how to copy over my files to a My Passport portable hard-drive. Thank you Western Digital! This is the 2nd time you've helped save my digital life.
I succeed in getting my files out and safe right before the laptop starts acting up again. As I shut it back down, I promise to take a trip to the tech store to see if anything else can be done. But I fear this is the end of this laptop. It's bitter sweet. I bought it after my laptop before it had a meltdown. That one I had for a few years. It was time. But this one I had less then a year. It seems a bit unfair.
If I have to say good-bye to this laptop, I will also say thank you. It served me well by keeping my memories organized and safe. It will be missed
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26 comments
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ReplyDeleteMy ultimate fear in life and reminds to me back up my computer like NOW!!
ReplyDeleteWOW!1 the best part is that you got the files out before it started acting up again!! Glad you were able to do that!! Now on to that son..................... LOL!!
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my biggest fears. I have an external drive and I also use carbonite...I just can't lose everything!
ReplyDeleteHow terrible! With two wild boys, sometimes I consider building a metal gate around my laptop. I feel for you!
ReplyDeleteI'm glad you were able to recover your files. This is a good reminder to back everything up.
ReplyDeleteWow! I am so glad that you were able to recover all of your files. That might have happened to me on more than one occasion, but I didn't have a touch screen option to save anything. Nice save!
ReplyDeleteOh no!! We had one that completely gave out a few years ago and I lost everything :(
ReplyDeleteOh man!! Not the laptop! I am always spilling stuff all over my laptop and iPad because I am a klutz. I really hope that it can be saved!
ReplyDeleteI keep things backed up on an external hard drive, but I still worry about losing my laptop to an accident like this!
ReplyDeleteI would freak if I lost everything! I try to keep liquids out of the office for that very reason!
ReplyDeleteIts funny yet not how dependent we are on technology good thing we have even MORE technology to help us when we are in a pinch.
ReplyDeleteMy heart goes out to you. My computer suddenly just died on me a couple of months ago. It was a horrible experience.. but I am glad I was able to finally upgrade.. so the outcome was nice ;)
ReplyDeleteI think everyone who has lost a laptop to a home tragedy or accident feels your pain and sends you empathetic thoughts.
ReplyDeleteI did this a few weeks ago to my laptop and the keyboard doesn't work anymore. I wish I had done all of your medical training to it! I need to get all of my pictures off it still!
ReplyDeleteYou had me at the edge of my seat...good thing you were able to save your files sorry about your laptop i know the feeling!
ReplyDeleteOh no! Have you ever looked into using crashplan? It's a backup system that will back up your computer files for you if something like this should happen again! Glad you were able to save everything to your external hard drive!
ReplyDeletei had a sadder ending to my very similar story. lesson learned. and my savior has been western digital too!!
ReplyDeleteMy husband spilled coffee all over my laptop and I went to get it fixed. Now it's fine
ReplyDeleteI am so glad you were able to remove your files and back them up to save them. Lesson to all of us to back up our computers! our memories contained on them are too valuable to lose.
ReplyDeleteI always have a cup of coffee near while I am on my laptop. I worry about a spill, especially when my kids are around. So glad you were able to recover your year from your computer.
ReplyDeleteOh man! So glad you were able to save your files! This happened to me years ago and I lost everything - it was devastating!
ReplyDeleteI spilled water on my laptop a couple years ago. That was the end of that laptop. I now try to NOT drink around the keyboard.
ReplyDeleteI dumped a whole cup of coffee on my laptop last month. I could have cried.
ReplyDeleteUGH, I am always afraid of something like this happening to me. I have recently backed everything up on an external drive and hopefully minimize the pain if that ever happens. :)
ReplyDeleteWhat matter is you were able to save your important files.
ReplyDelete