Medium rare laptop

Sometimes life is like the movies: just when you think the world is going end, a deus ex machina steps in and magically everything is okay.

Today I come rushing home because it's the end of the semester and I have finals coming up and I need to write two papers tonight so that I can go camping this holiday weekend with peace of mind so I get home and GIL says, hey honey, you're just in time!  I'm cooking french fries! 

Oh that's good, I say, because I haven't eaten yet and I have all this work to do.  Let me just put my bike away.  I walk into the kitchen and notice my computer's not on the kitchen table.  Which.  Means. It's.... oh, SHIT!!!!

I open the over door.  No fries.  Just one miserable looking laptop.  (STOP:  EXPLANATION OF WHY I KEEP MY LAPTOP IN THE OVEN: I keep it there because I live in a high crime area in a house with windows that don't even lock.  I figure the oven's actually a very safe place.  Who would think to look there for valuables? and if the house burns down the computer'd be okay.  The system worked just fine when I was living alone.)

My screams cause GIL to drop his book and come running. 

I accomplish all of the following in under 3.8 minutes:

• rant
• rave
• think of all the data I lost in addition to the machine itself
• wonder how I'll get my papers done
• cry
• hate myself for thinking the oven would be a good storage place
• hate GIL for not remembering that I keep it in there (I told him TWICE! you'd THINK he'd remember something like that!)
• fall to the floor beating my fists on my legs
• pace the room
• plan how to get a new laptop before the end of the semester even though both of us are so broke we can't even buy enough groceries to get us through the month
• resolve not to permanently ruin GIL's relationship with my parents by telling them that he cooked the laptop they gave me for Christmas
• yell at myself
• yell at GIL
• cancel our weekend plans

It's 2:30 in the afternoon.  I just got home from class have tons of work to do before we leave for the Thanksgiving holiday and I nearly lost my computer.  It was cooked.  In the oven.  At roughly 300 degrees.  For about five minutes.

Here's what it looks like:

But the story's not over.  I'm happy to report that I am not typing this from my boyfriend's computer. 

I'm working from the melted laptop you see above.  When we set it on the table to inspect the damage and noticed that the little green light was flashing.  We pressed the button.  Welcome, it says.  Then it starts Windows.  We breath a sigh of relief until it goes to a black screen and displays the following message:

"Your computer powered off because it overheated.  This may be caused by... [list of a number of things I don't remember just that oven cooking was not one of them].  Please wait while we readjust your settings".  Then the desktop appeared and it was back.  It even found the wireless signal and connected.

Can you believe it?  IT'S FINE!!!   The thing is completly fine!  Apparently, for as awful as it looks, the only melted thing is the casing.  I'm told we could just buy a new case for it.

I have never felt such raw, pure emotions as I felt then.  When you literally feel all the cliches associated with a particular feeling.  A flood of relief swept over me.  I felt weak at the knees.  I think I am still shaking.

Comments

[Sarah]

Wow, Barb, that's simply amazing. I'm glad the computer is okay!

[PurrpleGrrl]

That's ridiculously amazing.
That said, my computer geek boyfriend says you should still back up everything on the laptop as soon as you can, just in case it decides to "melt down" later.

[L]

wow! I would not have guessed that it would power back on after that.... I agree with PurrpleGrrl-- you should definitlely back everything up anyway...

[Eric TF Bat]

Two thoughts, off the top:

1. You are unbelievably lucky. If you believe luck comes in bunches, buy a lottery ticket. If you believe luck is a finite resource, try to avoid walking under any ladders for a while until your supply replenishes.

2. You're not only lucky for still having all your data; you're also lucky for having a story that doesn't end with Nelson from The Simpsons pointing at you and saying "HA ha!". Putting your laptop in the oven is several steps beyond dumb. The gods have granted you a rare chance to preview the effects of your dumbness, without charge. Learn from this! Hide the laptop somewhere ELSE from now on!

[GodOfBiscuits]

VERY lucky...tho don't press your luck: buy an external hard drive or find someone with enough space on theirs and back your stuff up.

It may be working now, but the HD may have suffered some damage that has shortened its lifespan.

[serial catowner]

Well, as long as it works you now have the most unique laptop in the world. You can tell them upfront, "My boyfriend did it for me- just put it in a 300-degree oven for three minutes." Nobody will dare try it.

And eventually, you'll have the satisfaction of seeing faux melted laptops appear, for the stylishly inclined but faint of heart.

[Oedipa]

Back that shit up NOW though!!!!!! It may not last long. Unbelievable.

I used to store something much more ominous in my oven when I lived in New Mexico. Then again, we never used the oven. Ever. It was too damn hot out.

[cranialt]

It's cool that your laptop still works. Like pretty everyone else said, though, don't trust it to keep working.

I've never put one in the oven; but, I was typing on my old IBM Thinkpad a few years ago when a flame shot out the back and the keyboard started to catch fire. Melted a place-mat and bubbled up the kitchen table pretty good, too.

[Bibliophile]

Hmmmm, maybe I should try that with my old laptop that no-one wants - might make interesting artwork, a sort of Dali-puter.

[barb]

Bibli,
My sister did that with her computer that survived a fire. I think it was just the monitor but it still worked and she used it in her glass shop. It was definitely like a "Dali-puter"!

[Charles]

Wow, I'm surprised that the little barcode sticker on the bottom didn't turn completely black. Usually those are thermal printing stickers.

[J. Lin]

Wow... I'm amazed. I'm glad your laptop is okay. I'd still back up all your stuff ASAP though =)

The irony is that it looks like the exact same laptop that I originally bought (Inspiron 600M?) and had to send back to Dell because it overheated on me (wonky cooling unit).

It looks cool though and I totally thought of Dali as well =D

How does Dude not see a laptop in the oven when he put the fries in?

-- J.

[ZippyZero]

I work for a company that does Dell tech support (outsourced) - if you want a replacement case for your system and you're still under warantee just call tech support (try to get one in the United States, there are also call centers in India, Panama, The Philippines and probably other countries - just call several times if you don't get the results you want) and tell them that the plastics are cracked and you want to replace them. Ask them to just send the parts (do not send it in for depot service or have an on-site tech come out) and they'll be happy to do that. We replace cracked plastics all the time. Just tell them it cracked under normal use.

If you have "complete care" coverage you might even be able to get depot or on-site service, or even a whole system exchange. It covers accidental damage. I replaced a system that a child spilled chocolate milk into just today.

[DD32]

Just if your wondering where people are suddenly coming from 2 years later:
http://reddit.com/info/2cn4z/comments

D

[Jim Vernon]

One word: eBay.

[Thomas]

Just a quick tip: Make backups! If you can't burn cd/dvd backups, buy a cheapo USB memory stick and copy your important stuff there - just incase your computer gets cooked in the future :)

[tom bar]

As many have said. Back it up. Inspect the battery, and never, ever, ever, ever, leave it unattended from here on out.

If you ever hear it start to making a fizzling sound, or smell that electrical burning smell common to burnt out electronics unplug it immediately, and beware bad batteries do explode.

And yours has been seriously taxed.

[terumo]

that's so funny! i used to hide my laptop inside the oven at home, the only difference is my oven was always unplugged.

[Jimbo]

This comment is probably useless two years late, but....

Assuming its not under warranty, I'd keep it as is. I would do a backup of the hard drive more often (or replace the hard drive), just in case it suffered some damage. Your odds of laptop theft just went down. You can keep it in a spare trash can, if you want, and it'll be safe.

The electronics is probably fine. The only things that may have failed are plastic cables, and plastic mechanical parts. Not many of those in a HD. CD-ROM may be dead. If CD-ROM's working, probably everything else will be.

[john]

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----- TAKE OUT THE BATTERY! IT COULD EXPLODE AT ANY TIME! -----
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Seriously, unless you want to be the next thing that gets cooked.

[Voideka]

A lot of criminals actually check the oven, it's a fairly obvious hiding spot.

[Rich]

Hooray for things not breaking, screw the haters.

One time I ran over a cello with a car. It was stuck under the car in it's flimsy canvas bag (it was a school cello), so we (my mom and I) drove forward and prepared to look at the broken remains of the cello and write a check to the high school. We were surprised to see the cello was fine, it had magically against physics done a near 180 in the tattered gig bag. We put it in the trunk and went to school.

Stay good! May all are stories be "could've been worse" stories.

[Roman]

Ha!

The SAME thing happened to me! I was on vacation with my girlfriend and I had hidden my laptop in the oven (and my passport, visa documents, cell phone, addresses of people I wanted to send postcards to etc). Of course I told her about it, at the same time thinking we wouldn't use the oven because hey, we're on vacation and eat out, right? Wrong.

As an added complication I used the dry chemical extinguisher to put out the resulting fire in the oven. That left ultra-fine yellowish powder on _everything_ in that cottage. Case was screwed up, melted in places, the display was even melted to the rest of the case but I eventually managed to pry it open. Couple of days later when I was trying to clean my laptop to pack back into my suitcase, I thought "what the hell!" and pressed the power button. It came on and XP started just fine. Go Sony! The only thing that didn't work was my left touchpad button, presumably from the extinguisher powder.

Back home, I made backups and went to the place I bought it with my extended warranty (accidental damage included). Five days later they called me and let me choose a brand new laptop because repair would've been too expensive.

Oh, the passport is also fine, only a couple of specks of moloten laptop on its cover. The visa document looks pretty medieval, scorched all around, but still legible. I wonder what INS will say when they see it...

Anyways. My sympathies!
Vaio. Medium Well.

Long life DELL

[Kyle Goddard A+]

Wow, that's amazing. I'm an A+ certified technician, everything I've learned to get my certification says that is impossible. A couple of warnings though. The shielding on the wiring in your computer is not designed to hold up to that heat. Using the computer is a risk of fire. When you replace the case, check that the wiring is not frayed or damaged. The hard drive works off of magnetic material on a glass medium. Heat removes magnetism from metal (don't believe me, leave a fridge magnet on a heat register for a few days and try to stick it to the fridge again.). You may want to invest the $100-$150 dollars in a new drive for your notebook when you replace the case. Still wow, amazing.