A Cup of Coffee, A Chair and a Dead Computer

Of many a classic yarn spun from the origins of the mundane or otherwise insignificant occurrence, this is not one.  My childhood favourite author, Mr Charles Dickens, was a master of this art; drawing from little observations and chance encounters in his life to weave intricate plots and storylines.  Who would have thought that a journalist’s visit to an orphanage and a little boy’s plea for more gruel would spawn the timeless classic Oliver Twist?  Or that a visit to a solicitor’s office would fuel the tale of the tragic Charles Darnay in the epic A Tale of Two Cities? Or, still,  my favourite, that young Pip’s coincidental crossing of paths with Magwich, Miss Havisham and young Estella twisted with his misplaced love and expectations would lead to his tumultuous ‘Great Expectations’?

As stated before, mine is neither an epic nor classic tale, and, I am no Charles Dickens.  But maybe it’s a story worth recounting if only for its precautionary value.

The Discovery

Having acquired a replacement laptop for my dead one, I had proceeded to dismantle it to salvage parts to use for upgrades and maintenance purposes. I had removed the RAM, optical disk player and hard drive when coming to the motherboard I had noticed a film of brown coating on the underside of the cellophane sheet that protects the motherboard from spillage.  Carefully peeling the sheet off I had found that the brown substance was a sticky goo.  It was then that I realised that the malaise that had afflicted my computer and precipitated its early demise had literally been ‘brewing’ for about a year!

It had begun with a cheap computer desk chair and a cup of after-dinner coffee and concluded with the aforementioned dead laptop. The computer had been steadily slowing down over time and, no matter what measures I took, I couldn’t find the cause or a remedy. I had tried all recommended checks and solutions; downloading drivers from the manufacturer’s website, running Windows disk checks and so forth all to no avail.  Even the manufacturer’s diagnostic scan could find no issue.  But now I knew what it had been all along.  The brown goo I had discovered was residue from a coffee spillage from about a year ago.

The Incident

Because of some back troubles I had been having, on medical advice, I replaced my desk chair with a  cheap straight-back one, you know, the type you would find at Ikea or Argos.  One evening soon after, I made my customary after-dinner coffee and ambled my way to my computer where I intended to watch my favourite quiz show online before taking a siesta.  As it happens, the fact that I had changed chairs completely eluded me causing me, in the dimly lit room, to misjudge my position and plant my behind on the edge of this considerably smaller seat.  As the chair collapsed under me and I tumbled with it grabbing anything within reach for dear life, the coffee cup flew out of my hand splashing its contents hither, thither and everywhere.

Ignoring the stabbing pain in my back where the backrest of the chair had slammed into, I went into computer rescue mode.  I grabbed the nearest linen insight to dab the keyboard surface, pulled out the attached power cord, took out the battery and turned the computer upside down - all in seconds.  And that’s how it stayed for the next twenty-four hours as I waited for the spill to dry off completely.

After twenty-four hours or so I took the keyboard out and wiped every accessible area clean of coffee spillage.  I then gave it another eight to twelve hours before it felt safe enough to power back on.  Since the laptop turned on perfectly and ran with no apparent trouble, I took it that the worst was over.  Well, as I now know, until it started chugging along.  Obviously, although the liquid part of the coffee had evaporated, it had left a sediment that, with moisture from the atmosphere and heat from the computer, periodically ‘brewed’ and eventually caused a short circuit to the motherboard.  You might say the computer suffered from a high dosage of caffeine!

The Conclusion

What I think I’ve learned from this experience is that firstly, you can never be too careful and then that any spillage other than that of pure water would very likely eventually kill your computer.

…………… And, of course, remember the size of your furniture, especially in dimly-lit rooms.