I dumped a cup of coffee into my laptop today. . .

bhiatt · #1 06-20-2006, 01:46 PM

The thing crackled and popped for an hour after I frantically opened the back and drained the spillage out of it. It is showing faint signs of life; sometimes when I press the power button the lights flicker or come on briefly, but it won't power up.

Is there any hope for saving my trusty Dell Latitude? If anything, can the hard drive be salvaged? I have a ton of work stuff on there in Microsoft Office, not to mention my Pokertracker database.

Scary_Tiger · #2 06-20-2006, 01:52 PM

Find the laptop's manual, online or the hard copy, and see how to remove the hard disk. You can then pop it into another laptop and probably salvage your data, even if your laptop is dead.

Stop trying to power it up. Leave it alone for at least a day. My college roommate spilled a bottle of water* on his laptop, and it managed to get back to normal by the next afternoon. It was having all kinds of trouble when he tried to turn it back on right away**.

* Water isn't coffee unfortunately for you.
** Foolishly.

WolfElder · #3 06-20-2006, 01:53 PM

you shouldnt have turned it on until it dried out. It sounds like you fried it. The hard drive may still be in tack if it didnt get wet. You can pull it out and put it in one of those usb drive enclosures for 2.5inch drives for example. That would allow you to pull you data off the drive on to another computer. If its not completely dry now leave it alone until it is dry try again. Use a can of compressed air and blow it out as much as possible.

flash8pro · #4 06-20-2006, 02:41 PM

The only thing you can do is dry the computer out thoroughly and hope for the best. Hard drives are mostly enclosed, so hopefully you are at least ok there. I would wait a couple of days just to be sure that the computer is thoroughly dried out; canned air will help dry out the odd corners.

If it still doesn't work, then I would remove the hard drive and get it into another machine to recover your data. Unfortunately, unless you have the CompleteCare warranty, you're on your own on this one. WD-40 works well to clean out the residue left over (it's ok to be liberal with its use - even on an undamaged machine). If you've fried chips and transistors, etc (which it sounds like you have), then WD-40 won't save you there. Look for any black marks on the boards - these are tell-tale signs of blown components.

Hope things work out for you - but for the other posters out there, this just goes to show you that you either need a warranty that covers accidental damage, or don't bring liquids around your computer.

Reef · #5 06-20-2006, 06:58 PM

water + electrical circuit stuff = DON'T ADD ELECTRICITY!

SoCalRugger · #6 06-20-2006, 08:36 PM

[ QUOTE ]
The thing crackled and popped for an hour after I frantically opened the back and drained the spillage out of it. It is showing faint signs of life; sometimes when I press the power button the lights flicker or come on briefly, but it won't power up.

Is there any hope for saving my trusty Dell Latitude? If anything, can the hard drive be salvaged? I have a ton of work stuff on there in Microsoft Office, not to mention my Pokertracker database.

[/ QUOTE ]

Post the hand that made you do this.

phu_dawg · #7 06-21-2006, 03:04 AM

[ QUOTE ]
The thing crackled and popped for an hour after I frantically opened the back and drained the spillage out of it. It is showing faint signs of life; sometimes when I press the power button the lights flicker or come on briefly, but it won't power up.

Is there any hope for saving my trusty Dell Latitude? If anything, can the hard drive be salvaged? I have a ton of work stuff on there in Microsoft Office, not to mention my Pokertracker database.

[/ QUOTE ]

This thread is no fun without pics!!!!!!

dankus · #8 06-21-2006, 03:38 AM

[ QUOTE ]
The thing crackled and popped for an hour after I frantically opened the back and drained the spillage out of it. It is showing faint signs of life; sometimes when I press the power button the lights flicker or come on briefly, but it won't power up.

Is there any hope for saving my trusty Dell Latitude? If anything, can the hard drive be salvaged? I have a ton of work stuff on there in Microsoft Office, not to mention my Pokertracker database.

[/ QUOTE ]

How old is your Latitude?

I once spilled water on my Dell Inspiron and Dell came out and replaced the keyboard and eventually the motherboard because my warranty wasn't out.

Check with dell and see if they can put in a service call. I ordered mine from the business part of Dell, so I don't know if it applies for the home orders.