M17x r3 spilled soda

im dumb and just realized i posted this in the wrong area. will post in the model specific forum. sorry


m17x r3

short story, i work on the road, i dont like drinks around my systems, however, not many options at the hotel. Table wobbles bad and soda spilled bad on keyboard.

used paint brush and rubbing alcohal to remove the soda but its not working well. Many keys sticking incredibly bad and after the rubbing alcohal some of the lights seem dim on the keys, its lighting up but im thinking the keys need a good cleaning...

I don't want to remove the keyboard working on the road but i want to know if there's a way to remove the individual keys.

thanks!!!

 

Hello, DJDOX,
the best solution would be to stop using the computer until it's dry or it may malfunction.
What i would do is disassemble it and wash the parts touched by soda with alcohol (from the pharmacy), taking each key apart is not only risky as they are fragile but it'll take more time!

Do not poor any liquid while your laptop is still powered, even off with the battery inside.
Search for the disassembly guide and take it slowly.

 

thanks for the reply. it happened a few days ago and havent been running it until today. It's fully dry.

Was hoping to not have to take it fully apart but I want what's best for the system.

I will most likely be waiting until i get home next time then.

thanks for the reply!

 

Best bet is to remove the keyboard, and run it under hot water. That will soften and remove the syrup in the keys. Then let it dry for a few days. I know it sounds crazy, but it worked on my wife's system. Other than that, removing the keys will leave syrup in to collect dust unless you remove every single key. If you have accidental coverage on your warranty, than you can have dell replace the keyboard. But the water trick worked wonders for my wife's computer.

 

thanks for the reply. I accidently posted this in the main forum for alienware section and that was recommended as well except with rubbing alcohal. I'll have to wait until I get home to do that. Thanks!

 

The Dell techs can email you PDF instruction on how to remove the keyboard so you don't have any extra screws or pull something you should push. Good luck

 

Or you can download the service manual from Dell

 

Update:

Took keyboard out very carefully. Washed with 91% alcohol. Put back in after drying and now I have a problem...

My bios beeps 35x (or 36, hard to count) twice then boots up. Everything seems to be running fine but the keyboard doesn't respond. The LEDs light up as normal but none of the keys work. Is my keyboard fried?

Please help

 

hmm you make sure you put the ribbon cable in correctly?

 

I'm pretty certain I put it together correctly. I'm just worried the alcohal ruined something
Inside the board.

Some random site on the internet shows the dell BIOS beeps - 35 is 'cmos shutdown test in progress (or bad)'

Not sure what that means but as of now it looks like I'm going to have to buy a new keyboard. Its wee rid because the system boots up after the beeps and everything seems to run fine with the exception of the keyboard.

I'll try it again later and update. Planning on taking a video if it later.

Thanks for the response!

 

no prob, I had the same issue with a different laptop at one point. Took it in to a computer repair place and I was putting in the cable wrong. might double check it and see what happens. Strange that you have lights but no Actual keyboard.

 

I appreciate the responses. This is an amazing forum.

I have it sitting on the heater again. Maybe it wasn't completely dry or something....I dunno. Just exhausting options I suppose until I order a new keyboard from eBay.

Times like this I had accidental coverage.

My concern now I that I have an upcoming issue with dell about my optical being stuck on. I hope this doesnt hinder tthat issue - though I fear it may.

 

morning bump. left it on the vent last night. plugged it in this morning and everything works fine. no bios beeps or anything. tested all the keys working, so thats a relief.

my only concern now is that half of the led's are super dim - they're all lit-up but they're incredibly dim. not sure what to do with it now....

if you have any advice bigtony, im open

also, i cracked the trim plate for the keyboard like an idiot so i need to order one of those now

 

hmmm glad you got your keyboard working again as to the LED's being super dim, I don't have a clue on how to fix that

 

well what help are you haha? jk jk jk jk

im thinking that the rubbing alcohal hazed the led's its really only dim where large amounts of the alcohal hit the keys. Unless I didn't wash off all of the soda yet

When I get home maybe ill look into it more before I order a new panel. I still have the warranty issue with my optical to deal with.

I appreciate all the help!!

 

no prob dude that's why im here

 

Well you should've let it dry like i said, never power electronics while wet!
Glad that your keyboard functions at least.

 

couldnt believe 2 days on the vent wasnt good enough... I dont know if i think thats what it was or not.

They keys have been running fine the past few days, I'm just upset that the lights are super dim on the keys now. I would not recommend rubbing alcohal for future use, seems like it's hazed the lenses or something. Only the areas where the alcohal was used are dim which is weird i think. Will be ordering a new keyboard and I'm going to rip this one apart and see if it can be repaired to original lighting glory

 

my buddy soaked his XPS keys in a bin of water, I should have suggested that first his backlit keys still work and everything.

 

I don't think it's the alcohol, unless you used acetone or some strong solvent, I washed mine a few times and it still functions as it should, though i make sure it was completely dry.

 

Hey guys, I spilt pop all over my laptop and it looked like it busted my system since it caused it to crash. I opened my whole system and noticed only a drop of pop touch the right side of the motherboard (which i quickly cleaned up). Fortunately the keyboard had no holes going through it and 99% of the pop stuck to my keyboard; which some of the keys are now really hard to press due to the stickyness. My laptop has ever since been running for a month and a half now with no problems except the BSOD's associated ntoskrnl.exe (nt+0x7CC40) and ntkrnlmp.exe (nt!KeBugCheckEx+0x0) <~~if anyone knows how to fix these, it would help as well.My only question now is, is it possible for me to get a replacement keyboard from dell (i still have till July for my warranty)?

 

Hey guys, I spilt pop all over the keyboard and some of the keys are now sticky and hard to press. Everything is functional (the lights below the keys that were affected are little bit dimmed, is this permanent?) and I want to know if it's alright to wash the keyboard with warm-hot water?

 

You can soak the keyboard with water if you want but make sure you let it dry for 24-48 hours or you risk frying the lights.

 

Alright thanks, would the dimming of the lights affected be fixed (it might be the pop that is blocking some of the light)?

 

It could be idk, only way to know is try

 

You should probably take off every single key and wash the underside of each key with alcohol and a q-tip. There's definitely a lot of soda still in there if the lights are dim.

A friend spilt some soda on my R2's keyboard nearly a year ago. I took off every single key washed, them, and then washed the keyboard with the keys off in alcohol too. Then i went over everything with a alcohol soaked q-tip.

Everything worked fine, but even a year later, I still occasionally find a key I have to rewash due to that incident. What you did was a good start, but the job aint over yet.

EDIT: Be extremely careful though with the keys. I had to order an arrow key from ebay that was broken when I took it off the keyboard. I still don't know how it broke because I pulled it off in the same fashion I did for all the other keys and it was the only one that broke.

 

Is there guide for taking off the keys anywhere? xD

 

Hey richard. I haven't gotten around to taking all of my keys off yet. I think I'm lucky and none stick at this point. I'm actually returning my system to alienware because of the optical issue. I'm going to see what happens with that first.

I did have one key removed but forgot how. I'm just too scared to break them since I'm sending mine in. The worst that could happen is you break a key and you have to spend $80 for a new keyboard. Look on youtube, I believe I saw a video on there with a how-to.

 

As someone has already kindly explained earlier in this thread - Alcohol does not work with soda once it has dried and gone like sticky goo, the best thing to clean this mess off anything is "hot water" you can submerge your keyboard in water or run it under the hot tap for a while then use compressed air to blow out the water after and then leave to dry or use a hair dryer, same goes for mother board, remove it and remove all attachments etc cmos battery and run under hot tap - same proceedure as above, this might sound crazy to some but trust me it is the only way to remove sticky soda residue.............

 

You're gonna need to carefully clean the laptop out... Getting all the syrup and crap out.

Do not under any circumstances turn the laptop on "wet" or with sticky syrup in it.

Good luck man.

 

You can buy individual keys off ebay. They're kinda pricey - like $5 per key, but it's not gonna be like paying $80 if you break one key to get a new keyboard.

Simply pull up, gently, but firmly on the top part of a key. Pretend like there's a hinge at the base and pry it up. You'll here a few snaps and the key will come off.

I took off all my keys this way - all 101. Only 1 broke.