I poured water on my laptop to clean it!

And it stopped working! Screen and keyboards were looking quite dirty. Dust accumulates on screen and its quite common that screen looks ugly. And what I did for making it beautiful? A complete insane work! I soaked cotton with water and first cleaned the screen and then the keyboard. I have done it so many times so I was quite confident that it would not harm it.

You must be thinking from where I got this idea of cleaning with water? Somewhere I read that chemicals are not good for cleaning screen, and at some other place that water can be used for cleaning the screen of laptops.
I love my laptop more than anything. In fact it has got such a big space in my routine that I can't live without it. So I take care of it the best way I can. Cleaning with water was meant for better care but it turned out to be a nightmare.

This time I did two mistakes
1. I applied more water on screen which seeped inside the laptop through the holes of speaker
2. I cleaned the keyboard too without caring for that some water is going down

It is not that a very big amount of water has gone inside. It would have been just few drops. I even left it to dry for a hours. But then when I started it again there was a very very faint display on the screen. I immediately forced shutdown it. Then again I started it. There was no display. I waited for few seconds I heard some sound ti.. ti... I did forced shutdown again this time getting confirm that there is some problem. Heart beat rate soared, me completely scared! Yeah it was the effect of water and the best thing which I should have done is to leave it untouched. That time there was no power, and I thought that keeping it on charge may help by heating it (again a wrong idea) or it may give extra power to start it. But since there was no power I started to wait eagerly for power. Meanwhile my eagerness and fear forced me again to switch on the laptop hoping that this time it may start. But it didn't! It stopped just by lighting all the indicators. Power was coming in mouse I attached external hard disk which also showed power. It seemed that everything is fine and there is problem with the display only. Sensing that I kept it on for long I did forced shutdown again!

After an hour power came and I attached the power cord switched my laptop again but again the same thing followed. All these steps were a part of identifying the problem and hope that this time it may start! I removed battery, attached power cord and started it. Again all indicators lighted showing a normal start up but there was no display again. All these things I have not shared with my Mom. We two were only there at home that time.

I contacted DELL and they sent a quotation of Rs 18,000 for changing the mother board and one year complete warranty. My warranty has expired and I haven't renewed it! The customer care after hearing my story said "Aapne Kulhari khud hi apne pair pe mar li" and then modified it "ya phir khud pair kulhari pe mar di". In fact he laughed on the idea of cleaning with water. And after which I decided that to no one else I shall say that I cleaned my laptop with water!

I asked him if I could dry it and he told the process to open the laptop. I searched for screw driver but I couldn't get at home, went to market but in vain. I got a nearly matching screw driver it could open all other screw but not the one I was trying to. This screw was a bit tight. I left it for air drying. Lids open and fan in full swing above it. Meanwhile I again went to market to some electronics shop but they didn't give me the screw driver even after my promise and a surety money to return it.

Papa came back from office and I told that some water has fell upon it from glass and now it is not starting. He suggested that I shouldn't switch it on again, and I told that I did switched on for just one time. I had to lie. I was puzzled on my insanity! If water has gone into why I started it for several times? Why I couldn't think that water getting inside will harm the computer!

In the evening I went to internet café to read "what to do if water fall on your laptop?" I got the answer and experiences of people. Many people left it untouched for few days and it started normally. I got tensed again as I had started it several times. For the whole night I couldn't sleep properly. From around 4 o'clock in the morning I started to think and dream of my laptop. Many times I got angry on myself. Sometimes I dreamt that it is working fine and me typing something in notepad! A perfect nightmare for me! I woke up early in the morning. Decided that today I shall keep myself fresh and will not stress much to my mind. I have my mid-semester exam after the Durga Puja Vacation. And if I continued in a bad mood it was going to affect the exam as well. Though many notes in the form of clips were there in my laptops but still I have enough notes to study so it was more important to change the mood. Saying is easy but believing; a tough job! I bathed early in the morning and went to a mobile repair shop with my laptop. I asked for screw driver by showing him the screw. I got the screw driver and I opened the laptop for the first time. Though it was not a big deal but still I feared entering into yet another problem. I opened it and there was so much dust inside. Cleaned it with a brush and then dried it with a air dryer. Thankfully he was having hot air dryer. I applied it everywhere. Removed the keyboards for which I took the help of a friend (Ankit Dutt) over phone. Opened the back side of it to remove RAM as suggested by Ankit but I couldn't find where the RAM was! So I just applied hot air on every part of the laptop for quite a big time. Then the shopkeeper was anxious to know whether it is working or not! In fact I would not have switched it on there. But on his request I switched it on after fitting all the screws back. Quite anxious and visibly tensed I switched it on!

And to my surprise it started normally as if nothing has happened to it! I got relieved took a long breathe and thanked the shopkeeper for his help. I gave Rs 20 to the shopkeeper and returned back home. Giving the message to Papa on phone.

Thankfully I got my laptop back in normal conditions. I thanked to Almighty for his generosity! I had prayed to him before.

Many thing I learned from this experience. At the end I am happy!