Hi, You could have saved it. It's not the beer by itself that caused the problem. Destruction is caused by the application of an electrolyte (beer in this case) and voltage, which causes electrolysis, as in electroplating. Metals in the conductors are removed and plated onto other conductors depending on voltage polarity. Metallic salts are formed and these combine with the sugary residue of the beer to leave a partially conductive sticky mess.
What you should have done was to immediately pull the power cord and battery before significant electrolysis occurred. Then disassemble the computer, remove the circuit boards and wash off all the beer with clean water. It's OK to wash the keyboard, and hard disk too. Now you want to make absolutely sure that everything is dry before you reassemble and apply power. You can rinse with alcohol, which will wash off the water and evaporate quickly. Sling the boards with your arm to use centrifugal force to force out water - it hides under surface mount chips. Use a hair dryer, or put your boards in the sun. The keyboard has several layers of plastic sheet printed with conductors and it takes a long time to dry. Do NOT in any case apply power until everything is thoroughly dry, just a drop of moisture across a couple of conductors at different polarity can cause failure. My bookkeeper recently had coffee spilled on his Dell laptop. Fortunately, I was his next stop and he shut it down quickly. His IBM hard drive and keyboard were wet, and after a wash and dry, everything worked. Paul At 9:11 AM -0500 11/21/02, Matthew B. Dwyer wrote: >Hi Listers, > >Well, while ripping my bartender's CDs to my Powerbook 550 I spilled some >beer on the keyboard. Tekserve has cleaned it up and says the logic board >must be replaced to the tune of over $600. Wow, expensive beer. Tekserve has >been very helpful, but I'm just wondering if anyone has experience with this >sort of thing (logic board replacement, not beer spillage) and has advice; >such as finding cheaper parts, etc. > >Thanks much, >Matthew >NYC > > >-- >G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... > > Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | > -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | > > Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> > >G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> > --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; >Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> > > > >--------------------------------------------------------------- >>The Think Different Store >http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com >--------------------------------------------------------------- -- G-Books is sponsored by <http://lowendmac.com/> and... Small Dog Electronics http://www.smalldog.com | Refurbished Drives | -- Check our web site for refurbished PowerBooks | & CDRWs on Sale! | Support Low End Mac <http://lowendmac.com/lists/support.html> G-Books list info: <http://lowendmac.com/lists/g-books.html> --> AOL users, remove "mailto:"; Send list messages to: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To unsubscribe, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> For digest mode, email: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subscription questions: <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/g-books%40mail.maclaunch.com/> --------------------------------------------------------------- >The Think Different Store http://www.ThinkDifferentStore.com ---------------------------------------------------------------
