Spilled rubbing alcohol on the keyboard. No warranty. Very desperate for help.

We had two lab reports due today for my anatomy and physiology class. I was working on it in my room and I left to get something to eat. 15 minutes later I see a bottle of isopropyl alcohol on my keyboard and a broken key. For some there was an open bottle of rubbing alcohol on my book shelf and somehow it fell on my laptop with enough force to bust a key off and spill the contents onto the keyboard.

I FREAKED out because
1) My $1200 laptop is soaking in alcohol
2) My 2 lab reports worth a good portion of my grade are on the notebook and I don't have a back up. Easily 10+ hours of HARD work.
3) I decided against the spill warranty at the last minute.

The bad:
1) I was not thinking properly and I turned the laptop upside down for 1 hour before leaving for class, thinking that the solution was 100% isopropyl alcohol. Alcohol has very fast drying properties due higher vapor pressure so I assumed it would dry BEFORE I went to class and I would be able to start it up in class and print it on my professors printer.
2) I started it up during class and it made a LOUD ticking noise. It took me to the user account page where I could type my password in. I pressed only one key and it kept going like thissssssssssssssssssssss.
3) I started it up multiple times and I got something new each time. I alerted me that my disk was fragmented and it tried to check all the drivers for consistency or something.

The good:
1) This particular container of alcohol is only 70% isopropyl alcohol and 30% water.
2) My professor who has a degree in chemistry told me that her entire computer lab was flooded with water and they dried the computer and left it alone for a few weeks then they all started up fine. She said to open up the laptop and direct a fan on it for a couple of days.
3) The lights turned on everytime and the computer booted fine everytime. The major problem is that my keyboard is not responding. I believe and HOPE that I didn't short anything out.
4) I believe that the container of alcohol only had about 1/5 of the amount in the container. At most (i think) a cup or two of alcohol spilled onto the middle port of the keyboard (i think the G button was busted off so that gives you a good indicator of where the majority of the alcohol is).

Advice PLEASE? I currently have my laptop OPEN with a fan pointed at the direction of the spill. I haven't turned it on since my professor told me to not turn it on. Spill occurred at 1200, I spent 1300-1400 trying to turn it on and at 1500 my professor told me to stop turning it on and leave it alone. It's 2300 right now. I am thinking of opening the laptop and drying every part individually.

 

You should open up the laptop and dry everything... but the safest bet you could do to save your data is to first remove the hard drive, and either find an external enclosure or install in another computer as a slave drive to make sure hard drive still works and not damaged. Then backup some data.

Good luck. If there is no signs of damage or alcohol burns/stains, then maybe you could send it in for warranty if its still within the timeframe.

 

Here is a great article concerning spills: http://www.grynx.com/projects/wine-in-laptop/

 

thanks for the responses guys. reading the article right now.

 

Also the loud noise I'm hearing from the laptop is a VERY LOUD popping sound. Almost like someone tapping on the bottom of an empty soda can with a metal rod. I assume that my speakers are toast.

 

Does anyone know where to get the manual for the 7805u? I want to know the layout of this laptop so I can know what I can take apart in order to dry it.

 

i spilled protein shake on my inspiron 1505... i left it dry for like 3 hrs and turned it on and had keyboard/graphic card problem. i think that was too short time for it to completly dry. the motherboard is rusted(?) and needs to be replaced (though the lappy is working with no problems now), and when the motherboard gets rusted, it will have major problems in the future since its easily damaged by shock or something..i tried to sell it on computer shops but they told me nothing inside is worth it cept the HDD

 

First thing you should do is kill the power by popping out the battery/unplug the AC regardless of what you are doing. Software corruption is easier and cheaper to fix than hardware.

Hold the power button for 30 seconds to kill discharge electrical residue.

Then flip it upside down. If its just water or alcohol, put it against the fan and let it dry depending on how much was spilt.

In your case it just sounds like it borked the keyboard and speakers.

 

I took it apart and left the fan on all night. Started it up today and it's still the same. Computer started, made the popping nose for about 20 seconds, went to disk consistency check, it was automatically canceled for some reason, went to password page. I plugged in a keyboard and it didn't work, it didn't even power on. What does this mean?

There was nothing wrong with the display and I heard the gpu fan kicking in. The only problem right now is that the speakers are making the popping sound, keys don't work and usb ports don't work.

Should I order another keyboard or take a chance with the 1 yr limited warranty?

 

Was the OS loaded?

 

Yes the OS was loaded. Vista booted up fine but I could not get past the password screen because I can't type anything. What do you think this means?

 

Have you tried booting with an external keyboard attached?

 

That's what I just did. The keyboard didn't even power on. I pressed all keys on the laptop keyboard and the external. No response.

 

Try all USB ports?

 

Yep. I tried all 3 usb ports and none of them work.

 

Are you sure theres no keyboard driver problems? Tried different keyboards? Try a USB mouse on the ports to see if the USB port works.

 

Yea. As weird as it sounds if you can get a USB mouse to power on then you can use the accessibility keyboard to logon. I know that I did that before.

 

Sorry to say, but you probably sealed its fate when you turned it on before it dried.

You should try putting your HDD into someone else's laptop as an attempt to recover your data.