Is orange soda good for Dell notebook?

My six year old son spilled about 6 oz of orange soda on my keyboard. Some of it probably entered those air vents near the back space key. Immediately got a hardware error message. I shut down, ran a hair dryer through and now it works again. Should I just keep using it? or are there other steps to do?

Also, should I sell my six year old son?

 

You should have shut it off right away.

I would let it dry it for a bit longer.

 

The sugar in the soda can't be doing any good in there. I'd wash off anything it got onto in deionized water to get as much of it off as possible, then air dry until totally dry before reassembly.

 

I would call Dr. Pepper.

Sorry, bad joke.

Ebay, for sure.

 

lucky; your very lucky, most notebooks as soon as water gets close to them... well lets just say you would be in the market for a new one...

 

Is there a trick to opening these things up? I'd like to inspect the interal parts for spillage. It's a 1505 inspiron.

 

http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/ins6400/en/index.htm

That link contains the service manual which should help you to remove any part of the system you'd like.

Sugar is not good for electronics, be careful, you were lucky.

I also would have let it dry out for a longer period of time.

 

I spilled a big cup of water on my Inspiron 1100 .. luckily, the touch pad dies , not other parts. It took like a week to function properly. The touch pad is jumpy and won't follow mydirection any more, i have to disconnect its wires and use external mouse.

Luckily you didn't kill ur laptop yet.

 

Don't worry, I haven't given up yet. And I also have a 5 year old.

 

can you fusion them together and get an 11 year old?

i'd try that before you sell your 6 year old.

 

Holy crap I just had a good laugh.

Yes by all means, if the sale will recoup the damage to the laptop.

 

I would sell them both on ebay. Who knows? Maybe your 5 year old will do the same thing in a year or so.

On a more serious note I would clean as much as you can. That sugar will not do any good to the laptop. If it hasn't already then that laptop will die soon unless something is done about it. Sugar corrodes electronic parts and will reduce the life of the laptop.

 

I performed exploratory surgery this afternoon. I remove the hard drive. looked unscathed. Then I took off the plastic that covers the power switch (Be careful doing this! very fragile!) to access the keypad.
I removed the keypad and found some orange soda on the metal chasis--cleaned it and the underside of the keypad which was sticky. Then I shined a flashlight into the bowels and didn't see any sign of orange soda on the components.

For now, I'll assume the critical components weren't compromised and hang on to the kids at least as long as my notebook functions properly.

 

I'd use rubbing alcohol to clean the circuits. It dries the water off faster and wont rust your boards.

 

My dad is pretty much tired of me. How about exchanging your 6 year old son with a 24 year old? I promise alcohol won't do any harm to your dell notebook.

 

Indubitably. Dells are known to get sugar highs from Fanta type drinks.

Oh absolutely.

 

Hahaha! The "selling my kids" comments just made my day.
Thanks for that!

Best of luck with your notebook (I hope it'll still work) and best of luck with your kids!

 

A mixture of distilled water and alcohol is probably best for getting any sugar off. I dont know how far you opened the machine up, but if it was just a splash it shouldnt be a big deeal. if the soda sat there, it may be worth your time to go for total disasembly to double check everything.

Of course ther eis always the option of finding a good reputable repair shop and have them do it if you dont feel confident taking it all apart.

Also you definitely want at least 24 hours to dry with the system opened up no matter what you do.

 

ORANGE SODA SAGA UPDATE:

So it appears internal components were spared from the dreaded orange soda spillage.

The Dell keyboard has a waterproof backing, this is probably why the components stayed dry--however it probably did trap some orange soda residue under the keys. So now a few of the keys are hard to depress. Question: is it possible to remove individual keys from the keyboard? Is there a trick to it?

 

You can find replacement keybords pretty cheap on ebay, you also might want to look into adding complete care coverage to your laptop, just look up your service tag and you should see some warranty options, just in case things start to go south.

 

Ice, you can be my wingman anytime.

You're right, 25 bucks shipped for a new keyboard from ebay.

It's freakin' irritating having keys that are stiff.

btw, read a lot of stuff suggesting removing individual keys is a pain in the butt.