Fark, Bother, Damn, Shite!

**Sniper** · 30th September 2005, 13:36

Heres my little rant for the day, and Im also looking for some advice.

On Wednesday after a particularly long and painful day I got home hoping for Ms Sniper to have a beer and dinner ready for me. Also, now that she is studying massage (get away you vultures) I was hoping for some practise on me to relax my muscles and maybe.......

Anywhoo, the first words I hear through the door are "Don't stand on the f&*%en laptop. Ok I think, reasonable request, but why is the laptop on the floor and not on the desk where it should reside? "What happened dear?" I ask out of pure curiousity. "Well I had a little accident" says she. Ok, so a little accident can't be so bad, what happened? "Well I had the laptop on the coffee table, and I don't know how (WTF???) but I managed to spill a whole glass of Lift onto it". Oh fuck thinks me, this is bad.

Anyway, that bastard is rooted, I managed to get the hard drive out and verify that it wasn't damaged, but there is no way myself or Ms Sniper can get the laptop to turn on yet. Is there any special trick or is this a job for Mr, Insurance?

**DemonWolf** · 30th September 2005, 13:39

Was it going when this occured? If so.. ya prolly fried something on the motherboard.

If not.. and its out of warranty.. then take it apart.. clean the sticky shit off.. and let it dry before you try to turn it on.. But its more likely rooted.

**ManDownUnder** · 30th September 2005, 13:47

Get a can of CRC contacts cleaner... make sure the lappy is off (and the HDD is out of it) and lift the keyboard out if you reasonably can (sometimes they just pop out, by undoing a couple of clips)

Spray the Contact Cleaner everywhere that looks sticky... have another go, and another if you want to.

Sit in the sun for a bit till it's dry - it'll dry pretty quickly.

Reassemble and fire it up.

Good luck!

**duckman** · 30th September 2005, 13:52

Stand back people - professional IT specialist coming through ....

Now, Do you have a tumble dryer ??.....

**ManDownUnder** · 30th September 2005, 13:59

Originally Posted by duckman

Stand back people - professional IT specialist coming through ....

Now, Do you have a tumble dryer ??.....

God help us if that's how you look after the AS400s...

Hmm - need some data scrubbing??? Let me see... hose and brush? ... nope
Water blaster... nope
aaaa - the SAND blaster... let me at it!

and lo - the data was scrubbed...

**Sniper** · 30th September 2005, 14:06

I think I can fix it, I think, please note the I think part

**phantom** · 30th September 2005, 14:11

this is something I do for a living. No not root laptops, fix the tricky little buggars. The fact that it will not turn on at all is a bad sign ( no kidding ). If it was just sticking keyboard then flushing it with contact cleaner would be worth a crack but it sounds as if it has got down into the guts of the thing and without knowing what screws to undo, what bits of plastic can be bent how far before they break etc you are unlikely to be able to get to where the problem is and even if you did I doubt you would achieve anything. Its a job for Mr Insurance Man I think but keep hold of your hard drive as your data will still be recoverable

**vifferman** · 30th September 2005, 14:26

I worked in a dairy laboratory for 9 years, and we used to get the technicians pouring milk and other stuff in the computers (esp, the keyboards) all the time. Milk is highly conductive, and dries to a crappy mess. We used to just unplug them, wash 'em with soapy water, and leave 'em to dry on the H/W cylinder.

The tricky bit is that if the laptop was going at the time, the orthophosphoric acid and other shit in the fizzy drink will have let the ergs go where they shouldn't orta, including places where the smoke lives. If they've let any of that out, you're stufffed.

**Aaron** · 30th September 2005, 14:29

Oh mate, that sucks. Least on a PC it's $15 for a new keyboard and you're away..

You might be alright if it was Lift, Coke I have been told is fatal to mobos, (guess at the end of the day they're both soda drinks loaded with sugar and caffine).

I'd do some of the more sensible suggestions here, (tumble dryer exluded

) and clean/dry all affected components before turning on and praying to whatever deity you fancy for a favourable outcome.

Probably a give-in if she had it on the table it was on and in use, so... fingers crossed

Did you see any lights when you tried to turn on or was it non responsive?

**Sniper** · 30th September 2005, 14:32

Nothing whatso ever

**Ixion** · 30th September 2005, 15:00

Originally Posted by ManDownUnder

God help us if that's how you look after the AS400s...

..

Not many people have as AS400 on the kitchen table. Though I did have an RS6000 in the lounge until recently

**WRT** · 30th September 2005, 15:00

Originally Posted by Sniper

Nothing whatso ever

As they said, best bet is to clean it thoroughly and then dry it out. Hot water cupboard is best, leave it in there for at least a day tho. Otherwise its an insurance job.

**duckman** · 30th September 2005, 15:03

Originally Posted by Ixion

Not many people have as AS400 on the kitchen table. Though I did have an RS6000 in the lounge until recently

RS6000 make for great coffee table conversation pieces....

And, S38's make great couch's if you can get enough material to cover them.

**Sniper** · 30th September 2005, 15:04

My KB time at home has been shattered..... Anywhoo.

So the laptop is still under warrenty which is fat use to me, but Im nott too keep on playing with anything more than the hard drive. Is it of to spray ECC (Elictrical contact cleaner) strait onto the keyboard and dee what happens?

**duckman** · 30th September 2005, 15:06

Originally Posted by Sniper

My KB time at home has been shattered..... Anywhoo.

So the laptop is still under warrenty which is fat use to me, but Im nott too keep on playing with anything more than the hard drive. Is it of to spray ECC (Elictrical contact cleaner) strait onto the keyboard and dee what happens?

Quick before you lose all ability to type anything that vaguely makes sense....