Spilled soda on my laptop, any hope?

I knocked some soda onto my computer while doing homework, it was on the top right hand corner of the keyboard. Its an e1505 from a litte over 2&1/2 years ago (warranty is out). I let it dry under a fan for an hour, then left it another hour. It worked fine, but 1 speaker didn't work. I turned it off, but I tried to turn it back on to print something about an hour later and it wouldn't turn on. It said "no bootable device". It would run a dell diagnostic though. Does that mean my hard drive went out?

I spilled water once before(under warrenty though), and only 1 key stopped working.

 

Yeah, it sound like the soda might have gotten to the Harddrive or maybe a part of the mobo.

Try the Ubuntu LIve CD. Boot from it, and see if you can see your files on the HDD.


...Nothing you can do about the Speaker except for replacing them.

 

try putting the hdd into an enclosure and try to access it from another computer

 

soda is much worse than water. with water there is no residue, so only thing to do is wait for evaporation. one hour is hardly sufficient. i left a spilt-pc (wine) for a week once (with all possible things like ram/battery/ etc removed, and pc propped up to encourage drying/air flow) and miraculously it recovered itself- through thoroughly drying out. but if there is too much residue (sugar, etc) left that will not go away - ever. good luck!

 

Try reseating the hard drive, unplugging it and plugging it back in, see if that helps..

 

Will do, thanks for the advice. I was hoping there was a way to try to boot it w/o windows. I don't really care about the speakers. So, if I can see my HDD, then its probably not my HDD?

that was my first thought, and will be my second plan after trying the ubuntu live CD

Ya, i realized that after I already turned it on. I had some stuff to print for school...I didnt really have ample time to wait

Will try this as well, thanks! My major problem right now is that I don't have tools with me...but it would be worth buying some

 

Well, worse comes to worse dip it in 99.9% alcohol and let that dry out.

 

I dunno about dipping lol, but yes, surgical/methylated spirits are your best bet for getting rid of the nasty sticky bits (especially when it comes to cleaning under the keyboard contacts).

For future reference, you don't want soda to evaporate, because it's easier to wipe off wet. Disassemble, clean with dry paper towel, then with cutips and/or paper towel lightly dampened with surgical spirits/metho. (NOT THE SAME AS WHITE SPIRITS ETC ETC, YOU WANT ~100% ETHANOL/METHANOL)

work gtg

 

That turned out to be the fix, I'm posting (backing everything up) from it now. THanks!

 

Good.

Glad to hear its all working again.

 

I was smiling when I was reading this type of topics until 1 hour ago when I spilled a full glass of beer over the laptop.

It's not the first time this hapens to me. During years I could "tested" what happens when different types of liquids are spiled over keyboard.

So I'll post a top "10":
- alcohol over 52 cl (I'm form Eastern Europe where we used for internal "desinfection" - it is obtained form natural fruits at home ) - you're out of luck; no matter what you'll do, electric circuits are affected;
- alcohol under 52 cl to 40 cl (whisky, vodka, and other like that) - depends; might or might not affect electronic circuits; depends by composition and the region where was spiled.
- alcohol under 40 cl , soda / cokes and other like that, tea - most of them contain sugar that is bad thing: even dryed in time will gathere dust and so on;
- water & mineral water - it should be no problem; depends of composition.

In this top I didn't mentioned the worst thing that might be happen: sea watter/ salt watter (I thing nobody will swim in sea/ocean using it's laptop ) ).


Ok, now:
"I've spilled some liquid on my laptop what should I do ?"

1) Don't panic, just act quickly.
2) Most of peoples will try try to shut it down. Wrong.
Most of the laptop keyboards will not let the fluid spilled to go under the keyboard.; so, let the lid opened and turn it at 90 degres on table (like an open book).
3) Look quick and determine where your CD / DVD device is positioned (most of with you allready know) and position at 90 degrees on the other corner (CD/DVD unit should be up no matter where you spilled the liquid).
4) in that position: unplug all devices that are connected and power supply.
5) press power button and whait for shut down;
6) after shutdown unplug battery;
7) use everything on hand to dry the keyboard (a hair drier set to medium power will do the job just fine )
8) let it dry... and have patience;
9) during this time check keyboard from time to time... it sound different when it's wet.
10) when you decide it's OK, just put the battery, plug to power source, and start up;
11) After start, use an app like SuperPi or any other application that wiil heat app at maximum.


Sorry for my english ... and for my draws - but I hope you catch the ideea .


PS. It tooked me more to write this than to actually did it.
Cheers form Ro.

 

Water will have residue unless it's pure RO/DI filtered water, which you shouldn't be drinking(RO/DI filtered water has zero minerals in it - it's not healthy to drink).

snowbrdkid, if you determine the HDD is good, try removing it and the DVD drive, then submerge the BASE ONLY in 90-100% isopropyl alcohol. It should hopefully clean and remove the deposits left by the soda.

 

i would take as much of the notebook apart,,keyboard, hard drive,,anything in the area were the soda was spilled...and let it sit a long time...distilled water leaves no residue...not sure if you are out of the woods yet...

 

Residue is only an issue after the fact - if the initial short blew anything crucial it wont matter what residue is left on the board.