just spilled coffee onto my laptop

[Takedown3]

so ya, spilled about 1/3 of a cup right onto the keyboard of my brandnew dell laptop paid for by the company. it shutdown within about 15 seconds of the liquid seeping thru it.

what should i do.... is it salvageable? i tried to boot it up again it powers up for a second but then just turns off

[The Stig]

If it's water I'd let it dry for 3-7 days in an airing cupboard before trying to turn it on again.

But as coffee would probably be sticky and such, I'm not sure in such situation.

[Takedown3]

what are my chances?

i'm going to try and get it covered under warranty even though it says right on it this type of shit isn't covered but i figured why not try right. funny thing is for an extra 100$ i could have gotten the warranty that covers all this shit

[The Stig]

If you can try to turn it upside down and get rid of as much as you can.

I'm not confident enough for now to give you a good figure, but as you tried to turn it back on again (natural reaction, don't worry, I feel for you) and it shut down within moments, it doesn't sound too good in that some stuff may have blown/cut out.

I've never personally spilt stuff before, but you may want for some additional feedback from others here before coming to a conclusion. But for now, try to try it as much as possible and remove any sources of electricity (power cable and battery).

[Takedown3]

ya its sitting up stairs in my bdrm now on an angle to get rid of any leftovers but my now they are in sticky mode since it's sugary coffee so i have my doubts.

going to try and get dell to warranty it hopefully they just slam it in the warehouse and send me a new one without checking....although the label is obviously coffee soaked and is even peeling off lol

i feel im 99% boned here.

[hey]

Remove the battery immediately, and do not turn it on again until it's completely dry. You probably killed it by turning it back on, if there was any chance of it surviving before that.

Your best is probably to take it apart to let it dry better, then tomorrow try cleaning it. Do not even think about turning it back on until you're 100% sure it's completely dry.

[arshesney]

You can take it apart (proabably easiest by removing the keyboard) and, once dry, clean it with denatured alcohol (the pink one) and carefully remove any coffee stains with an old toothbrush. If the keyboard till feels sticky (most likely) you can leave it in alcohol overnight and let it dry a couple hours afterwards.
Don't forget alcohol is really volatile.

[Denchi]

chances are slim that it'll fully work again. If it does, it might only work for a little while then fail again.

Thing is, even if it dries off it can still corrode, which doesn't help you either.

Best case scenario is that it's not terribly extensive and they can just replace certain parts so it doesn't cost you as much.

[octopus]

http://www.mikestechblog.com/joomla/...ed-coffee.html

[Crowort]

All the things I was going to suggest are covered in the link above. The rice trick is normally what I do after removing as much of the liquid as I can via gravity.

[Takedown3]

well i know i shouldnt off but i turned it on this morning and it booted up and right into windows. i couldn't really tell if performance has degraded but i'm going to give it a shot when i get back from town in a bit. i turned it right back off since my curiosity was quelled.

however what are my next steps? i'm going to call dell and see if they can clean it underwarranty... if they don't how complex are the guts of a laptop these days? can i get in there myself and make the attempt?

[The Stig]

First, as you've successfully got into windows, that's great.

Back up everything you may need, if you want to risk turning it back on.

Then, as for cleaning it, I'm not too familiar with the internals, but you definitely need to ground yourself or you risk static shocking some bits to death.

[Kiehl]

I have fully taken apart a couple of laptops to change the mb. My advice is to get a big poster board and take it apart on that. Use the poster to outline your laptop and mark places for all the screws, clips, and parts you take out. Nothing worse than having spare parts after you think you put it all back correctly.

[Takedown3]

haha i didn't go that far into taking it apart, i basically just removed the keyboard which as you know really doesn't do that much. i cleaned all the visible dried coffee off with alcohol wipes and let it dry, put it back together again and booted her up. i ran the full diagnostics software which comes with the dell which basically goes through every major component and checks to so if it works and i passed every test with no warnings etc.

i know that there is still some staining on parts that i couldn't reach or see, how could there not be, but at this point everything is running fine, keyboard, internet, video etc and i'm not noticing any drop in performance so i think im in the clear for a few weeks or months until whatever coffee is left in there starts eating away at the components.

thanks for the help guys

[Khajit]

You can actually clean a computer off with water(probably filtered since idk what other chemicals are in your water) and then set it to dry surprisingly enough.

[Blackice]

As you *can* clean it with water, I wouldn't recommend it. I'd always clean with 99% isopropyl alcohol which you can most likely buy at any drug or grocery store on the cheap. (also works wonders for cleaning pipes and bongs, FYI)

[The Stig]

You can actually clean a computer off with water(probably filtered since idk what other chemicals are in your water) and then set it to dry surprisingly enough.

Random tip, since we're on about spillage. If you've got a generic keyboard, which is covered in filth, the best way to wash it is to throw it in a dishwasher and let it dry for a week =)

I'm not sure if anyone's tried with a beefy keyboard with all sorts of mechanics (i.e. the Logitech Gs)

[Coren]

I have fully taken apart a couple of laptops to change the mb. My advice is to get a big poster board and take it apart on that. Use the poster to outline your laptop and mark places for all the screws, clips, and parts you take out. Nothing worse than having spare parts after you think you put it all back correctly.

Look, clearly it was over-engineered if it still works with these 5 screws missing, right?

Also, what everybody else said. Don't turn it on until you're beyond sure that its dry. Since you've already turned it on and you somehow dodged a bullet, back your shit up before it croaks from corrosion.

And no, Dell won't cover spillage (or cracked screens, or any other accidental damage) unless you bought the uberwarranty.

[Takedown3]

dont need to back shit up thanks to dropbox and the cloud. backing up is for dorks! i kid i kid.

how long does it take for corrosion to take affect in cases like this? after much investigation the majority of the coffee that spilled (less then 1/3 of a cup) into the center of the keyboard was swallowed up by the keyboard itself and kept mostly in place. some did make it underneath but the staining was restricted to plastic directly underneath the keyboard very little if any hit the mobo, vidcard, or proc. in fact when i flipped it within 5 seconds of the coffee spill the only coffee that came out of it was near the battery which is FAR away from any crucial components and you can tell it all went thru this one nice little whole that almost seems like it was there for just this reason.

[Nephlite]

I spilled a Mountain Dew on my Inspiron 17 inch Dell laptop about a year after I got it. Dell didn't/wouldn't cover the damage so I went to a buddy of mine for some advice. Did the same thing that yours did (turned on then turned right back off after power up) and all. He mentioned that sometimes the keyboards on the Dell's tend to be sealed just under the row of keys to prevent seepage in to the major components and channels it to a portion of the laptop that is less prone to shortage, etc.

When we opened her up, we saw there were small pock mark looking things under the keys in the plastic that basically diverted most of the liquid to a small channel beside the power supply (which shorted) and a small device he described as a kill switch of sorts that saved the laptop from frying. I bought the computer back in 06' so maybe they advanced the tech a bit to help the computer from dying so much? All I needed to replace was the battery and a small amount of circuitry near the power supply that fried. Cost me practically nothing. About a week later, worked like a dream and still use the thing to this day.

In no way am I tech savvy or anything but that damn laptop has kept going all these years and never died on me. My wife had an Aspire laptop for less than a month and accidentally dropped a tiny amount of water on the thing and it died. Not in the sense of shorted and died, I mean the thing literally caught on fire and died after I pitched it out our window and on to the lawn. She swears up and down it was just water.