Help!! water on my keyboard

I knew it was going to happen sooner or later, and it did. I spilled a little water on my keyboard tonight. I dried it up fast enough or so I thought . When I type the letter q or z it comes up qa and za. the a pops up automatically after typing those letters. I finally got to the keyboard unscrewed it and noticed a little bit more water underneath. It wasn't a lot but enough to notice.

Am I screwed here or will this dry enough to get back to normal? When it first happened all my words were jumbled, but now it is just those 2 letters. Funny now my Caps lock is going on by itself

Should I just shut down for the night and keep the keyboard disassembled so it could dry?

 

switch off your notebook, disconnect all power including the battery.

keep the keyboard or whole notebook in a dry place for about 24 hours.

it should work fine. if its just water, chances are nothing will be wrong once its thoroughly dried.

 

As long as none of the water made it into the notebook itself, you should be just fine. Leave the keyboard disconnected and removed from the notebook, let it dry overnight. There's not much in a keyboard that water can destroy as long as you let it dry properly.

 

And, if the suggestions the OP's don't work...you may end up having to call Dell. Do you have Accidental coverage on your Inspiron??


Cin

 

No I do not unfortunately.

Thanks for all the suggestions. Now I am out a computer for a day and a tv till Wed as I wait for a new lamp from Samsung.

Looks like its blackberry all the way for me.

 

Oish. Well, hopefully the other suggestions will work for you!


Cin

 

Depending on your particular room environment, it may not dry as fast as you want it to, and you may have water in places you can't see. There are 2 ways to deal with it.

Some keyboards have a plastic or other barrier between the keys and the circuit traces, depending on the keyboard. Usually when you spill a liquid it gets trapped between the layer and you can't really see it as it blends. It's even worse when it's something like Coke or Coffee - Lord knows I've had to clean more of those than I care to remember.

Use your system manual to get to you keyboard and so you can see underneath. Liquid never stays where you think it does - some always gets into nooks and crannies where it'll do the most damage, as Murphy intends for it to do. Once you have the keyboard out, check for any barrier plates or anything that is covering the circuit board and use your fingernail to separate it gently from the board. If any liquid has gotten between it, you'll see it right away. Use a small paper towel with a little Isopropyl on it to wipe it away.

If you're not comfortable taking it apart completely, you can always use a hair dryer to force warm air into the keyboard, but it's not going to be as effective as if you were to take it apart. Only heat will dry it if liquid is open to air; if it's trapped it won't dry because it can't change to a gaseous state quickly. The only heat your system generates is when it's on - of course that's the catch. If you leave it on to let system heat dry it, you stand a chance of a possible (but unlikely) short.

All modern electronics have a thin protective layer on them, but don't trust that to save you. Murphy will always get you just when you think you're clear. The key is to get the liquid dried out ASAP - the longer it sits, the more damage it will do, and more than you realize.

 

shut the system off immediately, then disassemble the system to separate the keyboard, then use tissue or napkins and clean it first, then blow dry->put everything back in. It should be fine, no worries =)

 

Well I thought it would be fine since dismantling my notebook, but unfortunately now when I type the letter a it prints it out 5-10 more times.

Looks like a new keyboard for me. Luckily it is only 20-30$

 

Just a quick question before I get my new keyboard next week. I was thinking of cleaning the pins that are on my old keyboard in hopes of fixing the problem. I know its a last hope effort and I'm sure nothing I do will work, but it's worth a shot. Would you suggest just some compressed air, or something like rubbing alcohol?

 

At times it may take several days for something like that to dry out. Cell phones in the toilet can take a week or more to dry out (with only a quick dunk in a clean toilet). But, as everyone else has stated nothing in water should hurt the keyboard once it if fully dry. Will it boot without the keyboard? Can you use an external one for the time being? You could always unplug it, but leave it in place to avoid other things getting in there while it dries.

 

Can't boot up without the keyboard plugged in as the power up button is on the keyboard. My keyboard will have a week to dry as my new keyboard wont be here till next Wednesday. I can live with it the way it is although sometimes while I'm typing I will get a bunch of aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa's out of nowhere.


Right now I have the faceplate open so I can slide the keyboard up and down at will when it acts up. I assume it's not wise to do this while the computer is on. It's very tempting to do, but it may short something out in the computer.

 

since you knew it was going to happen i hope you have complete care.

the other option is to contact dell and advise them your keyboards going bad, and its miss typing. they either send you a replacement or they send a tech to do it.

now if you are honest youd tell them what happened but thats between you and dell

 

No complete care. My 1 year warranty is up as well.

Would sliding the keyboard out while the computer is on do anything? Reason I ask is because when it gets stuck on the aaaaaaaa's I can not dao anything like type or even browse pages.

 

i guess ebays your choice now. or take it out and try and clean it

 

Yeah I have one on order from Ebay.

How would you suggest cleaning the keyboard? Would rubbing alcohol on the keyboard pins help? I'm guessing when the water got in the keyboard it traveled down below the space bar, and got into the pin section.