I'm gonna kill my cat

[KMA-628]

So I upgraded my video card and bought two identical monitors so I could run dual monitors.

Running real sweet and I loved my set-up.

So I come down to the basement where my office is and I notice that one of my monitors is off.

No power and it won't turn on. I change plugs, nothing.

So as I am taking the monitor off of my desk I notice a small yellow puddle under the now DOA monitor. I get a paper towel and wipe up the puddle. Wondering what this yellow liquid is, I smelled it.

It was freakin' cat piss on top of my desk, under the monitor. Then I check out the top of the monitor.

There is cat piss on top of the monitor as well.

The goddam cat jumped up on my desk, then jumped up onto my monitors and pissed in one of them!

I swear to you that I am not exaggerating nor am I making this up.



Now for the question:

Has anybody every had a liquid spilled into their monitor?

If I let it dry do you think it will work again (albeit smelling like cat piss)?

[the_marq]

It might work. I have had people spill water and coffee on laptops. After letting them dry out for at least 2 days I started them up and they seemed none the worse for wear.

Good luck

[JStrider]

cats lucky it didnt get electricuted...

let it dry for a couple days and see if it gets fixed...

or if its still under RMA period or warranty... wipe all the cat piss off it and just tell em you came down one morning and it wasnt working...

[powerclown]

Wipe up as much piss as you can, or in a few days the whole room is gonna smell like an open sewer...

(i have 2 cats)

[SiN]

nfi on the monitor...but I'm a bit concerned about the cat.

Cats shouldn't have problems urinating in the proper place (litterbox) usually...unless it's an unneutered male or s/he has health problems.

Anyways, good luck with getting the monitor working, and with the cat.

[KMA-628]

no health problems (had her checked out)

This is just a mean cat that likes to piss (pun intended) me off knowing there is very little I can do about it.

[Jeff]

When the monitors turned on and starts heating up, it's going to smell AWESOME.

[KMA-628]

yeah, been thinking about that.

even if it turns back on my office will smell like a litterbox

[Gotenks]

I've got 8 cats (I know...), the best way to deal with them, is to lock them out of my office whenever i'm not around. Ontop of the equipment, i've got several leather products that I enjoy not being torn apart.

The monitor.... might end up working, though I doubt it. And as other's have suggested to try RMA'ing it... I think they'd notice the smell. And by all means do NOT try opening it up.

Last but not least, cat urine has to be the most foul of smells.

[Cynthetiq]

did you buy it with a credit card? maybe you have buyers protection on it and can get it replaced.

o man that sucks. if it was ON when your cat pissed in it would it get shorted? in my old house i had a leak in the roof and some water dripped into my monitor. it never turned on again. had to get a new one.

[shakran]

your other problem is that urine has salt in it. That's gonna play hell with the circuitry in the monitor - in fact it probably already has. I woudln't be surprised if the monitor just stopped working period.

as for returning it, fergit it. They're gonna take it apart to refurb it, and then they're gonna smell cat piss, put two and two together, and get pretty pissed at you.

Originally posted by shakran
as for returning it, fergit it. They're gonna take it apart to refurb it, and then they're gonna smell cat piss, put two and two together, and get pretty pissed at you.

spray the inside with febreze first?? haha jk

[kutulu]

RMAing it is always worth a shot. You never know until you try. What's the worst that could happen, they tell you no? They can't prove that you knew the cat pissed on it.

[KMA-628]

It is out of warranty.

I'm gonna chalk it up as a loss.

But, come on, who would have ever thought something like this could happen?

[Wyodiver33]

Cats are evil. A dog wouldn't have done that.

[Sledge]

Relevant ./ link to give you hope:
http://ask.slashdot.org/askslashdot/...?tid=137&tid=4

[portwineboy]

You could always RMA it and then say "what? I don't have a cat? a feral cat must have been living in the UPS warehouse"

I'm making a note to myself to give the cat a bit more attention when he bugs me and I'm computing.

[KMA-628]

It is too old to RMA. I should've been clearer.

I buy computers in bulk, sell the best, junk the rest. I happened to get two identical monitors, in really good shape, for $5. I am not going to have a chance to get any more monitors (unless I pay full price, which I don't want to do) for 2-3 weeks.

So I kept them.....until this freakin' cat.

The monitor has been off all day. I tried it an hour or so ago and nothing.

I put my face close to the top of the monitor.....it stinks...really bad. I don't know if I want it to turn on.

Can one open the monitor and clean the insides?

[JStrider]

its really dangerous to open monitors... there are some pretty big capacitors in there... and those capacitors can hold charge for a pretty long time...

if you were to accidently get zapped by one you would prolly die

[KMA-628]

Thanks, I didn't know that.

[todd]

If you decide to throw it out, do something creative/destructive with it first. Throw it off a building. Pull it behind a car. Smash it with a sledge hammer. Blow it up. Use it as target practice.

Anything that an 18 year old would to do it would be good.

strap the cat onto it and then blow it up. thatll teach em!

[amokk]

Originally posted by JStrider
its really dangerous to open monitors... there are some pretty big capacitors in there... and those capacitors can hold charge for a pretty long time...

if you were to accidently get zapped by one you would prolly die

Listen to this man. They can hold their charge for like 1 month. If you have no idea what you are doing in there, leave it... or put the cat in there

[saltfish]

Originally posted by amokk
Listen to this man. They can hold their charge for like 1 month. If you have no idea what you are doing in there, leave it... or put the cat in there

Most, if not all monitors manufactured in the 90's have bleed-off resistors on both the tube and the flyback. They hold a charge for all of 5-10 minutes, if that.

Still, the problem lies in having the cord still plugged in. With the cord plugged in, caps can be in the process of draining. Now, when you remove the plug, the caps may stop draining.

So you have a tossup, risk that the caps are drained, OR, hope that you don't touch any part of the rectification circuitry while leaving the plug in. Or, you could take a 500k ohm resisitor, an aligator clamp and a pair of leather gloves and discharge the cap yourself!


-SF

[cockmonger]

this is why i'm a dog person...horrible jumpers dogs are

[cockmonger]

"is it me or are cats like drag queens? 'who loves kitty? 'is this your your [LCD screen?] who loves kitty?"

- Robin Williams

[bonehed1]

Originally posted by JStrider
cats lucky it didnt get electricuted...

let it dry for a couple days and see if it gets fixed...

or if its still under RMA period or warranty... wipe all the cat piss off it and just tell em you came down one morning and it wasnt working...

I agree but I think you should throw the cat across the room into a fireplace if you got one....or just shave it bald and make it sleep outside when its cold.

[yakimushi]

Take the monitor outside, hose it out real good, and let it sit for at least three days.

I've washed half the parts in my computer due to spills, dust, etc. Just make sure its dry!

[KMA-628]

O.K., plugged it and tried it.

The little green "on" light just flashes really, really weak.

It has speakers built into the base. When I turn those on the green light is much brighter (on the base) but it flashes as well.

Make any sense to anyone?

[DonnieBoy]

Take a piss on the cat, it won't fix the monitor but you'll feel better.

DB

[saltfish]

Get your hands on a few gallons of liquid CFC's. Yes, while being toxic as hell and very expensive, it's a great non-conductive cleaning agent.

PROBLEM SOLVED



-SF

[MSD]

Originally posted by JStrider
cats lucky it didnt get electricuted...

let it dry for a couple days and see if it gets fixed...

or if its still under RMA period or warranty... wipe all the cat piss off it and just tell em you came down one morning and it wasnt working...

Originally posted by Xepidemic
spray the inside with febreze first?? haha jk

Vinegar is the ideal solvent for cat piss. It'll also wash the salt off.

Originally posted by saltfish
Get your hands on a few gallons of liquid CFC's. Yes, while being toxic as hell and very expensive, it's a great non-conductive cleaning agent.

PROBLEM SOLVED



-SF

Ooh, see if you can track down a few cans of freon from befor it was outlawed.