Spilled a bottle of 'Coke' over my new laptop, please help...

kwerky

OK, please can anyone advise me on what to do? Earlier I knocked over a hole bottle of 'Diet Coke' on my laptop. It's gone all over the keyboard and seeped in through where the speakers are. I've removed the battery in an attempt to dry it and tipped it upside down to let as much coke drain away as possible.

Sadly, i fear the laptop is beyond repair. So now my biggest fear is the warranty. The laptop was literally only purchased last Saturday afternoon (October, 6th), it's a Toshiba and cost a little under £400. What's the procedure with taking it back?

Please help.
Thanks

closed

Warranty doesn't cover coke. Your house insurance might.

Take it to pieces, mop up all signs of coke, and clean with isopropyl alcohol or damp cloth, let it dry completely before attaching any sort of power or battery.

PDC

As above, good advice re house insurance, thats probably your best first choice if you have it.

Some manufaturers (I know Dell do) put instructions online as to how to dismantle their laptops which may help if you have tot ry and clen it out youself.

Stooby2

This may sound daft, and only use it as a absolutely last resort when all else has failed and you're stuck with a dead laptop.

Take the battery out, leave it for a few minutes to fully discharge. Then get some mildly warm water (no more than hand hot), and pour it through everywhere the coke went. Pour it all out, repeat several times to rinse all the coke out.

Shake as much water as possible out, dry it with a towel, then put it in the airing cupboard for at least a week (or other similar warm place). With the battery off and everything open you can open.

I'm not guaranteeing this will work. I have resurrected a laptop that had been filled with coffee this way. You may be lucky, you may not.

Don't try using a hairdryer - you stand a very good chance of melting something. As my sister once found out when she filled her keyboard with tea.

As I said, this is an absolutely last resort, when the only other option is binning the laptop.

Big_Ed

Stooby2 wrote: »

This may sound daft, and only use it as a absolutely last resort when all else has failed and you're stuck with a dead laptop.

Take the battery out, leave it for a few minutes to fully discharge. Then get some mildly warm water (no more than hand hot), and pour it through everywhere the coke went. Pour it all out, repeat several times to rinse all the coke out.

Shake as much water as possible out, dry it with a towel, then put it in the airing cupboard for at least a week (or other similar warm place). With the battery off and everything open you can open.

If you end up doing this, use distilled/de-ionised water and leave some rice around it when drying in a warm place.
Btw I've never tried this personally.

DevCoder

The rice trick is used a lot (for water damaged phones for example), ideally you should put the device in a sealed container with the rice (and use quite a lot of it). Leave it at least a week, preferably two/three.

I put the rice in a very fine muslin bag so that it can still absorb water but rice dust doesnt get everywhere.

T_T_2

kwerky wrote: »

The laptop was literally only purchased last Saturday afternoon (October, 6th),What's the procedure with taking it back?

It wouldn't matter if you bought it a day ago or a week ago. Unfortunately this isn't the retailers fault and the laptop isn't designed to have liquid spilled on it. As someone else said, your only hope if this isn't DIY repairable is that your home contents insurance covers accidental damage.

schrodie

The problem with claiming on your house insurance is that it'll affect your no claims bonus for a few years and it may well work out better biting the bullet if the advice above doesn't work and buying a new laptop.

Del_Astra

Let us know how it goes, wishing you lots of luck.

Coke isn't good, tea, coffee, water you stand a chance, it depends how submerged it was.

The rice thing does work, I recently took my phone fishing and put it in the front pocket of my waders (which had small holes in the bottom and I'd forgotten). I only tripped one indicator on the phone at the bottom, however the power on/off switch (on the top of the phone) was the only fault, which after spending 3 weeks in the airing cupboard with rice its been working fine for 2 months now.