Spilt coffee on Laptop

Dacelonid

My sister in law managed to spill coffee all over her laptop last night and she wants me to see if it can be salvaged. Now I have no idea what state it is in, or how much coffee was spilt on it, or what they did immediately after spilling the coffee on it, so I really have no idea how bad the damage is.

My plan is to take the whole thing apart and put it into some rice, but I guess it will already have dried out by that stage so that is probably wasting my time.

So is there anything I can possibly try to see if it is salvageable. Some guides suggest using denatured alcohol (whatever that is, and where would I get it?), would that be any use.

Basically any and all suggestions would be really welcome.

Alanstrainor

Rice could still be a good idea as the moisture can remain for quite a while. Just don't try and turn it on. If the battery was removed immediately there might be some hope, but if someone has attempted to power it on while not fully dry it could be already too late.

But even if the laptop is gonzo, the hard drive might still work, you'd just have to take it out and pop it into a caddy and connect it to a working pc/laptop to retrieve your any files/

Dacelonid

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Rice could still be a good idea as the moisture can remain for quite a while. Just don't try and turn it on. If the battery was removed immediately there might be some hope, but if someone has attempted to power it on while not fully dry it could be already too late.

But even if the laptop is gonzo, the hard drive might still work, you'd just have to take it out and pop it into a caddy and connect it to a working pc/laptop to retrieve your any files/

To be honest, there would be feck all on it that she would need me to recover from it, she only uses it for browsing the web, she really needs me to get it working again, as the home insurance doesn't cover it and she can't afford to replace it

thenightrider

Clean it out with Isopropyl alcohol and let it dry as long as it was not turend on it should be ok

Dacelonid

Thanks for the advice. Managed to get some more info, she did turn it off straight away and took out the battery and hasn't turned it on since, so there is some hope yet.

Where would I get the isopropyl alcohol, hardware store, or Tesco's for example

thenightrider

Here you go http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=28994&C=SO&U=strat15

thenightrider

Also if you no any one that has an ulta sonic bath you no for cleaning rings dvds etc but yo would be lucky to find some one with a bath to fit in a motherboard as most people that buy the baths only buy small one's

Run_to_da_hills

The laptop I am using at the moment had a full pint of beer spilt over it, MB and keyboard were a right off, all other components survived including graphics card and HDD. I managed to pick up a replacement board and CPU upgrade on Ebay. Pending if there was sugar in the coffee or not could determine if the MB is salvageable.

Dacelonid

Well finally got my hands on the laptop and opened it up. First inspection looked good. No signs of any coffe under keyboard and in fact everything was covered in plastic, ie all components seemed to be protected against someting being spilled on the keyboard. The keyboard was sticky, so cleaned it and dried it out. Checked the memory, harddrive and cd drive in another laptop and all worked, so again was very hopeful.
So put it back together and tried to turn it on, but nothing. Absolutely dead, not a beep, or light or sound, absolutely no response at all.
Am stumped as to what to look at next, or even if there is any point going further. The lappy's owner has already decided she is buying another one and I have bought this off her for parts, but beyond gutting it and upgrading the wifes laptop, I have no idea what else to try.

Voodu Child

Probably something has blown or shorted.

Dacelonid

Thats what I thought too.

kikel

Send it into Repairtech on blessington street in Dublin. They do component level repairs.