HELP Spilled liquid on my laptop! (hard drive, keyboard, mouse, wireless) - Computers -PCs, laptops, hardware, software - City-Data Forum

CTR36 · 08-11-2008, 08:29 AM

Is there no hope? Last night I stupidly spilled chocolate milk all over my laptop!!

My husband took it apart as soon as possible and we cleaned all the insides of the liquid except for we couldn't remove the keyboard area and so we saw a little bit of stains on the underside of it. This morning when I tried to power it up it powered up then it turned itself off.WAAAA I love this laptop. What else can I do??

My DH told me that maybe the battery had lost its charge, so before I came to work I left it plugged in and we will try to power it up again. Has this happened to anyone here? What did you do? Am I pretty much up the creek? All my stuff is on that hard drive, pictures, my husband's business info, agghhh! I am kicking myself for not doing regular backups. It's a gateway laptop and I absolutely love it. Should I take it to Fry's if it doesn't power up??? HELPPPP

Stratford, Ct. Resident · 08-11-2008, 09:26 AM

I can relate to you on this one.

In my situation, it was about a week before it would stay on. I went to youtube and found a disassembly video for my laptop. I couldn't get the keyboard off(amongst otherthings), so i had to press down on the keys for awhile to get rid of the sticking/crunching. I would've had it professionally repaired, but with sony it really wasn't feasible, IMO. The cost and the time to repair just weren't worth it. It's been about a year now, and it's performing well. Surprising, considering the day after the spill i got a Dr. Watson "Post-Mortem"

diagonostic message before it powered off.

Good luck.

CTR36 · 08-11-2008, 09:37 AM

Thanks. At least there is hope

harry chickpea · 08-11-2008, 11:15 AM

Don't drink chocolate milk or any other sugary liquid near a computer. I remember teaching employees that back in the 1980s. Sometimes you can get away with black coffee or water, but carbon compounds make nice resistors.

Membrane or carbon dot keypads can wick the liquid into areas where it will continue to cause problems. Quick use of a vacuum cleaner and possibly some distilled water can sometimes rescue a computer, sometimes not.

If you can find a connector to the keyboard, you MIGHT be able to disconnect it and use an external keyboard. Otherwise, it is to the shop for disassembly and replacement parts.

Brian.Pearson · 08-12-2008, 10:09 AM

Ack! I've always kept a mug of Dr Pepper by the computer, but I've been careful. I'll be putting it in a lower elevation from now on.

I actually prefer a standard wireless keyboard and mouse, because they are a lot easier for me to use. The transmitter plugs into a USB port. Both the keyboard and mouse run on two AA batteries. If you get more than one pack of AA batteries, make sure they have the same mHA number. For example, mine are all 2500 mHa. If I were to put different "flavors" of batteries in a charger, they might not work right, or they might even be damaged. I'm not sure about all the "why's and "wherefores" about the technical reasons behind problems due to mixing and matching mHa numbers. BTW, these batteries will last for several years, so they will pay for themselves. And, once you are done with them, you can take them to be recycled. Radio Shack is one company that takes them, I just happened to know that because I worked for the company who used to own Radio Shack.

You may want to eventually get the original keyboard fixed, but who knows, maybe you won't care unless it has done damage to the rest of the computer. But you can find that out with the wireless keyboard and mouse. There are some here who have cleaned their keyboards -- there was a discussion about it a few weeks ago. I'm sure you'll be hearing from them, too.