I was on my bed one night checking out YouTube videos on my Apple mini-laptop when I noticed that no audio was coming out of it.

While it was cradled on my stomach, I then tried listening to other YouTube videos, restarting/shutting it down and, by now, pressing feverishly its F10, F11, and F12 and other keys, hoping for any peep or squeak out of the speakers.

Having no success, I decided to call Apple Tech Support, wondering whether anyone would be available at 8:57 in the evening.

Well, much to my surprise, my call was picked up by an auto attendant who “can handle complete sentences’. After stating my quickly-formulated-grammatically-correct sentence about the audio issue, I was connected with a “live” person, a lady.

I immediately got out of bed, sat on the nearby stool, placed laptop on edge of bed, and waited for the start of the much-needed help from her.

After the initial exchange of pleasantries, she, with her calm and pleasant voice, started the series of trouble-shooting procedures, from restarting, shutting down, checking Sound Output settings, pressing F keys, etc. I willingly followed despite the fact that I had already tested some of the things she cited.

After almost an hour of fruitless troubleshooting, I thought of checking out the audio jack. So, I asked her whether I should plug in a headset to find out whether I’d get an audio or not. She agreed.

Sure enough, once the headset was inserted into the jack, I was able to instantly hear audio on my headset.

Oh, I was happy to tell her that I was hearing something. However, nothing was still coming out of internal speakers.

So, while somewhat listening to her going over what steps we had already taken and the other possible options to take, I decided to check the internet for helpful hints on same laptop. One suggestion was to clean the jack since the presence of dirt may falsely trip the system into thinking that a headset’s plugged in.

It was then that I asked her whether I should clean the jack. She said that I could and that I should use a cotton swab, but with much of the cotton taken off it.

I followed her suggestion, but I wet the remaining cotton fibers with a little bit of water.

I inserted the swab gingerly into the jack.

After a few gentle twists, I took the swab out. Once it was out, the audio came on!

Naturally, we joyously celebrated as I was checking out the swab. It had a dark material on it!

Now, what I saw on it didn’t really surprise me. I had a stinking suspicion that what I did the night before had something to do with it.

It was then that I confessed to her that when I spilled my glass of red wine on my computer desk, wine got splashed all over my desk with a few drops landing on my laptop and on my iPhone which were on my desk. I told her that I proceeded to immediately wipe the splatter off the desk and the few drops that were on my laptop and iPhone, and that I was relieved that both laptop and iPhone didn’t get soaked.

Obviously, I DIDN’T REALIZE that a drop got inside the laptop’s audio jack.

Right after I thanked her for her patience and perseverance, I told her to “scold” me by saying, “Romeo, don’t put anything liquid on your computer desk!”

We said our “goodbyes” laughing.

Will I ever stop putting any liquid on my computer desk?

Hmmm…

WHAT ABOUT YOU? DO YOU PUT ANY LIQUID ON YOUR COMPUTER DESK?