I spilled Gatorade on my laptop

[Throwmeabone]

It's a Dell e1405. It was sitting on the floor next to the Gatorade. I turned away for a second and when I turned back around the bottle had tipped onto the keyboard. I turned it off right away and pulled out the battery. I soaked up most of the spill with napkins but when I turned it over it looked like there was some wetness underneath the hard drive cover. I took off the cover and the Gatorade had leaked all the way through. Right now it's sitting upside down on a paper towel. How long do you think I should wait before I try to turn it on? What else should I do? Thanks.

 

[Brainonska511]

Wait at least 24hours for it to dry. Consider removing the motherboard and wiping it down with a 70%+ Isopropyl Alcohol solution to help remove the Gatorade residue which will harm the motherboard long after the water dries.

 

[TheStu]

Not only does gatorade taste better, it breaks computers better too!

H2O!!!!

Sorry, had to. Brainonska is right though, in order to aid you, Dell has take-apart guides for all their machines, that may give you the additional information you need to take it apart correctly.

 

[BladeVenom]

Put it on, or in front of a fan. That should help evaporate the water a little faster.

 

[Throwmeabone]

I'm not really comfortable with taking it apart to wipe down the motherboard. Wouldn't doing that void the warranty? How harmful will the dried Gatorade residue be?

 

[TheStu]

Strictly speaking, i don't think that it voids the warranty since you will be following their publicly available information.

And from a standpoint of usability and what not... you pretty much will have to clean the mainboard to ensure that it doesnt break when you turn it back on.

 

[Brainonska511]

Originally posted by: Throwmeabone
I'm not really comfortable with taking it apart to wipe down the motherboard. Wouldn't doing that void the warranty? How harmful will the dried Gatorade residue be?

As long as you don't break anything or remove heatsinks, you won't void the warranty. Here's the guide TheStu was referring to: http://support.dell.com/suppor...ns640m/en/SM/index.htm

 

[BladeVenom]

I think spilling liquids on it has already voided the warranty. If you ever send it in for repairs, and they see signs of spillage inside, goodbye warranty.

 

[dp004i]

Not if he has Completecare - that one covers pretty much anything you can possibly think of.