Coke spilt on laptop - Please help!

If you have accidental damage coverage, Dell will fix or replace it. If you don't, I think you might be screwed because it sounds like it got to the motherboard. Call Dell anyway - at least you can get a quote for the part(s) you might need, which most probably will be the motherboard and keyboard.

On the plus side, your hard drive is probably still intact.

NekkidBibleMan wrote: »

Big mistake to turn it on straight away. You should leave it in the hot cupboard to dry out for a day or two before trying it.

Not a good idea with coke inside it. The coke will dry on the components and the acid in it will begin to erode the boards and connections.

Best thing I can think of would be try to remove the Hard Drive first, with the power fully off of course.

Take the battery out and with it unplugged from the mains press the power button. Then pour in some water to where the coke spilled to neutralise the effects and rinse the components. Then leave it for minimum of a week to dry out. Leave it open and on it's side so it can drain properly.

This does work believe it or not for a lot of items including €60,000 mixing consoles that get beer in them.

Edit: Not guaranteeing that this will work but as long as you leave it for a good length of time to dry out FULLY, then it won't make matters worse anyway.

fatal wrote: »

I didnt want to create a new thread but does anyone know whether or not I can buy dell accidental insurance a few weeks after I bought my laptop?

I'm sure you can. If you go to the Dell website they have people online who can answer your questions. I'm actually thinking of doing the same...re accidental damage

In fact, I found this, seems like good advice....

www.advicenators.com/qview.php?q=426339


First things first: DO NOT TRY AND DRY IT WITH A HAIR DRYER! This will only bake the toxic chemicals in diet soda on the parts inside.

PULL THE BATTERY OUT IMMEDIATELY! (Laptops are never really "off.")

Now that that has been said: There is good news and bad news... how about we start with the good news?

The good news is that if you shut the computer off right away, your data is most likely safe and sound on the laptop's hard drive.

The bad news is that the laptop may, or may not, ever be ok again.

The artificial sweetener in sodas is called Aspartame, and it is almost as bad for laptops as it is for people, in my opinion. Do a Google search for:

Google


... and you may never drink another diet soda in your life!

Now, as to the proper steps in salvaging your data, here is what you would be wise to do:

Find a computer repair shop that is comfortable working on laptops.

Have them remove the hard drive from the sticky-fied laptop.

Ask them to open the machine and ascertain the damage level.

If the keyboard managed to contain the spill, you can order a replacement keyboard for your laptop from the manufacturer.

If the soda spilled past the keyboard and into the main electronics, you are in trouble.

There are a few "plastic safe" electronics cleaners that you can ask them to apply to the motherboard and other parts in order to try and salvage the machine.

The reason I tell you to specifically mention a "Plastic Safe" electronics cleaner is that most cleaners that will take Aspartame off a circuit board, will also turn every piece of plastic on that board into a puddle of goo.

Now, let us say that everything went well and the machine is working fine... Make a backup of your hard drive IMMEDIATELY. Some problems that arise with a contaminated laptop don't appear until some time later.

Also remember: Laptops were meant to be assembled once, and never taken apart. This is why upgrading of the hard drive or RAM is usually done through a little door on the bottom of the laptop, or by lifting up the keyboard tray.

It takes great care to get a laptop back together once you have taken it apart.

Ask the technician that will be working on your machine: "Are you comfortable working on laptops?"

If they hem, and haw or avoid answering the question directly, leave and find yourself another place.

If they answer: "No, but I will if I have to, or if it is important to you."

... that is a good response. Laptops are hell to work on in general, and anyone who seems really excited about it has either never done it before, or is really stupid. ;-)

If there is a shop near you that specializes in laptops, that should be your first stop.

To give you an idea of the dollar amounts you are looking at here:

If I have to completely disassemble a laptop, I charge $100 to disassemble it, and $100 to re-assemble it.

That is separate from any repairs that it might need.

The reason I charge two fees instead of one is simply that if I open the laptop and it is beyond repair, there is no reason to re-assemble it. This saves you money.

Now, let us for a moment say that the laptop is completely and totally dead.

You had them pull the drive out, right? Good!

Here are your options:

Buy a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter for the laptop drive, connect it to the internal IDE ribbon cable in your machine (Only if you know what you are doing) and use it as a spare drive. You can suck whatever info you want off of it.

You could also buy a handy little external HD kit, which will allow you to put the drive in a nifty case which allows you to plug it into the USB port on your computer and access it that way. This would be my choice in the situation.

These aren't very expensive, and work well for your application.

Last option is to buy an identical computer, and swap drives.

I hope you do well in this situation, and I hope that you will use the feedback comment to let me know how you did.

Good luck,