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Dog Spilled Coffee on my Laptop

T

teddyv

Senior member
Stupid dog jumped and ran for the door when friends came by knocking a whole big starbuxks coffee (cream, no sugar) right on the keyboard. When I got to it, it had shut itself off. I took out the battery and removed the back panels and got as much out as I could. I then took a hairdryer on low/cold air and spent about 20 minutes drying it out.

Anything else I can do? How long do I wait to try and power it up?

Thanks!
 
/wince

If it shut off on its own, it may already be dead. 🙁

Take it completely apart, right down to the metal, and clean everything that has even a drop on it. Denatured alcohol and Q-Tips are your friends, and be gentle.

Let it dry for a minimum of 24 hours in pieces (away from the dog!) then reassemble, power on, and pray. 😛

- M4H
 
All good advice - and in the future, it might be a good idea to put the dog's coffee on the floor by it's food dish. 🙂

 
Kick the dog 😛

On a more serious note... I'd take it apart, make sure the battery is disconnected, and rinse it thoroughly with alcohol(don't skimp, I'd use at least 2 bottles) then try to run it after it's completely dry.
 
Thanks for the advice. I took things apart as much as I was able and cleaned things, then gave it a good going over with the blow dryer again. It is now thoroughly drying out - we'll see how it goes. To be on the safe side, I picked up a new $500 special from BestBuy (Acer 14.1 DualCore, Memorial Day sale).

If it is dead I will probably take out the hard drive and see if I can transfer all my stuff over to the new one.
 
Take the battery out, in addition to unplugging it. (EDIT: see you already did that)

Let it dry out for several days to make sure all liquid has dried up (don't flip over to drain coffee because this may get coffee on keyboard contacts). Maybe can tilt gently (still keep facing up) to drain coffee off one side.

Good luck!
 
Originally posted by: teddyv
Thanks for the advice. I took things apart as much as I was able and cleaned things, then gave it a good going over with the blow dryer again. It is now thoroughly drying out - we'll see how it goes. To be on the safe side, I picked up a new $500 special from BestBuy (Acer 14.1 DualCore, Memorial Day sale).

If it is dead I will probably take out the hard drive and see if I can transfer all my stuff over to the new one.
Click to expand...

I'd bet money your HD is just fine. You may not be able to simply put the HD into another machine (PATA vs SATA)... but with a simple 2.5" enclosure you hsould be able to pull the data off your old HD.

 
Most of the cases, drying the keyboard should work! put the laptop upside down for few hours to get it dried then remove the keys from the board cautiously. Ensure! that you wipe the keyboard with soft wet towel, one that they sold at the store!! Cheers!
 
Well, here is the verdict... The computer works like a charm, except for the keyboard. I did carefully take the keyboard apart and clean it after first powerup showed problems with no luck - several keys don't work and the blue Fn key is always on. Since it seems to work fine other than the keyboard I am going to take it over to BestBuy and get an estimate for fixing/replacing it.

Thanks again for the great advice!
 
The other thing you could try is removing the keyboard and flushing it continuously with hot water. Thoroughly dry it and try it.
 
How does one remove a keyboard from a laptop? I couldn't get anywhere with removing the screws in the back 🙁
 
It depends on the laptop. You pretty much need specific directions. Sometimes you can find walk-throoughs through UseNet or Google.
 
Search for the removal/replacement instruction/manuals. Maybe just a few screws, or may not be that easy. If you post your laptop make and model here, I'm sure someone will find the info you you quick....
 
OK - a quick followup 🙂

First, thanks for the kind advice. I took all of the keys off of the keyboard and cleaned it thoroughly, that didn't do the trick so I put the laptop to the side and went off to buy an external HD to back it up. Yesterday I bought a nice 250-gig WD external and fired up the laptop to back everything up. And believe it or not, the thing worked flawlessly. The keyboard, everything. Everest showed everything operating in normal ranges.

I will probably install a new keyboard anyway because I think I incorrectly reinstalled a few keys and because I don't really trust the keyboard. That said, a new Acer OEM keyboard is $40 on eBay and comes with instructions (it is literally a 10-minute job.)

Thanks again for the help and advice!

EDIT - it is an Acer 1691WMLi
 
I dont know your brand name of laptop and if the keyboard does not work you can call laptop maker and get a keyboard replacement.
 
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