Oops
There have been some, uh, complications with the next episode:
Yesterday evening I was recording more lines for Freeman’s Mind and in my infinite wisdom, I kept a glass of water nearby to drink in between lines, like I have for dozens of episodes. It turns out this was not the best idea I’ve ever had. The water spilled and some of it splashed into my system, causing it to malfunction. But good news! I was not electrocuted by this because I ran out of the room to shut off the circuit breaker.
I’m uncertain of the damage inflicted, right now I have the system disassembled and drying out thoroughly. I plan to start testing parts later today once everything is completely dried out and assess the damage.
FOR COMPUTER HARDWARE PEOPLE:
My guess is I’ve fried the motherboard, but who knows. The circuit breaker did not trip, the fans kept spinning (much faster, like on boot), and I never saw any sparks or smelled any burning. This suggests there’s a chance I haven’t completely fried everything, but I won’t know that until later. I think most of the water touched the CPU heatsink, with only a few drops going elsewhere. Ironically, I’ve never done system water cooling because I was afraid this exact scenario could occur. I have parts for a secondary system that is missing a power supply; I plan to use that to test the components one by one later. Worst case scenario I also fried my videocard, soundcard, RAM, RAID expansion card, and power supply, but I think that’s unlikely for the amount of water that actually got inside. Also, while I spotted one or two drops on the top of the hard drives, I have no reason to suspect there was any permanent damage to them, and even if there was, I have a mirror RAID set up, so it would have to take out both at once.
FOR EVERYONE ELSE:
Unlike past computer problems I’ve had, which can mostly be attributed to goblins, this one is just sheer stupidity on my part. I won’t know the full extent of the damage until later, there’s going to be a lot of testing to do. Despite what you see in the movies, there’s no reason to think this caused me to lose all my data. In any event, I know how to fix this, but it will take time, especially if I need to order parts I can’t get locally. Best case scenario this won’t affect Freeman’s Mind from being released next week. Worst case scenario, it will probably delay everything by about a week. Either way, I think I’ll use a water bottle with a cap from now on instead of a glass.
EDIT: Amazingly, almost everything still works, although my CPU cooler fan did not survive. I’ve ordered a new one and it should be here sometime this week.
ADHD version: Water and computers are not friends. The next Freeman’s Mind might be a little late.
