Oh geez.. Soda spilled on A/C plug

[Rackem]

Okay, lets see if I can explain this correctly:

Papa Rackem's friend has given me his Dell Inspiration 3000 to try to fix. He somehow spilled soda in the a/c plug. He replaced the battery and the a/c cord and tried to clean the actual plug with some sort of electronics cleaner.

First of all, the a/c cord doesn't seem to fit very tight inside of the plug. When it I try to boot it up, I hear the fans and stuff kick on for about a second, the battery light flashes, and it dies.

So, I guess my question is how can I fix the a/c plug? Should I risk taking this laptop apart or is there another way I can clean it? Or is the thing just dead?

 

[DaiShan]

to me it really just sounds like the fit isn't too good, not getting full power through, is there a way you could test another ac adapter with it?

 

[Rackem]

No, I don't have another power connector because I don't own a laptop, myself. This power connector is a brand new one from Dell.

 

[Askalon]

It's not dead yet as you can still get power to it.

Possible issues:
Dead battery: - I know this seems dumb, but on the latitude's if the battery is dead and doesn't recharge, it won't boot. Try to remove the battery and then plug it in off AC only.
System Board: - unless it is under warrenty (which would be hard to prove in this case, it would be labled as customer abuse I think), not much you can do.

Does anything smell burned? Self explanatory I think.
Is it the correct A/C adapter? if not that could be your biggest problem.

 

[Rackem]

Absoultely no activity at all without the battery.

 

[Askalon]

Then I will hazard a guess that either he toasted the AC plug power unit or it is the wrong power supply so it wil not work. The Battery is what is giving you the power for the lights, but it is probably too low to power the machine on. I would try to get a better power supply first (one that fits better).