I was sure the keyboard was a goner but thought Oh I’ll try and see if I can just peel off the wax. So one Saturday morning I took it apart on my kitchen table .. .the keys, the case, then found a sheet of wax bonded with the flexible circuit board. I peeled that off too. Cleaned off everything, put it all together, hooked it back up to the Mac, and … nothing. nada. Completely broken. But it was fun.

“Is insurance coverage the same as warranty coverage?

“Answer:
“No. Insurance COMPLIMENTS the manufacturers warranty. The warranty on your machine will service failures and mechanical breakdown.A Safeware insurance policy will protect you from physical damage such as a cracked lcd, liquid spills, power surges in addition to theft and natural disasters.”

Just asking, because I can’t believe you would just run out and buy a new laptop to look important or something. Did you buy the software needed for the conference as well? Or just a laptop with nothing on it (except the OS)?

A spill does not necessarily mean a fried computer.

When a computer (or any electronic equipment for that matter) gets wet, the most important thing to do is remove any source of electricity. If it’s plugged in, unplug it, and if it has a battery, remove the battery — and fast!

If you don’t get rid of the moisture relatively quickly (don’t leave it wet for a week or two), you are going to have to worry about corrosion.

Without power, liquids will not harm the computer (at least not right away…) The way to deal with it from that point is like this: If it was just water that spilled, you’re going to want to help the equipment dry. That means taking it apart to the best of your ability, without taking it apart, it could easily take a week before everything is dry. You can try to help it dry by wiping down whatever you can (gently) and using gentle dry heat to dry things up. An electronics moisture displacer spray can also help with the drying up process.

If sticky stuff spilled, then you’re going to need to clean it, besides just drying it. The best way is with an electrics spray cleaner. Basically it’s a spray bottle of a chemical which evaporates easily without leaving a residue. You just shpritz the stuff until all the gunk is gone…

When you’re done and are sure everything is totally dry, put it back together, and just fire it up (and hope you don’t smell smoke…

He was told by the apple engineers that they could detect moisture (apple build in sensors for warranty diagnosis) and that since it was probably him spilling things, then it wasn’t covered as a mechanical failure under his warranty from a UK central London retailer (Square Graphic).

This has so far taken 3 months to diagnose to this point, with the laptop accumulating more air-miles than Obama, and could probably have been fixed for the amount of hassle it’s caused to repeatedly fob off the customer.

One always has to think about that in business. I can’t remember which company it was that found it much cheaper to just always replace the entire device than to employ engineers to diagnose faulty components, not to mention the whole admin and supply chain infrastructure, but I suspect it was the japanese with the TVs, possibly Sony. Manufacturing can be got so right that repair is irrelevant, just replace.

That means insurance folks!