Shit! I Just Spilled Wine on My Computer!

by Brandon Wainscott

So it finally happened. I spilled wine on my laptop. Well, so far, so good. A bit sticky, but given it was that sticky, cough medicine like port, I suppose that is to be expected, even with the cleaning. I'll give it another good wipe after this. But assuming your computer has not already fried out, in which case you are screwed, some ways to save your computer.

1. Shut it down. 
2. With a towel quickly get all the liquid off. This needs to be done as quickly as possible of course.
3.  Once you have gotten all the actual wine of get a dry paper dowel and wipe down the keyboard and in between the keys. Get any wine or wine residue that you see. 
4. Turn the computer upside down for a moment. 
5. This step is made with a disclaimer. You do this at your own risk. With a baby wipe or wet wipe, wipe down the computer, including the keyboard. On the keyboard be extra gentle of course, as well as on the mouse. You may have to do this a few times. Try wiping in circular motions. Then dry with a paper towel.
6. Then turn your computer back on and hope there are no problems. 

Of course if something does go wrong, and you have warranty that covers such accidents, you're good, except for the trouble of the lost files and having to wait for a replacement. But hopefully this helped.  That's why it is good to always back up your files. If you're nervous like me about someone reading them, or seeing certain photos (wink, wink), you can encrypt files, even folders, and they will remain encrypted when they are backed up. Word files, Excel files, etc. allow you to encrypt in the software, and there are programs you can buy to add even better encrypt them. A simple, free method of encrypting whole folders can be found here, though it is easy to get through the encrypted file if you have some very basic knowledge of these things. I actually mention the encryption, not so you can hide bad things (though you can!), but your important files, such as for business, that great novel you plan on publishing, etc. Backing them up, or putting them on a jump drive, exposes them to being opened by whoever might find or use the jump drive. Just think identity theft is some of them are business files. Decent encryption is a good idea, as is backing up files in general. Then if you spill wine on your computer, you are good if the above methods fail. Cheers!