Thanks for the how-to Jim. I only wish I would have known about that before. Oh well. I got a new laptop. I am only trying to make this one live a bit longer. Isn't it strange though wow the escape key worked. It doesn't beep anymore like there is a stuck key. I even started it while holding the escape key down.... it just happily boots windows or what is in the CD-ROM. On Sat, Dec 24, 2011 at 12:56 AM, Jim March <1.jim.march@gmail.com> wrote: > OK, somebody (probably you!) just spilled something on your laptop. > What do you do? > > *Immediately* yank the power cord, flip it so that the keyboard and > screen are both pointed "down" with the screen open at a normal 90deg > angle, and pull the battery out. It should be angled like so: ^ and > in that position, set it down. If you have to close it a bit tighter > than 90deg so it'll stay that way, OK, fine. No more than 45deg if > possible. This is the "tented" position and it keeps as much liquid > as possible off the motherboard and screen internals. > > What to do next depends on the liquid. In the case of something > corrosive, which includes: > > * Vinegar; > > * Cola or most other sodas; > > * Anything with a lot of citrus content; > > * Anything else acidic; > > * Light alcoholic drinks such as beer or probably most wines. > > ...you need to open it up, take it completely apart and clean > everywhere the liquid touched. Rubbing alcohol is by far the best and > safest cleaning agent. > > You'll need to pull the keyboard and clean it thoroughly. Believe it > or not, flushing it under hot tap water works great. Dry it as best > you can with a towel and let it dry. Be sure and pull out things like > the memory banks and WiFi cards and clean the contacts on both the > cards and motherboard with a Q-tip or the like and rubbing alky. Be > also sure you get any tiny fibers out that could hose the connections! > > What about straight water? > > Well there's differing schools there. The power-down part and tent it > is still vital - you must not apply power while the circuits are wet, > period, end of discussion. > > I'm of the opinion that you are best off taking it at least partially > apart and applying a hair dryer to the insides FROM AT LEAST TWO FEET > AWAY - in other words, go slow, have patience, dry it the hell out. > > There's an alternative though: bury it in dry rice! I know, sounds > weird but the stuff sucks up water like crazy and sometimes from a > considerable distance IF there's not a lot of humidity in the air > (such as Arizona!). You may still have to take the keyboard out and > painstakingly poke the rice out with a toothpick or the like - > something stiff but non-metallic, wood or plastic. This will likely > work better if it's somewhat hot - on a cold winter night like right > now that water won't want to travel as far and is more likely to make > something rust, I think. (The rice trick is also well-known for > cellphones and the like, and yet again, pull the battery first!) > > Only once everything is dry do you bolt it back together and re-apply > power. > > Now, if you don't know how to take a laptop apart...well, honestly, if > you're on a budget and really depend on your lappy, you need to do two > things ahead of time: google for a good set of teardown instructions > and bookmark them on another computer or otherwise keep them > available, and go spend $16 at Radio Shack for a set of > laptop-and-small-electronics screwdriver bits: > > http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3932539 > > If you let a laptop sit overnight either wet or esp. with something > corrosive inside, it won't live to morning and a trip to a repair > shop. OK? Flat out, there will be corroded contacts somewhere and > you're looking at a new motherboard minimum. Plus labor, and if it's > an older rig it might not even be worth it. > > I saved a laptop of my own some years back from a coke spill at a TFUG > event. I powered it down and "tented" it within seconds as described, > finished the meet, did a full teardown and cleanout at home that same > night. The only damage was to the WiFi card and I had another > available that turned out to have more range and better drivers so no > biggie. I have it on good authority that the critter lived to a ripe > old age and probably still works as somebody's backup machine - I sold > it with full disclosure of it's history about a year post-spill. If > I'd had to buy another WiFi card it would have been $20 or less on > Fleabay, $35 tops at SWS in Tucson or cheaper at Fry's in Phoenix. > > This was brought on by a recent post describing somebody else's spill :). > > Oh yeah. One last thing. Let's say the sucker really ends up dead. > Maybe it shorted hard before you were able to pull the power. It > happens. Odds are the hard disk is still OK. And since we're running > Linux or the like, we're in luck: that same drive/OS set can boot some > other computer just fine, with maybe a bit of video driver tweaks or > whatever. So you can find any laptop that takes the same sort of > drive, new or used, bolt your old drive in, odds are you're right > there back in biz with no farting around. You can even bolt it into a > desktop if you need to get up fast and just don't have access to > another lappy yet. > > I would recommend running a disk diagnostics set to see if the HD took > any minor damage along the way though - something like Disk Utility > from the latest Ubuntu family (Lucid forward) will do nicely. > > Jim > > PS: what if you spill mineral oil on it!? Well other than cleaning > the keyboard and letting the majority of it drain, don't worry about > it! It's non-corrosive, non-conducting. You can run a whole computer > dipped in a tank of the stuff no sweat, and some people into extreme > overclocking do exactly that! > --------------------------------------------------- > PLUG-discuss mailing list - PLUG-discuss@lists.plug.phoenix.az.us > To subscribe, unsubscribe, or to change your mail settings: > http://lists.PLUG.phoenix.az.us/mailman/listinfo/plug-discuss > -- :-)~MIKE~(-: