Opps....I spilled a drink on my laptop

[LLKOOLK1]

Feel asleep with a glass of sprite on my laptop, which was at the end of my bed, and I ended up knocking the glass over in my sleep. Seems like it spilt directly on the keyboard. I turned it off maually then turned it back on.
The issue is when my sign on screen comes up and I go to type in my password and a few of the keys on my keyboard arnt working, and the first few times it would seem as though some of the keys were stuck down.(It hasnt done this the last few times I have tried)
Is there anyway to wash out or clean the keyboard? I dont know if this is the extent of the damage since I cant even type in a password to get to the actual desktop?...ughh I dont know if I explained this very well, but anyone have any ideas for cleaning out the keyboard, and and other problems I might have if I am able to sign on?
-L

[BiPolar_Nut]

First off, when liquid is spilled on a laptop, you need to turn it off, unplug the power, unplug the battery, and let it dry out completely. This may take a couple days.

As for sticking keys...nothing comes to mind other than popping off each individual key and the rubber lining pad (this will depend on the design of your laptop and may not be worth the time/effort/risk of breaking keys). You could wash the lining and keys, rinse and dry completely, then reassemble.

You could possibly get a replacement keyboard for ~$60 but some are painfully more difficult than others to swap out.

[aujoz]

i did the same thing the other day. i plugged a new keyboard into the usb port, and now use that.

fortunately i don't travel very much with that laptop, as otherwise i'd be in a world of pain.

[SamIAm]

I decided that all you sissies were going at this half-assed. Today I spilled a TWO LITER of soda directly onto my keyboard. I was typing with the bottle on the table between my elbows, and I sorta nudged it with my chest. It tipped directly onto the computer. It was awful. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img] The whole thing didn't spill, but it was plenty of soda.

The laptop didn't immediatly short, which was a good sign. I yanked it from the docking station, slammed off the power, and removed the battery. I wipied it clean and then lay it upside down on the airconditioner at full blast for about 3 hours. I just came back and it doesn't boot at all. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

It mostly acts likes I didn't even press the power button, except it blinks the numlock LED at me. I looked it up in the public lab, and it doesn't look good. That's not quite my error-code, and that's not my model, but it still looks I fried my laptop. [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]

I came back to my office to try again and get the model number, and it's still out. Then I come back again to count the exact number of times that stupid led blinks at me, AND MY LAPTOP COMES TO LIFE. I'm typing on it right now!

Here's (finally) my question:

1) Is this thing going to boot 1 time out of 5 from now on? That sucks. What do you think is going on here? (I sure as hell didn't power down just to test, since this still might be the last time I ever see my laptop. I'll update when I go home tonight, since I'll have to power down then.)

2) Obviously all the keys on my keyboard work. Unfortunately, there's some sympathetic sensing; especially on the home row, pressing one key might send their neighboring's signal with them. This happens about 1in20 presses, although it seems to be happening more over time. Physically it seems fine (It was diet soda.) but there are some shorts in the keyboard. Think I can fix those? If I take apart an Inspiron keyboard, will all the king's horses (and all of his men) be able to reassemble my keyboard?

-Sam

[BiPolar_Nut]

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I decided that all you sissies were going at this half-assed.

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(It was diet soda.)

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[img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

edit: inspired from here



On a more serious note,

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1) Is this thing going to boot 1 time out of 5 from now on? That sucks. What do you think is going on here? (I sure as hell didn't power down just to test, since this still might be the last time I ever see my laptop. I'll update when I go home tonight, since I'll have to power down then.)

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Perhaps it wasn't quite dried out enough w/ 3 hrs on the a/c? As far as powering off when you go home, couldn't you leave it running on battery? I guess it doesn't matter if you made backups at the office, but it may be more convenient to make your backups at home (unless you have a good backup regimen and you only need today's changes)

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there are some shorts in the keyboard. Think I can fix those? If I take apart an Inspiron keyboard, will all the king's horses (and all of his men) be able to reassemble my keyboard?

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Someone mentioned in a recent thread that Dell keyboards are easy to replace...pop the case apart and remove a couple screws. I don't know if that's ALL Dell lappys or just one model, but in general Dells are often pretty modular.

Given that keyboard replacement is likely a viable option, it wouldn't hurt to try to pop some individual keys off, there's a decent chance the rubber mat thing is just coke-caked, and could be removed and rinsed off.

While you're at it, you might as well rearrange the keys to DVORAK when you reassemble them...or just see what you can anagram the alphabet to like "Blowzy night frumps vexd Jack Q" [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]

[aujoz]

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It mostly acts likes I didn't even press the power button, except it blinks the numlock LED at me

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I had the same problem when I tried to turn mine back on.

After an hour or two, subsequent efforts worked fine, and it now turns off/on without a problem.


I have ordered a replacement keyboard from my supplier (Sony VAIO in my case) for $A81. The guy tells me that it is easy to replace the keyboards with a couple of screws if you're reasonably competent with these things.

[SamIAm]

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While you're at it, you might as well rearrange the keys to DVORAK when you reassemble them

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Had we talked about Dvorak before? I don't remember talking about Dvorak in CTH, but yes, this laptop is all aoeuidhtns, baby.

I'm not sure I want to rearrange the keys, though. Of course most of the time I'm not looking at the keyboard, but at this point, if I need to reach over and hit the Y key, I expect a T to be there. Mashing an N key, I look for the L. I think I'd be thrown-off if there was a Y over that Y.

Maybe I'll compromise, and put just the A and M keys in Dvorak.
-Sam

P.S. "Blowzy night frumps vexd Jack Q" is clever. I hadn't seen that before.

[SamIAm]

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While you're at it, you might as well rearrange the keys to DVORAK when you reassemble them

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Had we talked about Dvorak before? I don't remember talking about Dvorak in CTH

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Check this out; I did a search to see if I had talked about Dvorak in any forum during the last year, and found that I hadn't. But I tried widening the search to 2 years, and it turns out the last time I mentioned Dvorak was 1 year and 1 day ago. That's pretty freaky.
-Sam

[LuckyTxGuy]

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Someone mentioned in a recent thread that Dell keyboards are easy to replace...pop the case apart and remove a couple screws. I don't know if that's ALL Dell lappys or just one model, but in general Dells are often pretty modular.

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That was probably me. I can't speak for all Dell laptops but I can speak for the current crop of E1405/640m and E1505/6400. It is super simple and if someone tells you how to do it, as your attempting it for the first time, it won't take but a couple minutes. I also know that the older 600m's are very similar and also easy to replace because a buddy's wife spilled just enough coke on his keyboard to make the keys sticky but nothing more. He bought a new keyboard for under $50 shipped from Dell and said he replaced it in minutes.

On the current laptops I mentioned, the wireless card lies under the keyboard and it must be removed to get to the card. That being said, they made sure to make the keyboard easy to remove. I had to remove/replace a couple defective wireless cards for customers that were replaced under warranty by Dell.

Good luck,

- Jason

[SamIAm]

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On the current laptops I mentioned, the wireless card lies under the keyboard and it must be removed to get to the card. That being said, they made sure to make the keyboard easy to remove. I had to remove/replace a couple defective wireless cards for customers that were replaced under warranty by Dell.

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Shoot, my Inspirion doesn't even have an internal wireless card. I'm halfway there already. [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

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Good luck,

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Thanks.
-Sam