Coffee w/cream-sugar spilled on keyboard!!!

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AJSG59

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Sep 11, 2010
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I've a Dell Latitude D830, duo core Pentium, XPPro 32bit - Wednesday morning, i spilled about a third of a cup of coffee (by mistake of course) on it! i IMMEDIATELY turned it down at more than a 45 degree angle while unplugging and shutting it down! The coffee poured out on the comforter! i laid it close to flat face-down for a minute while i prayed about what to do next - this is my work/business laptop - purchased for my business/college & personal uses - however, expected to produce documents or Web info for my boss when traveling! Anyway, i KNEW SOMETHING was damaged, just kept praying it didn't get to the motherboard!

i completely removed the keyboard and thought, 'what the hell' and literally ran water on [thru] the keys (i held it down @ an angle)-being careful not to get water on the connector- knowing i was going to have to replace it anyway- i let it drip until the water stopped dripping, then blow-dried it - i cleaned all of the coffee i could SEE on the inside under the keyboard, in the battery compartment, memory chips - removed the HDD/CD-DVD drive - none on the HDD, but a little on the CD/DVD drive, i cleaned it and any i saw inside - time passed, i replaced the keyboard - waited awhile and turned the laptop on - NOTHING! i was headed to the last BIG meeting in Orlando (work-business-needed the laptop!), had to finish packing, let the laptop sit -

Before packing it [had planned to disassemble it when i got to the hotel, took my tools & old P4 Toshiba laptop needing hinge repair], i turned it on again, it booted, but i was unable to use the touch pad or mouse keys - but the little blue pointer in the middle worked - i shut it down and didn't reboot until after midnite in Orlando - it booted fine - but some of the keys were sticky, the touch pad began to work after i continued to run my finger over it and it is still working - over a 24-hr period, the right [bottom] mouse button doesn't work, but the buttons above the touch-pad work (thank Goodness) - i've lost use of the period-more than, colon-semicolon and down-arrow keys, the /? key sticks most of the time, shouldve run a little more water on that corner - i'm ordering a new keyboard this week

i want to disassemble the laptop to see ALL of the insides to see what is covered with syrup and what can be salvaged - if the motherboard is fine, i want to clean and dry all of the plastic parts before i reassemble it, but i'll have to Google a 'disassemble D830 guide' w/instructions & pics - as fast as i turned the laptop down, i doubt if much of it got on the motherboard - that was my main concern! This happened Wednesday, today is Sunday, do you think i escaped the worst of it? Especially if i can get inside to clean everything before it's too late!
 

Twoboxer

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Jan 21, 2008
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Lesson learned: sugar is bad for you :)

Yeah, seems you escaped the worst. Anything shorted out by liquid would be dead by now. Seems like all you have is sticky or contact-blocked keys.
 

AJSG59

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LOL! gotta have it w/Lotsa cream! just gotta keep the cup away from my laptop! YEAH!!! That's what i was thinking & hoping! i've been searching out parts online - mainly on eBay-carefully selecting, reviewing, you know the drill - but i want to disassemble it after i build another desktop for the office [began today] - thanks for the encouragement! i'll keep you posted on the outcome!
 
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