Mike Norwood wrote:
My wife called me at work to say that she was ambushed by our cat causing her to spill coffee into her laptop. Has anyone had any luck (either good or bad) in trying to clean liquid from a laptop? Just looking for any hints anyone can offer. In searching online I have seen mention of something called Contact Cleaner which may be available at Radio Shack that some people say they have had luck with.My wife soaked her laptop in an inch and a half of Coca Cola for 45 mins during a class in grad school. Being a hardware-type guy, I stripped the thing entirely to the chassis, pulled every motherboard component off, pulled the screen out, cleaned every screw and crevice, etc. All of this was futile, because the first thing she had done when she lifted it from her waterproof backpack (note: holds coke in as well as water out), was turn it on to see if it was okay. Other than that, I don't think the screen would have made it, but I think everything else would have survived. As she was a student, her laptop was covered under a nice warranty, which for a $250 deductible, pretty much replaced the entire laptop.
Thanks in advance.
Mike Norwood
So I suppose my advice is, if she hasn't turned it on yet, let it dry. Once it's been a few days, if you feel comfortable disassembling it, give that a try. Clean what you can with alcohol or a light detergent (something like a drop or two of dish washing liquid in a big bowl of water). Depending on how much liquid was involved in the spill, you might not even have to worry too much -- but if, as is likely, the computer was on and running during the spill... if it wasn't turned off pretty-much immediately, you might be out of luck.
If you want to provide more info on the current state of the laptop, perhaps we can provide more advice.
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