my laptop's brokey

^Read up on lithium battery care. It's pretty interesting. Most cell phones, laptops, and other common devices have overcharge protection on them. The reason for this is that overcharging them can cause them to catch fire/explode. This is more of an issue for the RC'ers who play around with batteries more and charge them differently than one does in a device.

Other interesting facts: If you're going to store the battery, don't have it fully charged. Less than half is better for the battery and safety. You can also keep them in the fridge, or at the very least somewhere dry and cool with good ventilation.

Interesting, yes - but I can't actually imagine a scenario where I need to store a battery. And thankfully we did buy the extended protection, because they never last three years, yet I won't need all the bells and whistles that come with new stuff - have more computing power than I need, in fact. Just need it to work when plugged in.

Thankfully whatever yanking I did is still working (knock wood). Also, Gary has the same laptop, so if necessary I can always charge my battery in his laptop. I just didn't want to be without a laptop for the week or however long it'll take them to fix the darn thing.

OK, so here's what happened with the laptop.

I keep small dishes of water all over the place for the cats. One of them (feel free to laugh at how stupid this is) was on a table under which I set the laptop on its side when I'm not using it. Flowerbelle, as we ALL know, pushes things off of stuff when she wants attention.

Yup - the water went over, and killed the keyboard on my laptop. Got a wireless keyboard - worked great.

For whatever reason, it drove Gary nuts. He insisted on switching drives, so I could have the working laptop box. He, of course, got fed up of the wireless keyboard, so took the laptop to Best Buy because of the extended warranty.

Long story about Best Buy's service being skipped, the laptop was declared dead, and he got a new one. (They get a month, so Gary was without a laptop for a month).

So I adjust all the water placement in the house, and Gary and I haven't used cups without tops for years now.

And guess what happens this morning? I'm having coffee (in a cup with a top). It's on the table. I forgot to CLOSE the top. Granted - if it spills, it's not the same as a mug dumping everywhere, but it still spills. I get up... and come back to my coffee dumped on the laptop.

It's not bad - it looks like most of it is on the outside, and there's not much of it. *PHEW*

I get out the paper towels and clean it up. I open it up to make sure there's none on the keyboard... and there isn't. I notice the screen needs to be cleaned, and there's some cat hair in the keys, so I decide to give it a clean. I take out the battery (and it's unplugged). I clean the screen, vacuum the keyboard, and run over it all with a slightly damp paper towel.

I turn it back on. Everything seems fine. BUT THE TOUCHPAD WON'T WORK! The button that turns it on and off is flashing on and off, and the little icon on the screen is just flickering on and off.

I figure I got the little button stuck somehow when I was cleaning it. I unplug, unbattery... get a pin out and poke around the edge of that little button.

Start it up again.

Well... at least the little button isn't stuck. I can turn the touchpad off and on. But the touchpad and the right/left buttons DO NOT WORK.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

I HATE THIS. This is WAY more of a PIA than the broken keyboard. The wireless one fit right over the top of the laptop keyboard, and I could easily use the number keypad and the touchpad.

This? THIS I have to use an external mouse, and I have to remove my hand EVERYTIME I want to click on something, move the cursor - SUCH a PIA I cannot tell you.

Hopefully I'll be able to find an external usb touchpad I can at least place over the non-working one, so I can get rid of this infernal mouse.

Mostly.... Mostly I am just royally angry with myself for letting this happen!!!!!!

OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why is that whenever you don't want the cats to get into something they always do, one way or another, like a magnet . I have to laugh, but know the anger you feel. I keep my laptop on it's side also leaning up against the end table. We don't use tops for our cups and are forever running across the room shouting and hopefully reaching the cup before a cat knocks it over . My laptop a few months ago, also got a soaking with a FULL cup of coffee !!! I couldn't believe it, left the room for one second and looked around before I left, No cats anywhere. But then I heard it, PRESLEY was racing off, the little stinker. Trashed the computer......... I still lean the laptop up against the table and leave drinks on the table, I should heed your experience of today and NOT DO that anymore. WHAT a PITA.......... Hope you can get things back up running smoothly and "unsticky" very soon

Ummm, did you say you are expecting a snow storm?

Originally Posted by LDG

I'm using the wifi on my pda to write this but can't stand the small screen and no keyboard!

My laptop won't charge - where the cord plugs in is very loose. As we're expecting another snow storm, I doubt we're taking it in tomorrow.

That's what I get for using my laptop on my lap LOL.

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What kind of laptop is it? HP is bad about that, but it's not a huge repair.

Originally Posted by Trouts mom

Ummm, did you say you are expecting a snow storm?

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I continued this thread - I started it in January LOL.

Originally Posted by mrblanche

What kind of laptop is it? HP is bad about that, but it's not a huge repair.

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I managed to keep it charging for quite a while, actually... but then Flowerbelle dumped water on it and rather critical keys on the keyboard stopped working. The update is in my last post, earlier today. Gary and I swapped hard drives, so this laptop is now his old box, but everything worked. ...Until Flowerbelle dumped my coffee on it this morning.

The coffee didn't directly cause today's problem as none of the coffee fell into the closed laptop... my deciding to clean the keyboard (since I had to clean up the coffee on the outside of the thing) somehow made the touchpad and right/left click buttons stop working.

I ruined a laptop a couple of years ago by spilling coffee. The cats had nothing to do with it just my own clumsiness. Of course it was at a time when money was tight. I was paying my bills on the P.C. at work and doing without one at home for a couple of months.

TODAY IS MY LUCKY DAY!

Turned on the laptop - and touchpad is working again!

Oh thank goodness! Sometimes that's all it takes -- a good drying-out.

hahaha I laughed alot during this thread...but I can feel your frustration, sometimes computers drive me CRAZY but I keep going back to them

Originally Posted by LDG

TODAY IS MY LUCKY DAY!

Turned on the laptop - and touchpad is working again!

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Yay! I have to admit you threw me when you said you were expecting a snow storm. I was thinking, "Where in the world does she live???"

Glad it's working.

I didn't look at the date on your original post, and I was thinking I thought you lived around here, not Antarctica!!


I need another coffee before I do anything dangerous.