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From one aspect, it's pretty amazing that you can save your ill-fated laptop from liquid death, but from another standpoint, it's common sense we don't usually think of when it happens. The article states to immediate pull out the battery and disconnect AC power as you tilt the laptop to the side with the most liquid to help drain it off of/from the laptop, take it apart, and clean the computer out (to include drying time) before finally assembling it back together to bring it back to life. What gets me is that they recommend you clean the components with tap water and rinse with distilled (or de-ionized) water... which is kind of a hokey concept at first glance (since we're so used to the idea of keeping water AWAY from our computers), but makes sense if you think about it.

Read the comments... and the horror stories. The amount of information about recovering from a disaster like this is valuable in case the situation happens to you.

I just recently restored a Dell Inspiron 1501 that my girlfriend consistently and stubbornly kept near a mug of fresh, hot coffee. Needless to say, there was a lot of spillage and one day, after incident #4, the laptop would suffer from irregular and random power downs. After taking the "piece of crap" Dell from her, I opened it up using Dell's awesome repository of laptop disassembly information and wiped down old coffee stains from the aluminum housing and wherever I could without touching the circuitry (since I actually did this before reading the above article). I cleaned out the dust, put everything back together, powered it up, and - yay - I had a 64-bit system in which to test Microsoft's new Windows 7 OS.

So if you spill something onto your laptop, just keep in mind that it's NOT always a done deal that your laptop is toast. Try salvaging it. What do you have to lose... a laptop?

Been there done that and yes it is toasted. But it also depends on how much is spilled as well. also if you use a cover over your keypad. they come in very handy for that very reason. Sounds cheap but if you can not find a cover Ciran wrap works great too. I myself use it on my keyboard to help keep out any spilled and dirt dust.

Taking the battery out is always the first thing to do if anything electrical gets wet. the only damage water can cause is a short circuit and the only time it can do that is if there is a power source, so by removing the power source you take away all danger of any ill affects. of course time is of the essence, those first 5 seconds could mean a short circuit straight from battery to CPU = dead computer!

I spilt tea on my laptop, took the battery out and let it dry etc... i never took it apart though, i should have but i let it dry and used it and had a few sticky keys and few dead ones, was a pain as the "=" and "0" key didnt work, being a PHP programmer that hurt.... = became CTRL+V (paste )

It happened to my uncle, he spilled a glass of water in the keypad and it completely die... he had to buy a new one since you don't have any warranty against liquids..

I have another success story to add, this time for my work laptop.

I work off of a Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100. This thing, as old as it is, actually boots up faster than any of my personal machines... and it only boasts a Pentium 4 1.8GHz with 512MB of RAM. The wireless is dead in it, and the power board is infamously unable to utilize the battery as well as keep the CMOS battery in use, resulting in the system never being able to keep a system clock. (It always resets to midnight of 2000.)

But enough about that.

I did a minor spill of water from a bottle of water that I, for once, left haphazardly on the left side of the laptop. A swinging right elbow brought that disaster to life, and so I looked at the spill, looked at the LCD, then quickly unplugged the AC power adapter and removed the battery. I tilted it to the side, drained it, and out of curiosity, plugged it back in to see what would happen.

The computer booted up into Windows, but the LCD was beginning to fritz out, displaying a screen-wide tint of magenta.

I turned it back off, unplugged it, and called it a day at work.

An hour and a half later, I proceeded to disassemble this thing, dried off what I could see, and put it back together. And as of right now, I'm still typing on it as if nothing happened a couple of days ago.

I noticed that this laptop, as old as it is, actually has some plastic shields to cover the main board from any accidental spillage that leaks by the keyboard (which always takes the brunt of the spill). It's nice to know that there is some deterrent against liquid death, which gives me even more confidence that a lost fight with the morning coffee doesn't always end in despair.

Whats really wrong now?What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?Good people of the world, I recently spilled (not intentionally) cider on my 2 months old Packard Bell Easynote ALP Atax A. I disconnected the battery with emmidiate effect and used my sister's hair drier to blow off liquid grom hell, After blewing it , I then hopefuly turned it on, and to my disbelief it turn on and Vista was normally booting. Problem is when I turn the thing today it just stared at me, with no hope of getting powerd up. What next now, Any good idea somewhere on planet Earth?

 

It might be dead.

I started this thread to give a bit of guidance as to how to follow up with a spill on your laptop, in which you were correct in disconnecting the battery, but I don't understand why you introduced heat when heat is the #1 killing factor when it comes to computer hardware. With laptops, the keyboard acts as a shield that covers most of the other components inside the laptop so that when you do spill something onto your laptop that this shield prevents most of the liquid from getting onto these components... but that doesn't mean that it won't be able to get in. That's why it's important that you actually follow up by opening up your laptop, drying ALL of the liquid, and if need be, even wash your components in deionized water and making sure that all components are completely dry before reassembly and booting it up.

I'm not sure what sugared water (your cider) will do to your computer, but I reckon that it's not all that great... Try opening up your laptop and cleaning it up a bit to see if you can resurrect it. What do you have to lose? Your laptop seems dead already.

Hi!

I've got an old Presario laptop, powered by Intel's Pentium 4, with a couple of dead keys on the keyboard. It's the space bar and the 'B' key. It's also got a bad power connector so once it does power up, I shouldn't move it or turn it off :-(
Although I've got my shiny new work laptop and my slightly old personal laptop, I still use it for running the Apache web server and for an occasional game or two.

I play Smokin' Guns, a free open-source CounterStrike alternative for players frustrated with all of the CS bugs, so I had to change the 'Buy' key to 'N' and the 'Jump' key to 'V'.

I can't write anything without the space bar, so unless I go any buy an external keyboard, all I can do with it is use Remote Desktop... I use my old Thinkpad 600E, powered by Intel's Pentium II, as a remote desktop client.

Think I have too many old laptops lying around? I've also got an AST notebook, powered by Intel's 80386SX. It's got a worn out LCD - there are colored lines all over the screen, but if you can hook it up to a VGA display, you can play Xenobots and run Windows 3.1 on it! :-)

I spilled water on my laptop. I wasn't sure what to do so I just dried the keyboard with a towel. It kept on working fine for the next half hour and I decided to turn it off. After being powered off for 15 minutes it turned back on, on its own. I turned it off by removing the battery and it was disconnected from the power source. The next morning about 8 hours later I tried turning it back on and it won't power on. Any ideas on what I should do or what components I might need to replace? Thanks! 

-question by dbx599

The moral of the story is.... What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

Well, think about your cell phones.  Mix electronics with any liquid and they are usually toast. Remove the battery immediately and dry thoroughly. 

The things that I have heard about that may occasionally work... 

• Use blow dryer on low heat.  
• Put in a ziploc bag (or any plastic) and put in the sun.  The heat will pull the moisture out and condense on inside of the bag.  
• I knew someone who put it in an oven on very low heat to allow it to evaporate very slowly.  Salt water is usually the kiss of death because of the resulting corrosion. 

Try these at your own risk. The sooner you do this after it is wet the better your chances it may work.  

Lastly, if you had an inexpensive keyboard cover, your computer would withstand the spill.  If you are going to eat and drink around your laptop, it is so important to protect your investment with a computer keyboard cover (keyskin) and keep it safe from spills and germs. These keyskins hold up even with bleach and germicides used regularly. They are made in the USA but ship internationally. Visit the website http://www.Keyskincover.Com/ for more information on keyskin covers. Discounts are available.

-reply by Nan Brown

Why would you want to use a ziploc bag? That traps the moisture within the bag. You could just leave your phone near a table fan or any place with good air flow to allow the moisture to escape.

BTW, keeping your phone in an oven is usually a bad idea because some of the plastics can be affected by the heat and may warp. You out to just the phone dry up on it's own after removing the battery.

Liquid spill dilemmas: how to switch on a laptop with a broken switch?What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

Hi everyone,

Very happy to read it is not such a strange idea to spill tea (or other liquids) on ones laptop. Anyway, when it happened to me (8 days ago) I turned it off and removed the battery pretty fast - though not immediately. Then I put it on its side and let it dry. A couple of days later, I tried to dismember it completely, but didn't manage to take it apart fully. (Even after removing all the screws it didn't come apart easily and I didn't want to break anything. On top of that, as it was just unsugared tea, I supposed just letting it dry would be sufficient) Anyway, I created some 'airing space' between the parts and left it out to dry for another couple of days.

Today, I reassembled it and pushed the power button. Nothing. Then I thought maybe the battery is low, I remember I was reloading it when I spilled my tea. So I connected it to the adapter. This did make the indicator lamp light up. However, nothing could get the laptop started. So I wondered: could it be that the power button is down? And if that be the case, is there any other way to switch it on?

Of course, it might also be true that the laptop short circuited before I took the power off. But I'm afraid I'm not yet willing to accept that... ;-)

All advice welcome!!

Thanks

<br /><br /><br />I know it's been a while, but I'll respond anyway just in case.

I would try to troubleshoot what exactly may be dead in your laptop and replace as necessary, if you truly want to go through the efforts to salvage your laptop. It's more of a pain to do this for a laptop than it is a desktop, but if you have the luxury of having more than one like laptop, I would try swapping components until I found out what was the culprit.

You are receiving an indicator light, but you failed to mention what lights were on.

My guess is that the power board may be functional, but the mobo is toast; or the circuitry to the power switch is toast. Problem is that it's pretty hard to troubleshoot or give any advice on anything from a million miles away from the troubled item... If you think it's a lost cause, you can always try to take it to a tech, but I wouldn't bother. Rip the hard drive out, throw it into a 2.5" enclosure, salvage what data you can off of it, and buy a new laptop. Recycle the old laptop and see if you can get cash for it... and if not, it's one less paperweight you'll have lying around.

Liquid Spill on my LenovoWhat Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

Hello. Last night my son took it upon himself to lay his freezer pop down on the keyboard of my Lenovo laptop. By the time I came back into the room there was a nice puddle of sticky glue on the left side of the keyboard. It boots up and runs fine, but many of the keys now do weird and fantastical things, even when I plug in an external keyboard. Any suggestions?

-reply by AndyC

Pop spilled on laptopWhat Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?My daughter spilled pop (pepsi) on her laptop(2 months old, cost 0). Innitially it would not turn on. Now it will turn on and I can access everything...It seems to be working fine. However, some of the keys do not work. I can have the keyboard replaced for about 0 or use an external keyboard (I checked, it works fine).Does anyone have experience on how long until I might see problems with the computer. I don't know how much, or if any, pop got down into some of the more critical parts of the computer. We are trying to decide if we should replace the laptop's keyboard or just get the external keyboard.Any suggestions?-reply by Teekay

spilled OJ on keyboard then water...What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

I recently spilled oj on my laptop- samsung r522

I tilted it, and wiped the keyboard clean.

The keys were sticky and hard to press down, but eveything was fine.

I was stupid enought to use drops of water to clean out the dried OJ... And of course the keys were no longer sticky... But now its non-functional. It keeps presing keys even when I don't touch the keyboard, and when I type the wrong letter comes out...

 I have been able to turn it on.

seems like only the keyboard is messed up. But I'm scared that it will further damage my computer. Last night I let it sit upside down and took out the battery. This morning I took the laptop out to look for technicians... I've turned it on a couple of times, and one time it slept after booting up, but it still turned on fine after. I hope its not going to die on me.

Just now I decided to shut off my computer, took out the battery and turn it upside down, and will leave it there a couple of days to dry up completely, hopefully draining the liquid from the keyboard's rubber membrane...

not sure when I should turn it back on, any more fixes to ensure success?

thanks

-reply by Kenny

spilled OJ on keyboard then did something stupid to fixWhat Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

First I spilled oj on my comp. I tilted the keyboard to drain it, and it was functional for a day. Then I decided to wash off the stickiness by pouring more droplets of water (very stupid) into the key, while the comp was turned on.

As you can imagine, the keyboard is totally malfunctioned- won't type wut I type, and types without me typing continuously.

I have turned on the computer several times after the water fix, and I'm not sure if that was a good idea now that I read this thread. The computer still turns on, except one time it slept after booting up, and I had to press the power button again for it to turn on.

now its sitting upside down with an eraser wedge between the display and the keyboard in hopes of air drying itself.

not sure when I should turn it back on? and is it dead?

Thanks.

To all iGuest members that spilled something onto their laptops:

I suppose I never addressed anything about residue.

@AndyC: Sounds like your keyboard is pretty messed up since it's delivering input by itself alongside your external keyboard. What you should do is seeing if you can disable your laptop's keyboard by going through Device Manager and disabling it there, or turning your laptop off, unplugging it, disassembling down to just the keyboard, then disconnecting the ribbon cable to the keyboard so that you can't use it anymore. (It's a fairly easy process... look online for disassembly instructions for your make and model. MAKE SURE TO GROUND YOURSELF FIRST AND FOREMOST.) Either replace your keyboard (through your warranty or spending $20 on eBay or something) or continue with your external.

@TeeKay: Cheapest route is to just go with an external keyboard. If you're not afraid of opening it up, I suggest you do that and clean as much Pepsi residue as you can from system components and making sure that it's relatively dust-free. (See the precautions I laid out for AndyC.) Most laptops are designed so that if there are any spills ON the laptop, all the liquid will pour off to the sides and away from the internal components as much as possible. I actually revived a presumed-dead Dell doing this: after three coffee spills over time, I disconnected it, drained it, let it dry, opened it up, cleaned off dried coffee residue and blew out dust, put it back together, and miraculously, it worked for over a year before I sold it on eBay to someone whom I know will be able to squeeze more years out of that laptop, provided it was taken care of.

@Kenny: I'm guessing the last two posts were both by you. Same advice as above: open the laptop up (without battery and unplugged) after grounding yourself, clean up any visible residue, clean out the dust, reassemble.

If you are not comfortable with opening up your laptop, find a friendly geek or a computer-savvy friend that can do it for you. They are actually not very hard to disassemble and reassemble, but I know it can be intimidating. (Believe me, I wasn't super-comfortable with my first time, but after I popped that cherry, it's cake now.)

Kenny, In addition to the excellent advice above it sounds like you have residue either inside the keyboard connections making a short circuit between the button or the button has become stuck down. In this case remove the keyboard (see below)

and my advice is to use a *damp* cloth to wipe away the residue. Now, when i say damp i mean damp. not wet. All you need to do is dissolve the sticky sugars in the orange juice to free up the keys. Really squeeze all of the water from the cloth as much as possible. Get it about as damp, if not drier, than a wet wipe (also known as a baby wipe in some places. I mean the wet tissue type thing you get from fast food restaurants to clean your hands)

If possible you want to get in between the keys too using a damp cotton bud or something. Again, not wet, just damp.


*Keyboard Removal*

Remove the laptop battery and lead. It is recommended to statically discharge yourself (at work we dont, ill be honest but you should) grabbing a central heating or water pipe will do the trick. It is just to prevent the electric shock you sometimes get/give people or things when you are walking around.

Most laptop keyboards are fixed in place by 5 or more latches around the edge of the keyboard. Look very carefully along the edge of your laptop for little latches that stick out from the side and overhang the keyboard. These are what keeps the keyboard in place. Carefully with a small screwdriver you need to push these little latches off of the keyboard and free up that section. The latches will spring back so lift the keyboard over the latch and proceed to the next latch.

Once you have them all free the keyboard should be very loose but do not pull it yet. IF the keyboard is not loose check for any latches you missed, run the screwdriver along the edge of the keyboard feeling for bumps as it hits the latch. IF there are no more then flip the laptop over and look in the centre for a screw with a little keyboard icon next to it. You will need to remove this screw and any others labelled with the same icon. Keep them safely to one side.

Now the keyboard is loose but it is still connected by a cable which could easily be broken. On my laptop this cable is at the top of the keyboard (if you are sitting at it as you would usually use it) so you will notice that the keyboard can be opened almost like a hinged trap door with the cable connecting it to the motherboard at the back (or one side) be careful here, it's not particularly weak but still take care. You dont really need to disconnect this cable and in fact it might be difficult to do anyway, so leave it attached. Now carefully clean what you can being gently and removing the residue. Once clean leave the keyboard wet side up to dry for about one hour. Make sure it is in a place that is fairly clean and not vulnerable to people or more drinks getting to it!

After it is dry replace the keyboard firmly pressing it back into place. IF you are sure it is 100% dry replace the battery and adapter and power it on. IF you are unsure leave it to dry naturally for some time. Id advise against a hair drier at this point due to the heat and dust.

Hopefully that will solve the problem. If it doesnt look on e-bay for a spare keyboard or a broken laptop the same model as yours for a cheap keyboard. You may need to pay a pro to replace it depending if you want to get down and dirty with your laptop. When i bricked mine up thanks to various spills and a lot of use i couldnt get the back free from the motherboard so i ended up using force I had a new one so it didnt matter but i found it pretty damn hard to get off.

Disclaimer:

I accept no damage to you, the dog or any other object, person or creature or state of mind resulting from following these instructions. This may or may not void your warranty or other agreements.

Personally i would feel comfortable doing all of these steps and i have done so before. It isnt dangerous or hard but i still cant accept responsibility!

Good luck

This reminds me of a funny story. It happened a couple years ago My father got a brand new expensive cell phone and was showing it off to me, he's not the most agile person with small electronic gadgets and it slipped out of his hand while he was pushing a button, he bounced it in the air a couple times trying to catch it, then it bounced off the kitchen counter, and into a kitchen sink full water. He was pissed! The phone shut off and seemingly looked dead, but I told him to dry it out for a couple days. But, by some miracle, the phone survived and worked perfectly. Strange.. a miracle?

Damn this topic is to late for me lol. I spilt coke over my laptop 4 times and now its screwed lol. I have a new one and am being a lot more careful trying to stop myself from drinking and eating around my PC now so I don't keep having to buy a new one .

ShadowX has a pretty good detailed post over there... I'd just junk the bad keyboard and get another one, but I know how it is when $20 is a lot of money. (Believe me, I'm still there.) I didn't post detailed instructions because every laptop is different, but for the most part, there's a bezel piece you remove with a screwdriver (carefully, unless you like broken pieces of plastic), get to and undo the (usually 2) bolts that secure the keyboard to the laptop, then sliding and lifting (gently and slowly) the keyboard upward to get at the ribbon cable to disconnect it from the motherboard. Replacement is the same deal in reverse, although be careful that you actually insert and secure the ribbon cable correctly; otherwise, the keyboard won't function. (I would boot the laptop up and test the keyboard before replacing the bolts and the bezel.)

Of course, grounding is important before disassembling or handling any PC component, since a simple static charge can kill your lovely pieces of silicon. (That multi-hundred dollar graphics card can be turned into a useless piece of junk in less time than you can blink.) I usually touch the case of a desktop machine if I'm working on one, and with laptops, I keep a part of my hand or arm on one of the metal pieces of the laptop case while I work. There are anti-static wristbands, and I'm sure they work well, but I don't even wear the one I bought because it likes to get in the way of things, not to mention that it doesn't like staying where I clamp it.

@Ash-Bash: My wife used to love keeping her coffee mugs ON the palm rest of her Dell. Stupid? Yes. Did she still do it? Yes. Did they spill on the laptop? Yes... three times. Third time was a charm, and it "died." Fortunately, opening it up, letting it dry, cleaning it up, and reassembling brought it back to life. Now I have her put her coffee AWAY from the laptop, which does have unfortunate side effects with six cats running amuck. My advice here, though, would be to have a wooden or folding chair next to your workstation and putting your delicious beverages on it so that even if it does get knocked over, only the chair and floor gets wet (and wall, in some cases... unless you like "ye 'ole coffee drip wallpaper").

I also like to put my drinks BEHIND my laptop so I can't knock it over, especially when that beefy arm of mine does a sweep over to the home keys. (I've done that once: a nice, tall bottle of water all over my work laptop. No harm, no foul... but work was definitely brought to a screeching halt.)

The thing is, you don't only lose your laptop. You also lose your drink. Of course, there is also the potential risk that you may lose all the data stored on your laptop, which also includes all the time and effort and maybe even money that you have invested in it. The only thing that I can say is: Don't drink in front of your laptop!

I actually spilled some pizza pie on a school computer one, and the food got stuck between the keys and I couldn't get it out. Miraculously I think a new one got replaced at the school and I didn't get caught, despite having a lot of witnesses. I guess you can trust you friend on these things.

So don't drink or eat in front of your laptop!!! That is all I can say. Haha... cheers, Nameless_

This has happened to me quite a few times now, but the commonest is with my mobile.
My laptop was HP/ Compaq nx6120 and I loved that too much as it was my father's gift, first laptop from him. I had a nice time keeping it nice and clean and taking good care that it did not get scratched or dirty. One night I was so dizzy that I decided to get some water for me from the kitchen. I got a glass and filled it full and reached for my table. I kept the glass on the table and it toppled. I kept the glass over my paper weight and it toppled. The spilled water went running through the table and some got into the keyboard of the laptop. It was not much water that went into the laptop so I got my towel and wiped it clean. My laptop did not show any signs of problem and I kept on using it for about an year.
Then again it happened and this time my laptop was actually damaged. My cousin sister was in my place and is hell of a problem. She is too busy with herself and will do anything to get what she wants. She got a bad habit of dropping things down from her hand without any reason. And what happened was that she came to my study with a cup of milk and before I could understand poured the full cup of milk on my running laptop. I was stunned and without thoughts shocked for a moment. Immediately realizing what has happened I switched off my laptop and removed the battery, but it was too late. Something that I got to know from the laptop repair guy was that the milk that has seeped in had gone into the DVD drive and the head was spoiled. Also the motherboard is covered with dried up milk and is to be cleaned, later being declares as damaged. It was a great loss for me.
The worst happened when I realized that my mobile was missing. After she spilled the milk she grabbed my mobile and dropped the cup on my table and ran. I was too busy with my laptop that I overlooked what she took with her. About fifteen minutes later when I wanted to call my friend Natasha about what can be done with the laptop I realized that the mobile was missing. By that time the thing that happened was unimaginable. My cousin took my mobile phone and went to the loo. In there she probably smashed the mobile a few times in the wall or floor and then it got wet. There was no bucket nor any water stored in he toilet but the mobile later recovered was wet enough, but most worrying was the damaged cover and screen. I kept the phone for drying and after it got dried I switched it on only to find that the display was damaged and was showing thick horizontal lines with unclear text showing.
I do not want to recollect those days but I think I am feeling a bit better by venting my anger out in this manner typing it out. I could not hit her with a blow but I was to sad and cried a lot. I however am glad that after so much loss my father gave me a better laptop now and this time I am a bit more careful with it.

I lost my F6 :/What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?I lost my F6 key of my unibody mac pro after coffee spillage. :/There was no sugar in the coffee. How ever there is a remnant of coffee which results the F6 key not functioning condition.How should I clean it. Is using a hypo and some alcohol applicable?-reply by Gökhan OZ

spilled whiskey on netbook...What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

Yeah, it was a darn good whiskey! Aside for *****ing about wasting my drink, I would like to try to make it work again (keyboard not working, screen and sound OK). One guy who knows a thing or two about these things suggested to submerge it completely under lukewarm water for a few minutes, except the screen, which should open and, of course, after removing the battery. Work the keys while under water an d rinse it to dissolve all the gunk. Let it dry completely for 48-72 hrs. Any second opinions? How is the hardrive going to take this? Are they supposed to be waterproof or just dust proof?

-reply by terra2016

old daysWhat Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

This reminds me of the good old days in the late 80s with the IBM type M keyboards.  £80 (a fortune back then) but they are big tough clacky keyboards for typists, could take being stood on or dropped from a window, could be cleaned out because of removable key heads...And unique for the time (and nothing since has been as good) were spill proof because of a watertight membrane.

Spill water, tea, coffee, it wouldnt damage it in the slightest...Unless you had sugar in your tea which could sticky up the keys, the eventual death of most of them, but even now 30 years later a few are still going strong

There are a few keyboards in only the last 5 years or so that finally caught onto the idea and have started doing a cheap imitation of this membrane.  Maybe not submersible but at least it is some protection from pouring things on it, in moderate amounts.

-reply by D'or Kadar

PC + Margarita = MigraineWhat Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

So, I found this article, after the fact, while I was searching to see what else I could do. I was sipping a Margarita, and of course set it on the kitchen table where I'd left my Dell Inspiron E1505 while I was cooking. Of course, the dog that hardly ever chases  the cat, chose to and the cat subsequently knocked the glass over when he jumped up (dog is good-natured, just doesn't realize that cats don't like to play with him). I unplugged the computer, tilting it while I did, and removed the battery, not from any knowledge of this helping prevent shorts, mostly so I wouldn't get electrocuted. I let it sit, with the screen open, and the body of the computer upside down over a towel. Miracle of miracles, despite being doused, my computer is perfectly fine, after I let it dry out. I removed the keys individually, and cleaned them gently with Q-tips. No other liquids, because at the time I was thinking, liquids bad. But this worked for me, makes me not hate Dell as much. (Replacement power cord number 4 being used now, in under two years) :)

-reply by digitalsorceress

Laptop Liquid Spill - Replaced Motherboard and Keyboard. Result?What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

I have a Compaq F700 and spilled beer in the machine. The machine was only one week old! I sent it to Compaq and they indicated that both the motherboard and keyboard needed to be replaced and therefore they shipped it back to me because I wouldnt pay 0 for them to repair it. So, I bought and installed a new keyboard and a new motherboard myself and the laptop has the same problem it had before the repair. The power button on the machine, when pressed, turns on the unit for about 3 or 4 seconds, the fan starts, the hard rive spins, then it shuts off immediately. The power button light when pressed and the power chord connection at the laptop are both illuminated...But it powers down after 3-4 seconds.

Any ideas? I will say that I used the old CPU, heat sink, and fan on the new board...I wonder if these could have been damaged too.

Thanks in advance.

-question by Jack

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