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Spilt Drink on My Laptop.

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yorksrob

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As the title says. I've spilt a liquid on my laptop and now it's upside down drying.

Anyone came away from this without having to but a new one?
 
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me123

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Yes, but I needed to replace some components at the price of about a hundred pounds. I spilled a drink on mine and a few minutes later it died. I took it to a local repair shop, and they fixed it up for a few hundred pounds. Thankfully, the CPU wasn't affected and I didn't lose any data.

I suspect it demands upon exactly what has been damaged, so you probably won't know if it's working until you dry it out and give it a go. Hope you've backed things up, just in case!
 

yorksrob

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Not really a lot to back up as I mainly use it for tinterweb. Damned annoying though. Feel I shall be getting a new one. Isn't modern technology wonderful.
 

ainsworth74

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Was it turned on when you spilt a the liquid on it? If it was did you turn it off or did it turn off of its own accord?

Best advice would be to leave it for a good few hours to give it an opportunity to dry out. Electronics do not like water but as long as nothing shorts out (i.e. damage occurs which it turning itself off would suggest) once dry they'll often work normally again.
 

yorksrob

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Was it turned on when you spilt a the liquid on it? If it was did you turn it off or did it turn off of its own accord?

Best advice would be to leave it for a good few hours to give it an opportunity to dry out. Electronics do not like water but as long as nothing shorts out (i.e. damage occurs which it turning itself off would suggest) once dry they'll often work normally again.

I 'll give it a try after a few hours. Don't think it shorted itself out.
 

507021

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I've had something similar happen to me before when somebody spilt some bolognese sauce on my computer when trying to put their dinner down on the table next to where my laptop was placed. Very fortunately after letting it dry out overnight the only fault was that the main up key had stopped working. My advice would be to let it dry out overnight and leave your laptop upside down with the lid open

Hope it works out for you anyway Rob. I've recently had to replace my old laptop after it decided to stop working after having it for over three years. Considering I bought it used I think I got my money's worth!
 

ainsworth74

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Very fortunately after letting it dry out overnight the only fault was that the main up key had stopped working.

Very lucky! That was probably gunk under the key stopping the press from registering taking the key off and cleaning would probably have fixed that.
 

yorksrob

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I've had something similar happen to me before when somebody spilt some bolognese sauce on my computer when trying to put their dinner down on the table next to where my laptop was placed. Very fortunately after letting it dry out overnight the only fault was that the main up key had stopped working. My advice would be to let it dry out overnight and leave your laptop upside down with the lid open

Hope it works out for you anyway Rob. I've recently had to replace my old laptop after it decided to stop working after having it for over three years. Considering I bought it used I think I got my money's worth!

Thanks indeed. I've had this for a couple of years, so I suppose I haven't done too badly. Still annoying though!
 

Flying Snail

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Rob, remove the battery if you haven't already done so.


Yes, but I needed to replace some components at the price of about a hundred pounds. I spilled a drink on mine and a few minutes later it died. I took it to a local repair shop, and they fixed it up for a few hundred pounds. Thankfully, the CPU wasn't affected and I didn't lose any data.

I suspect it demands upon exactly what has been damaged, so you probably won't know if it's working until you dry it out and give it a go. Hope you've backed things up, just in case!

If you had turned it off immediately rather than letting the liquid short a connection it likely wouldn't have needed any repair.
 

yorksrob

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Rob, remove the battery if you haven't already done so.




If you had turned it off immediately rather than letting the liquid short a connection it likely wouldn't have needed any repair.

Cheers, battery removed and turned off quickly -ish. Only time will tell!
 

me123

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If you had turned it off immediately rather than letting the liquid short a connection it likely wouldn't have needed any repair.

Yeah, but I was much younger and much less sensible at that time! I had foolishly assumed the fact that it was working was a good thing.
 

507021

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Very lucky! That was probably gunk under the key stopping the press from registering taking the key off and cleaning would probably have fixed that.

I suspect it was but I did count myself very lucky it was only one key that had stopped working when it could have been a whole lot worse. It was only two months old at the time but I think that a fault caused spilt bolognese sauce wouldn't have been covered by the warranty! My mum was less fortunate a few years later when her laptop was left turned off with the lid open on the lounge floor overnight. Unfortunately during the night (I could hardly say I was surprised though) one of her cats urinated on it - whilst the laptop itself was beyond repair one of her friends who worked with computers managed to retrieve her data from the hard drive

Thanks indeed. I've had this for a couple of years, so I suppose I haven't done too badly. Still annoying though!

No problem. My old Samsung laptop was five years old when the hard drive failed and to make matters worse when I tried to transfer the data from my external hard drive onto my new laptop I discovered that had also failed since I last backed up my data about a fortnight previously. Fortunately however for a reasonable fee a local computer repair shop was able to retrieve around 55-60% of the data from my old machine and transfer it onto my new one. The more important data was saved so I wasn't too bothered about losing the rest of it

I'll make sure next time I buy an external hard drive that it's a good brand and not the cheapest one!
 
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AM9

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Cheers, battery removed and turned off quickly -ish. Only time will tell!
Happened to me 7 years ago. Ended up with a few sticky keys. Put in a claim on insurance for repair, they replaced it. Trouble was, original Notebook (a Sony Vaio) had XP OS. The replacement had Vista!
 

yorksrob

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Happened to me 7 years ago. Ended up with a few sticky keys. Put in a claim on insurance for repair, they replaced it. Trouble was, original Notebook (a Sony Vaio) had XP OS. The replacement had Vista!

Yes, that might be an idea. I'll take what comes as a replacement, as long as it works!
 

Busaholic

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Spilt fresh orange juice all over my laptop (an old Acer) about fifteen months ago and it's the selfsame I'm typing these words on. It was on at the time, soon went off, but an overnight turn-off and wipe over any sticky bits solved the problem. Vista may be cr*p but you can't get rid of it that easily! Or maybe it just likes a drink.
 

yorksrob

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Spilt fresh orange juice all over my laptop (an old Acer) about fifteen months ago and it's the selfsame I'm typing these words on. It was on at the time, soon went off, but an overnight turn-off and wipe over any sticky bits solved the problem. Vista may be cr*p but you can't get rid of it that easily! Or maybe it just likes a drink.

Yes, sadly this is Windows 7 which was crap to begin with.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Not sure I'll bother getting another one. Waste of damned money.
 

Busaholic

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Yes, sadly this is Windows 7 which was crap to begin with.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Not sure I'll bother getting another one. Waste of damned money.

My attitude to faulty machinery is somewhat akin to Basil Fawlty's - try reasoning with it, if that doesn't work, give it a kick and then give up.
 

HilversumNS

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If you're lucky, just the keyboard will have some sticky keys.

If that's the case, test it fully by using an external keyboard to ensure everything else is fine, then start looking on Ebay for a replacement keyboard.

You should also try to find the manufacturers Service Manual, and then replace the internal keyboard using the instructions to remove each required component correctly.

Done this a few times on various laptops. Cost is between £10 and £25 and takes 10-30 minutes.
 

ainsworth74

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If you're lucky, just the keyboard will have some sticky keys.

If that's the case, test it fully by using an external keyboard to ensure everything else is fine, then start looking on Ebay for a replacement keyboard.

You should also try to find the manufacturers Service Manual, and then replace the internal keyboard using the instructions to remove each required component correctly.

Done this a few times on various laptops. Cost is between £10 and £25 and takes 10-30 minutes.

I would suggest trying to remove and clean individual keys before buying a new keyboard...
 

Searle

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yorksrob:2215935 said:
Spilt fresh orange juice all over my laptop (an old Acer) about fifteen months ago and it's the selfsame I'm typing these words on. It was on at the time, soon went off, but an overnight turn-off and wipe over any sticky bits solved the problem. Vista may be cr*p but you can't get rid of it that easily! Or maybe it just likes a drink.

Yes, sadly this is Windows 7 which was crap to begin with.
--- old post above --- --- new post below ---
Not sure I'll bother getting another one. Waste of damned money.

If you think Windows 7 is bad, please never try Windows 8, it will turn you insane :lol:
 

507021

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I've recently had to upgrade to Windows 8.1 from Windows 7. I'm still not 100% taken with it to be honest - for example I think the lack of a proper start menu is bizarre. I think I'll try the new Windows 10 operating system on a different computer first before I decide on whether to keep Windows 8.1 or go upgrade my operating system to Windows 10

Has anybody tried Windows 10 yet?
 

Busaholic

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I've had a computer repair shop opposite mine for years now - very handy for a non-nerd like me (I do him favours too, and buy any computer-related stuff from him). He swears by Windows 7, so that would be good enough for me. He buys computer keyboards on ebay all the time, had 2 in yesterday, £10 for the two, may even have included postage: new, by the way. So don't go spending a fortune, but DO make sure you have the exact reference number needed, cos like phone chargers only the precise one will do. If you get an American spec, the @ key will be where the ! key is on a UK spec, otherwise exactly the same.
 
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