Re: FW: The Powerbook That Leaked

The Loony Bin ( loonies@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk )
Sat, 27 Apr 1996 21:51:55 +0100


Hiya people...

This one from a friend who prefers to remain anonymous...

Wishes & Dreams...

- ANDREA
        xx
-- 
************<andrea@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk>************
******************<ajc6@ukc.ac.uk>*******************
***                                               ***
***                THE LOONY BIN                  ***
***          loonies@bloodaxe.demon.co.uk         ***
***                                               ***
******************Internet Goddess*******************
*********************ANDROMEDA***********************

  ------- Forwarded message follows -------

In December 1993, a customer walks in with a dead Powerbook 165. Fault
description: hangs on startup. An additional symptom provided was while
being carried from customers site to service center, a "sloshing" sound
was heard inside the machine.

"Has anything been split on this computer?" I inquired, but no, nothing
of the sort has happened, protested the customer vehemently. Taking this
with a grain of salt (no-one's going to admit doing something that
totally invalidates their warranty and effectively wrecks their
computer), I went about filling in the repair order.

Back on the bench I started the Powerbook up. Sure enough, an address
error on startup, just after "Welcome to Macintosh". I lowered my ear
to the keyboard, at which point I heard a crackling noise (couldn't hear
any sloshing noise though) and became aware of a rather "sharp" oder
which seemed to emanate from the inside of the machine. Flicking the
computer off and unplugging the adapter, I removed the battery from its 
compartment, only to observe that the entire battery casing was soaked
in a fluid which appear to have a rainbow-like sheen (kind of what a
puddle of soapy water would look like - oily and colorful). I also
noticed that the same fluid was leaking out of the battery compartment
onto the static mat, but appeared clear rather than multi-colored.

My first thoughts were that the battery has somehow leaked acid out
into the guts of the Powerbook, which would account for the sharp smell
(which reminded me of ammonia), yet the battery terminals were the one
part of the battery that were dry. No, upon closer examination, I ruled
the acid theory out. The battery was wet but not leaking.

Tipping the machine on it's side, I watched more fluid run out and
coagulate on the bench in a puddle about the size of a compact disk. It 
was definitely clear, and I observed that the "rainbow" effect had been
caused by the reaction of the plastic battery casing to this "mystery
liquid". I then unscrewed the computer and separated the two parts of
the Powerbook.

The smell suddenly became a LOT stronger. The hard disk looked like a
solid lump of rust, and the daughterboard appeared to have about three
barbecued chips. Although I was quickly forming my own opinions on what 
had happened, I invited several of my workmates in to take a sniff and
offer an opinion. We were in unanimous in our decision. I rang the
customer, who seemed suprised when I asked the question; Do you have a
cat?"

As it turned out, he didn't have a cat, but he did have a lovely fluffy
bunny rabbit who was seen in the vicinity of the Powerbook only the day
before. Yes, there was no doubt about it, little fluffy had hopped up
onto the keyboard and downloaded some incompatible data. I checked the
warranty form, but there was no provision for failure due to rabbit
urine anywhere. I advised the customer to get in touch with his
insurance company.

In the end, the Powerbook was biffed and the customer upgraded to a
180c. I cleaned up the static mat and sprayed the service department
with a healthy dose of "Fresh Field of Flowers". I checked in with the
customer about a week later, asked how he was enjoying the 180c, asked
if he'd managed to restore his data, and, of course, asked how was his
rabbit?

"Delicious" he said.