Liquid Spilt On A Laptop

Alison18

Hi, just wondering if someone could offer some advice please? Yesterday evening my partner was on his laptop and accidently knocked a pint of fosters over the keyboard:eek:

He quickly turned it upside down whilst I disconnected the battery and we wiped as much off as we could. We then left the laptop upside down to drain the liquid out overnight. He has tried to turn his laptop on this morning and the power lights come on but unfortunately its not booting.

Just basically wondering if anyone has any tips on what to do? Is it dead now or is there a way of saving it? I was thinking about getting him to hold it whilst I got the hairdryer on it is that a good idea or would it do more harm than good?

Thanks in advance

Alison

Notmyrealname

Take hard drive out, sell laptop for scrap on Ebay if you don't have home insurance. If you get components too hot with the hairdryer you'll either cook them or melt the solder and desolder them/create a dry joint.

Alison18

Ok, thank you for your advice

scottishblondie

Notmyrealname wrote: »

Take hard drive out, sell laptop for scrap on Ebay if you don't have home insurance. If you get components too hot with the hairdryer you'll either cook them or melt the solder and desolder them/create a dry joint.

I'd be surprised if you managed to melt solder with a bog standard hair dryer seeing as the melting point for lead free solder (the type used in consumer electronics) is about 160 degrees! You could do some damage to the components tho, if it got hot enough.

Turning it on was was not the best idea, but don't give up hope yet. If you have a large box, preferably plastic, dump a fair amount of rice into it, wrap the laptop in a towel, put it in the box and seal it up. The rice should absorb any remaining moisture. Leave it alone for at least a week then try again.

If there is still no life in it, then follow Notmyrealname's suggestion and scrap it.

Alison18

Thanks, thats great advice I shall get the rice out now. Thank you so much

macman

Unfortunately you have switched it on far too soon. Remove the hard drive and battery before 'ricing' it.

Alison18

Hi sorry to be a pain and bump this back to the top of the list again. Just a couple of questions. My partner has said when he switched it on this morning the screen came on then went off and I was just wondering if that means the screen has died? It gets worse too I told him to "Rice it" and he ignored the advice given and tore it apart to try and dry it out. The only problem is a small green thing with 2 copper things on it fell out and we dont know where it goes it says Hannstar J MV-4 on it and LV1 USB Board.

If the screen or hard drive have died I have an old laptop and was wondering if I could simply take them out of my old laptop and put them in or is there a way I can find out if they are compatible?

Sorry to ramble on, any help would be most gratefully recieved!

Thanks

Alison

sickofusernames

My sympathies, mine had wine spilled on it and it did eventually recover over a few days of drying out but kept shutting off occasionally without even a blue screen of death!

I doubt the screen is broke if it initially comes on and you wont be able to just put your hdd in another laptop unless it's the same make. You can buy cheap HDD caddy's so if the laptop is completely screwed you can at least retrieve all your data.

When mine went I managed to source a cheap Toshiba L300 due to a broken screen and swapped the motherboard from it into mine, was just missing the webcam socket due to it being a lesser spec mobo but I never used the cam anyway.

Good luck anyway, I know how you're feeling :eek:

Lifeforms

sickofusernames wrote: »

I doubt the screen is broke if it initially comes on and you wont be able to just put your hdd in another laptop unless it's the same make. You can buy cheap HDD caddy's so if the laptop is completely screwed you can at least retrieve all your data.

It's not the make that stops it, it's the connection, ie sata or ide. If it's really quite old, it'll prolly be IDE, if it's old, but not dead old prolly early sata's, and if its new should be Sata

Alison18 wrote: »

It gets worse too I told him to "Rice it" and he ignored the advice given and tore it apart to try and dry it out. The only problem is a small green thing with 2 copper things on it fell out and we dont know where it goes it says Hannstar J MV-4 on it and LV1 USB Board.

Sounds like it's part of the USB board from the Motherboard. How it connects dunno, does it look like it's come off, via a cable, or broken off?

Hate to say it, take it to someone who can actually fix it, not make it worse. For that cost of taking it apart, hopefully putting back the components in the right places, making sure nothing is shorted/actually getting it to the stage of it working would prolly be reasonably costly. Considered buying a new laptop? (as you've fiddled with it and it will be obvious it's been opened, not less missing/extra boards left over, you'd struggle with an insurance claim too under accidental damage)

Also for future notes for anyone reading that has spilt liquid in electrical equipment. Taking it apart and trying to dry it so it looks dry to the eyes often isn't enough. Rice is a life saver in these situations, but even so it is not definite that it will fix it. There is wetness that you can't see/feel/tell hiding in many crevices, and opening up things introduces dust and whatever else you want to wipe it with/blow on it. Possibly doing more harm than good in the end.

Alison18 wrote: »

If the screen or hard drive have died I have an old laptop and was wondering if I could simply take them out of my old laptop and put them in or is there a way I can find out if they are compatible?

Screen incredibly doubtful unless it's the same make/model laptop. Very doubtful if it's even the same make.
HDD, see the advice I gave above. Post the model/make of the laptop and someone will be able to find out for you (or just google make and model and HDD and one of the results will tell you.)
Decide now, do you wanna go down the route of having someone diagnose, try and fix it all, and maybe not have a working laptop at the end anyway + a bill.
Or
Look at either using your very old one, or buy a new one. In that case, buy a cheap caddy off ebay for it (check connectors again) and use the hdd from the laptop and see if you can get any data off it.
You prolly wanna write it off as a bad mistake, and ban drinks next to the computer!

knightstyle

To help protect the laptop from this kind of thing you can buy a thin, clear plastic cover that fits over the keyboard. Loads on Ebay from 99p.

libra10

Last week I spilled just a few drips of coffee on my laptop keyboard, and the letter S refused to work. My son dismantled the keyboard and dried it, but no improvement.

He tried another keyboard and the laptop worked alright.

We purchased a new keyboard from Ebay, costing £28, and (thank goodness) my laptop is working perfectly again.

Hope you get the PC sorted soon.