Topic: The night my laptop didn't want to go

[dklein]

Plan A: 15 minutes before leaving for Wilco last night, I mistakenly selected the WDM drivers instead of ASIO on my (Wavelab + emagic A62) and it screwed my setup.  I coudn't get the ASIO back and played around with uninstalling and re-installing but Win2k keeps everything saved and won't let the new stuff in.  I was still cursing 45 minutes later.  Eventually I fixed it good enough so that every time I plugged in the A62 the laptop would bluescreen and reboot 

Plan B: Decided to grab the UA-5 and just run it as an a>d instead of the A62, because I really wanted to run that new V2 from Heath!  The place is not crowded and I'm setting up near the only table at the back.  While I'm setting up I get splashed with some green, fruity, sugary drink that hits the keyboard and screen.  I clean up as fast as I can - it was just a little splash, not a whole drink or anything but I did see a little flow in the keyboard.  Mouse starts acting funny.  I reboot - can't select the audio boot because the arrows don't work.  Can't log in to the default boot because the keys aren't working to type the login.  But it does boot up.  Dry it off some more and pack it up.

Plan C: JB3 to the rescue.  It was already set up as a backup for the 24 bit.  Turned the advanced switch on the UA-5, restarted and back to 16 bit 

Pulled the keyboard off the lappy and ran it under water.  Got all the keys but 3.  Doing it again now.  Found some keyboards on eBay for $17 if it doesn't work.  The computer didn't have much of anything under the keyboard but it does have a bit of a 'melon' scent to it!

And the point of this story...ummm...I don't know..just sharing.  The Wilco show was so good that it cancelled out the bad shit. 

[dklein]

Oh yeah...the other point.  My laptop crapped out at home because it didn't want to go to the show.  It was afraid of the green sticky stuff.  I should have listened

[BobW]

Oh yeah...the other point.  My laptop crapped out at home because it didn't want to go to the show.  It was afraid of the green sticky stuff.  I should have listened

Don't forget, final rinse should be done with distilled water.........

[dklein]

thanks for the tip.  Turns out the final rinse is done by the Dell warranty department - they're replacing it no charge.  I also mentioned that the latch is a bit difficult to open so they're sending me a whole new display (because the latch is built in).   Sounds good to me!

[Electric Cowgirl]

d00d that bites!!  So far my keyboard has taken water and sweat (NOT from me...sweaty taper leaning down to look at my levels ) 

Hope ya get it fixed easy

[dklein]

the crazy thing is I totally washed the keyboard twice in water and everything still works except those coupla keys.  So it seems that water doesn't do too much damage.

[gewwang]

I spilled some diet sprite on my sony vaio last night. Monitor shutoff and it wouldn't reboot after drying it off. I've opened it up for a day of air-drying and praying it will start up tonight.

[Electric Cowgirl]

sprite is pretty sticky....good luck!

Dklein- so the keys don't work, do you mean they stick or nothing happens when you push the key??

[dklein]

It was a diagonal line of keys that push down fine but nothing appears on screen - 2,w,s,x,
I have the replacement keyboard now so all is well again.  The invoice for the keyboard (what they charge you if you don't return the old one) was only $15.

[Electric Cowgirl]

$15..NICE