In 2008, I quit my corporate job, sold off everything I owned and moved overseas with my husband Drew. Since then we've traveled around the world, started our careers over as creative types and nurtured our love of sleeping in late. Oh and we had a baby. Cole, our almost 2 year old has been traveling since he was four months old and probably knows more Thai than me (not that he brags).
What to Do if You Spill Wine on Your Laptop (Updated)
1. Turn it off
2. Flip upside down
3. Pull apart the keyboard and hard drive and dry off
4. Let air dry over night
5. Go to your happy place (mine is Belgium waffles with strawberries: see above)
Hopefully tomorrow it will at least turn on, so I can get the thousands of photos, all my writings and that novel I wrote last fall onto a storage device. If anyone says “should have” and “backup” in the same sentence I might just start crying again, waffles be damned. Trust me I know.
UPDATE (next day): So this morning I hopped out of bed, and press the power on button on my laptop. The blue power light flickered on, then nothing (I tried this about 100 times). I collapsed back into bed and pulled a pillow over my head. I was going to have to replace my kick ass computer with a crappy one, I probably lost my documents and I would no longer be able to store gigs and gigs of photos when I traveled, and I envisioned running around Europe with a big clunky crappy cheap computer.
3 hours later…
HUSBAND: OK I’m going out to the computer repair place.
ME: (from beneath pillow) ugh.
HUSBAND: Woah. Did it do this before?
ME: What, flicker feebly then die?
HUSBAND: No, all the lights are on and… holy crap
(Microsoft theme song is heard)
ME: Shut up!
HUSBAND: I know!
So, yes the computer decided that it needed it little more sleep this morning (was it hungover?) before it would miraculously restart like nothing ever happened. The only side effect is that time started resetting itself randomly, but the wireless, webcam and all the keys work. I AM SO LUCKY. I seriously think it was all the thoughts of waffles. Maybe the belgium-waffle-gods smiled on me today. Yum.
Photo: Christine Gilbert (uploaded pre-spillage)
Well, that just sucks.
anthonys last blog post..Mapping Out a Quest and Mexican Restaurants
GAAHHHHH…..
not to mention the loss of the wine
In all likelihood though the data is probably still recoverable – even if the laptop itself is kaput but wow…that sucks.
I spilled coffee on mine once – thought it was dead but a couple of hours later it just magically turned itself on and worked fine ever since.
Oh no! I know exactly how you feel, except currently it’s my external hard drive that is on the fritz. I’m not even sure if my data is recoverable, and even worse is that I’m not sure whether I have time to get a replacement drive back to me since I’m leaving the country in a few weeks. I think you’ll have much better luck with your hard drive, though.
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wow! I’m terribly sorry. I know how you feel. I had a mini laptop incident too. just think waffles.
Nomadic Matts last blog post..The Weekly Photo
Fingers crossed it all works out…
Thanks guys for the support! Holy crap that sucked… but thankfully it all worked out for now…
Lesson learned: Back up your stuff, stupid.
I could have written that post – if only you’d been drinking coffee instead.
Yesterday morning, a full mug, with sugar, on my laptop keyboard.
No more laptop. Prognosis for the hard drive? Uncertain.
Backup? None.
Lessons learned? PLENTY. Daily backups. No more coffee. And two months of work down the drain.
Perhaps these stories will inspire others not to think, “That won’t happen to me!”
Yeah!
One of these guys has saved me more than once. It will at least limit the amount that seeps in the keyboard. If only there was a reservoir to collect the wasted red wine!
http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=keyboard+cover&btnG=Search&show=dd&cid=9788217382156628751
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Glad to hear that all is well in the end. I am always paranoid about that happening to me; perhaps tonight I will backup my laptop. (Since it’s been awhile since I’ve been paranoid enough to be kicked into action!)
This made me all mopey, but I’m glad it turned out fairly well.
I will go with your theory the laptop was hung over. Or that laptops are fickle creatures that (despite what my programmer boyfriend tells me) actually have a secret agenda to make us support the waffle industry.
That blows. Remember: Once, Twice, Three times a back-up.
I have an external hard drive getting repaired. Too many photos possibly gone forever. Back everything up twice, at least.
Stevos last blog post..going for broke
Chelsea: This made me do a spit take: “[laptops] actually have a secret agenda to make us support the waffle industry” Thanks for making me laugh… it’ been a long week.
I hope that you only feed your laptop cheap red wine….Keep the good stuff for yourself.
i like this entry. very witty
i think i’ll be checking your blog from now on
I spilled a half a glass of wine on my laptop last night. My first thought was NO MY WINE! Then I used bad language, turned off my computer and turned it upside down overnight. In the morning I was afraid to try and turn it on. Well, thank God it works and I didn’t loose anything, so far. I’ve been advised to take the keyboard apart and flush it with distilled water. I think if I do this, it will not be a good thing. I did after all spill the wine. So, I better just pray that it will be ok. My last computer I spilled Champagne and had to replace the keyboard……..I guess red wine is a better spill:)
This just happened to my new Macbook Pro (and 2005 Pinot Noir). The night before my first big 4 hour social media seminar, for which I was just wrapping up a huge presentation. Luckily I backup my computer wirelessly and automatically via Time Machine, but I’d turned off the backups because I was editing video a couple days earlier — and most of the presentation was done in those last couple days.
It actually stayed running for 5 minutes before I shut it down, but then wouldn’t boot. About three hours later it booted up fine but the screen wouldn’t come on so I hooked it up to my external monitor, updated the backup, and then made another one.
I took it to the apple store the next day and explained the situation. The Mac Genius looked me in the eye dead-serious and said “you didn’t happen to buy this on an Amex card, did you?” “Yes. I did” — and less than 90 days ago. He quoted the “Tier 4 – Out of Warranty: Catastrophic Damage” at $1250. Supposedly Amex will cover up to $1000 of this (and potentially, the final cost could be less I suppose).
Interesting fact: Mac users primarily spill red wine on their laptops, not white wine
Lessons learned:
1) Keep the wine away from the computer. This happened because my desk was cluttered and their was no other empty space. I should’ve cleaned off my desk beforehand.
2) Buy stemless wine glasses.
3) Buy stuff with an Amex card
4) Check your homeowners insurance. Personal laptops are usually covered (at least for theft) but you can get a rider for about $10 per year that covers stuff like this with no deductible. I had this in the past, but I need to check my policy because it doesn’t always auto-renew from year to year.
.-= Sean Fitzroy´s last blog ..Scott Berkun: Confessions of a Public Speaker at Microsoft NERD =-.
LOL! you’re really lucky!
Anyway I would really believe that I you’re quick on pulling its power chord and removing its battery after the spill then you’ll really get a good chance of saving it.
but you have a great way of not worrying huh!
nice story
.-= XP Drivers´s last blog ..Computer turns itself off after 2 seconds. Why? =-.
That just happened to me like 4 minutes ago but with my new iPod touch. It sucks.
Dell Inspiron 1520 + 2008 Arizona Stronghold Mangus red wine. Disassembled the keyboard and cleaned it with isopropyl alcohol. The blue light comes on for a flicker, then fades. Fortunately, I use an external hard drive so my photos and documents are saved, but all my work in progress is stuck in limbo until the laptop decides what it’s going to do.