Another typical coffee spill

So I was working on my assignment at starbuck. One look at the time, '5 more minute'. Then I knocked my coffee and it spilled on my keyboard. I can't remember how much it is, but definitely not much.

So I shutdown the lappy then removed the battery and put my lappy upside down for a few minutes. Of course before that I've used tissues to wipe off all those spills that I can see.

My laptop is Asus U41SV
The keyboard is one piece. I'm not sure whether if the spills did get in as there's another metal plate above the cpu, hdd which I'm sure you guys know about. I can see a few stain here and there on the metal plate but not much. And the keyboard don't feel sticky much right now, it's been almost 9 hour since the accident. I haven't turn on the laptop once yet..

I'm going to open it up in a few moments (Don't have a screw driver right now), any advise from you guys?

I'm looking on the bright side... I somehow think it's a serious stuff, but... I might just be the lucky one. And my keyboard feels just like before, doesn't get sticky or so. I removed the keyboard already tho. But what do I know? Not enough to prevent the spill D:

Help please guys, I got to work on my assignment which are due on this weds ;/ I'm itching to turn it on and try, but afraid to do so D:

 

I would, if you are confident in doing so, take it apart and clean it with a damp paper towel. Then, if you want, get a blowdryer and blowdry the motherboard and what not for a good 10-15 minutes. Then let it sit out near some fan or AC unit for about 24 hours with the battery out. I think you'll be good to turn it on after that. It's either be patient and get a working laptop or perhaps turn it on now and get a broken one

 

In addition to that, I would recommend that the "damp paper towel" should have rubbing alcohol instead of water (water will have dissolved solids that may affect electronics). Once you clean the coffee out, instead of sitting it at the AC you should buy a large bag of rice and leave the electronics in there. Rice will soak up pretty much all of the moisture that's there; leave it in the bag for a few days to let your laptop dry out. Once it dries out, pop the battery in and see if it'll boot.

 

Well if it didn't shut itself off and you shut it down normally, that is a good sign. I wouldn't worry about anything but the keyboard. Try washing the coffee off as best as you can (regular tap water is fine) then making sure it is 100% dry. In the meantime, you can use your computer right away with an external keyboard and mouse.

 

As can alcohol if it contacts the wrong components; alcohol is a powerful solvent. Using it without damaging critical components requires precision and skill.

Without knowing the quality of his tap water? I think not.

 

:laugh: You are silly. Alcohol and tap water are no threat when used to clean a computer. Alcohol is 100% safe to use on electrical components. And unless your tap water is corrosive, the worst you have to deal with is water spots.

 

I vote water. Alcohol is good but the junk we get contains oils unless you got the 95% handy.

The big question is do you take sugar? i have flushed keyboards in the past but drying before power is my priority. Pure water is a bad conductor but fat chance we find that, no?

My lighted Asus keyboard was $30 but i have seen the vanilla ones for $20 if all is lost. You should have four clips, to lift keyboard, if you want to check for additional spills.

 

Are you sure, i'm pretty sure most of the impurities in alcohol are methanol and water. Then again, i'm more used to lab stuff.

 

..lighter fluid works.

Be extremely careful with water inside the laptop, though. On the keyboard as well. Not sure how your model works, but if the circuits that pick up the keypresses get water on them -- it sometimes takes a while, or it seeps in on the sides, etc. -- it fries and you lose keys. Can't fix that again.

Anyway, if you didn't actually get anything inside the laptop, it's no big deal for anything except the keyboard circuits I mean, it needs to float in latte while the power's on before anything happens...

 

No there are no oils, at least in none I've ever seen or used. It is purely a mixture of methanol and water as you noted. Distilled water at that. Higher alcohol content is clearly better, and 99% is best option, but lower % will do. You can typically find 90%+ in any store which would be more than sufficient.

 

Well, it depends on the type of alcohol, but assuming IPA, then you'd have water, methanol and ethanol as impurities (likely some isomer as well). I checked and there is no indication of what the impurities are on the 99% IPA i have at home. What i have in the lab has the impurities listed of course, but it's basically when i just said, all the rest is at the ppm level and not worth mentioning. Nothing beats HPLC grade in terms of purity, but it's expensive and you won't find that in a drugstore. Note that the LCD is a big no no with alcohol. I have yet to see a PCB and components on it that are soluble in alcohol though.

 

I glad that someone else finally mentioned that since my suggestions seems to fall on deaf ears. Alcohol is damaging to virtually every part of the exterior of virtually all consumer laptops.

In any event, those terms you used are unfamiliar to me. In the US, we only use isopropyl (rubbing) alcohol at 55-90% which is available in most supermarkets and drug stores.

 

Isopropyl alcohol is an alcohol with 3 carbon atoms, ethanol has only two carbons and methanol only one, of course there are alcohols with more carbon atoms, but the three i names are the ones you see the most often. Methanol is sometimes known as wood alcohol and ethanol is the one that we can safely drink, the others are poisonous in large doses. When you produce an alcohol at a chemical plant, you usually end up with primarily the one you want, but also with other alcohols as impurities and alcohol has a strong attraction to water which make it hard to remove as an impurity. Isomers are a molecule with the same atoms and functional groups, but arranged in a different order, see: Isomer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Definitely the LCD, the casing itself is usually ABS and Polycarbonate so it should be safe from alcohol, can't say for rubberized surfaces but they should be as well. Some other surfaces might not be, like the lcd coating for example.

I'd be more wary of using solvents like acetone.