BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!

Subject: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: GUEST,Guest (TruBrit at work)
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 12:53 PM

Just checking in -- sitting up late last night I managed to fall asleep over my laptop and dump a glass of wine of it. It is toast --we are going to pay huge amounts of money to have the data retrieved because my son's senior high school project is on it (oh yes, when I make a mistake I do it big time). My financial records pale into insignificance against that loss.

So - just checking in to tell you all that I am checking out for a while. Until I get a new laptop (which I hope will be soon) real estate news etc from TruBrit up here in Maine will temporarily cease. Damn - I can't believe I did that.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Bert
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 01:20 PM

Most often it is only the keyboard that dies.

Next time get to it with a hair dryer right away and you might save it.

It would probably be cheaper to put the hard drive in a new machine than to pay a data retrieval service.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: gnu
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 01:23 PM

Fell asleep and spilled wine on the keyboard? I would never do that. I don't drink wine.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: artbrooks
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 01:23 PM

Ya'know, I did the very same thing a year or so ago. First, I cursed for eight or ten minutes without repeating myself. Then, I opened up the case, blotted up all of the wine (a very undistinguished red, BTW) with a damp cloth, and let it dry. It acted very weird for about a week (and I was sure I'd be replacement shopping), then it calmed down and has been fine ever since.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: catspaw49
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 01:27 PM

Trubrit I understand was drinking a white Art.......and as everyone knows RED goes with computers, never white.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: leeneia
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 01:30 PM

I sloshed a little wine on the keyboard myself, once. (not a laptop) The keyboard needed to be replaced but the computer was fine. This may not be as bad as you're thinking.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Little Hawk
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 01:31 PM

Sounds like something Shane would do! ;-) If he had a laptop...

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 01:32 PM

Actually, the recovery is as follows:

REMOVE THE BATTERY

Open the unit, FACEDOWN (Keyboard facing DOWN)

GENTLY spray plain water up into the keyboard, and let it drip out.

Blot dry, KEEPING it facedown

Place it FACEDOWN on a towel, and leave until dry ( overnight)

( Use kleenex between the keys to check to see if it is dry)

WHEN DRY, put the battery back in, and try to boot.

Either it works, or not.




IF IT DOES NOT:

Take the hard drive out ( get help if needed)
Put it into an "external" drive case ( available many places- SPECIFY it is for a laptop drive!) USB is best.
Put it onto another computer ( desktop with CD burner preferred.
MAKE A BACKUP of the disk.

THEN have your laptop repaired/replaced.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: MMario
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 01:33 PM

do try the drive in another laptop - that is the cheaper way to go, as Bert said.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: GUEST
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 03:04 PM

Well - thanks for all the great suggestions. We took it to our systems guy (remember I am totally illiterate on all of this....) but he said the hard drive won't 'spin' and that is why we need data retrieval? I feel so bad because it is my son's work .. I will print all these responses and give them to Tom (spouse who has some understanding of the mechanisms of these things - I do not) to see if any of these tips work.

Absolutely right - I was drinking white wine -- next time I'll stick to red and keep it a hell of a long way from the computer. The only good news is if my son had done it I would have wanted to murder him and now I can only blame myself......

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: GUEST,Guest - Trubrit at work
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 03:06 PM

BTW, I don't like logging on as 'guest ' - feels wierd.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: GUEST,Partridge
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 03:18 PM

I know what you mean

Pat x

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 24 Apr 07 - 11:21 PM

Wait a minute here! The thread title says "My lap top is toast!"

Spilling white wine on a laptop doesn't make it toast. If you want a laptop to be toast you have to spread butter and orange marmalade on it!

Spilling white wine on it only makes it drunk. Maybe it'll be okay once it sobers up. If it doesn't sober up after a day or two, send it to rehab.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 02:18 AM

Sorry but seeing this thread made me laugh...I was just eating my breakfast..toast...whilst using my computer and dropped the toast....butter side down in my lap....so I guess my toast is laptop.
I'll get my coat!

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: leeneia
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 09:11 AM

Very good. You've made me smile, and it's only 8 in the morning.

Trubrit, can it be that your kid has been working on this project all year and has never made a backup? check into this.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Maryrrf
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 09:43 AM

My son did this - spilled coffee onto an almost new laptop just as he was completing a rather important final paper. Of course, he hadn't backed anything up. He had to redo the paper in one day and ended up getting a passing grade but certainly not as well as he would have done had he been able to turn in the original which he had spent several weeks working on. It turned out it was just the keyboard that was affected, and he is now able to use the laptop by hooking up an external keyboard. But if a computer expert looked at yours and said the hard drive is messed up that is a different story. What you did is VERY easy to do - I have gone to sleep numerous times while using a laptop, and I often drink at the same time - usually tea but that would be just as bad. My sympathies!

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Alice
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 10:36 AM

Rule number one, never place liquids near your computer. Put it on the floor if you have no other spot to place the drink.
Sorry for your problem! Teenage angst tripled by homework loss equals family tragedy!

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: GUEST,Guest (TruBrit at work)
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 03:55 PM

Love the - my toast is laptop comment!

The sun is shining, joy is in the world, I am deliriously happy -- having CLOSELY interrogated my son, we discover that he has just lost the last part of his project which I have told him I will happily type to his dictation (me being a faster typist). And now we don't have to pay a fortune to some California company to retrieve our data because my guilt over lost paper was driving this!!!! Lost financial records to be recreated by our accountant for a very modest sum.......

Leenia -- unfortunately we are a family that learns only by experience -- I don't back anything up and nor did he (I grant he should have done......!). Trust me from this point forward there will be a time committed to backing up all info.

My new computer is on order -- the TruBrit may be down but she IS NEVER OUT.......be back on line from my sofa in a few days with NO DRINKS WITHIN MY IMMEDIATE VICINITY.....

Now if I can just keep the dog from slobbering on the keyboard.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 04:08 PM

http://www.altavista.com/web/results?itag=ody&q=%2Bkeyboard+%2Bprotection&kgs=1&kls=0

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Micca
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 04:55 PM

Debs, dont forget, stiff upper lip,umbrella under the arm, bowler in place and a quick chorus of
" Rule Brittania, Brittania waives the rules
Britons never never shall be......"

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Barry Finn
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 08:22 PM

Nice news Deb, congrats. I hope the sun stays shining. see ya

Barry

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: GUEST,TruBrit at work
Date: 25 Apr 07 - 08:56 PM

Bearded Bruce -- good advice - a keyboard cover does seem to be in order!

Micca - I use Rule Britannia as the music behind one of my radio commercials -- exploit anything English, I say!!!! Thank God I am still a UK citizen so am not being quite as crass as it seems!!!!!

Barry - thank you!

And as I am still at work and it is late, goodnight to all!!!!! Thanks to everyone for the support -- this has actually, all humour aside, been quite harrowing!

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 01:26 AM

I'm back -- equipped with a Mac that I am not quite sure how to use but I am sure I will learn............

I have suffered from a new disease - MW. Mudcat Withdrawal........

Good to be back.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 12:38 PM

TruBrit.
"Rule Britannia". Remember, while the tune is English, the words are by a Scot James Thomson. Admittedly you did only claim to use the music, so I suppose it can be considered English even if it is only memorable as the tune for the Scottish words

CHEERS
Nigel

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 03:37 PM

Oops!!! I didn't know that BUT as I only use the (ruly memorable...) music and totally ignore the words, I am fine!!!!!!

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Jeri
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 04:18 PM

Well, I didn't have phone service for a whole week! (I only lost electricity for two days.)

I spent a great deal of time wondering just what it was I used to do back before I found the Internet. There's a country song in here somewhere.

Just sit back and let me whine
I ain't got a thing to do with my time
My computer's broke like circus pony
I'm sittin' here gettin' all sad and lonely
I feel neglected, dejected, don't know what I expected,
Cuz all my friends are on-line.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 29 Apr 07 - 04:38 PM

I know EXACTLY how you feel.....

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: John MacKenzie
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 03:43 AM

Deborah, were you like others before you seduced by the pretty colours that iMacs come in or what?
A lot of people swear by Mac's, but I think you'll find it a tough transition.
It just struck me to wonder if you thought that a Mac was a waterproof PC, and you didn't want to repeat your previous laptop lavage incident?
Good luck with it anyway.
Giok

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Nick
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 07:10 AM

Perhaps you need a waterproof keyboard ?

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Micca
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 11:19 AM

I always thought you Boil Keyboards, if you want to, you Toast Mice!!

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 30 Apr 07 - 10:46 PM

Giok -- don't say that!!!!!!! I already realise that I have to get Windows because two of my basic programs I use every day don't run on this juicy little McIntosh. Seduced by the pretty colors -- mine is basic boring black!!!!!! According to my husband the Mac is the way to go because of being virus free.........so we'll see.

Still miss my view and think of your pretty shots of the view from your house.....

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: Bonecruncher
Date: 01 May 07 - 12:31 AM

TRUBRIT
While "Rule Britannia" might have been written by an Englisman, the last time that I looked "Britannia", or Great Britain, included Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and various Dependencies such as various offshore islands.
This is despite the actions of Blair and other government meddlers trying to re-write history.
Colyn.

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: M.Ted
Date: 01 May 07 - 09:46 PM

They don't come in funny colors anymore, Giok-- unless you think that black and white are funny colors, but you can arrange them so that you can run your Windows programs--

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 01 May 07 - 09:54 PM

Oh well, yes, you are right, bonecruncher. Sorry!

Subject: RE: BS: My lap top is toast!!!!!
From: TRUBRIT
Date: 15 May 07 - 10:02 PM

Well folks -- here's an update. I love my new 'Apple' (not sure why I needed one because a regular PC would have done me as well but what the hell.....) -- but the keyboard is really cool - ergonomically friendly! But remember that son of mine whose senior project was on my laptop and then it wasn't (just two pages Mum....nothing to worry about, he said at the time......).

Today we heard he is seriously behind on his English project and will not graduate if he does not get it together quickly and the REASON - of course -- for him being seriously behind is the crucial two pages that got lost on MY computer which is therefore MY fault and when he fails to graduate, it will be MY burden to bear for ever. Well, sadly - NO - I'm not taking this one on.......! But as he has finally heard that he will not graduate if he does not finish this work, he is claiming my laptop from now until school ends (kinda - sorta) to finish the work. So if the TruBrit has gone quiet for a while -- there's the reason. I HAVE a laptop (not toast) but can't use it while my son frantically tries to pull his high school graduation together.........aaaggghhhh!!!!!!

Will try and sneak on here and there for my Mudcat 'fix'.

See some of you at Mary's this weekend.........