two sick laptops!

macman

And the moral of all this is...fizzy drinks and laptops don't mix. Keep them well apart.

homealone_2

rather stupidly decided to get a vodka dipped cotton bud and clean all around and as much under as possible on allthe damaged keys and left to dry after a few hours dryin i tried keys and they felt alot etter so again stupidly thought i would try and remove any bits left and again left to dry. yesterday early turned on machine and it started beeping very loudly and screen was juping all over the place. kept leaving it and finally screen stopped jumping but it would still beep only now although it did take me straight to password entry screen without any of the jumping now one key only worked, the f. all other keys you could press all you like but nothing!!!! after rying myself silly rang pcworld wh would not give any info on where i stood and just said i would need to contact dell direct but obviously they not there till monday. still desperte t find out where i stoodas warranty not worth anything now even though only bought it 1st jan 09 finallygot number fortech guys who ran through some suff to try but couldnt test much witout any keys working!! so have been told to ring dell tomorrow who would decided what to do he said as under 1 year warranty they would fix it but when asked would i be responsible for paying for this as my fault and having no accidental damage nsurancehe said he did notknow and that i would have to contact dell and ask them. so rather childishly have been sat crying since cant believe how stupid i was d tis after already ruiing my old ap top fro doing the same regularly but guess i needed to learn mylesson the hard way. what do ou think would be a resonable amount to pay to be fixed||?? before saing dont bother??

macman

I don't understand why you still think a manufacturer's warranty will cover you for pouring liquid into it? If you bought a new Fiesta and crashed it into a tree, you would not expect Ford to give you a new car?
If you return it to Dell under warranty without explaining what has happened they will charge you for the repair, because the liquid damage will be obvious. Take it to an independent laptop repair shop (not PCW) and get them to give you a quote. If it's just the keyboard it should not cost too much to replace. If the liquid has gone further it may cost more. The sooner you do this the better as the corrosion will get worse if not fixed.

homealone_2

macman wrote: »

I don't understand why you still think a manufacturer's warranty will cover you for pouring liquid into it? If you bought a new Fiesta and crashed it into a tree, you would not expect Ford to give you a new car?
If you return it to Dell under warranty without explaining what has happened they will charge you for the repair, because the liquid damage will be obvious. Take it to an independent laptop repair shop (not PCW) and get them to give you a quote. If it's just the keyboard it should not cost too much to replace. If the liquid has gone further it may cost more. The sooner you do this the better as the corrosion will get worse if not fixed.

i realise i am no longer covered by warranty i am only repeating what the man from te tech guys said. i pointed out tohim that liquid had spilled in it and was not a hardware repair but my own fault and it was him that said under the 12 month arranty they would fix it but he was unsure what if any charges will be expected. perhaps when i ring the dell people tomorrow they will understand that it was my fault and quote a repair cost

macman

Yes, Dell will be happy to fix it for you but NOT under warranty. I doubt if they'll give you a firm quote over the phone because they won't know how severe the damage is until they open it-though they can probably quote you just for the keyboard replacement. You'll have to ship it back to them at your expense. Dell charge top dollar for hardware repairs.
That's why I suggest you try a local repair. If it's just the keyboard, it's bound to be cheaper than sending it back to Dell. Replacement keyboard is a quick and simple repair, if that's all that is involved.
If you take it in they will give you a diagnosis and quote. Sometimes they don't charge for this, at most they would charge around £25, which is offsetable against the repair cost if you go ahead with it.
If you advise which model Inspiron it is, then someone can probably advise the cost of a new kb if you want to fit it yourself.

fwor

The beeping was/is probably a "stuck key" warning - which probably started when the vodka washed enough of the fizzy drink into one of the key switches for it to stay on permanently.

It's still possible that you can fix it yourself - there are lots of Dell laptop keyboards on Ebay, and probably the only reason you couldn't get the keyboard out is because you didn't find the two or three screws that are hidden under the plastic trim on some Inspirons.

macman

Agree with fwor. Since the odds are you need a minimum of a new keyboard anyway, buy one on eBay, change it yourself, and fingers crossed.
If it requires further work then you can take it to a repair shop and they can do what's needed without supplying a new keyboard.
Keyboard replacement on modern Dell's is well documented in the online manuals.