Cup of tea + dell laptop

mcast123 · 23 Mar 2010 at 14:39

So my sister decided it was a good idea to drink tea while browsing ebay, one fumble later and the laptop no worky.

I told her to leave it to dry for a few days and power it on.

What's the chance of ressurection?

alex24 · 23 Mar 2010 at 14:44

Disassemble as much as possible, leave to dry in a warm, dry place for a few days to a week (sometimes more depending on where it's got to). Make sure you leave it upside down, or the opposite direction to the entry of the liquid. Take the battery out straight away. If the hard drive isn't wet at this stage, take this opportunity to plug it into a PC and back it up.

Once dry, see if you can find where it got to inside if you don't know already, and use some isopropyl alcohol to clean off any residues on PCBs and connectors etc. Once it's all dry, plug it in and try turning it on. Any signs of trouble, take it to an expert to see if it can be completely diagnosed and fixed should it be financially sensible.

Beerbaron · 23 Mar 2010 at 14:45

depends, what blend of tea was it?

BigBoy · 23 Mar 2010 at 15:08

Open it right up and clean all affected parts with IsoPropanol (sp?) (TIM cleaner works to) As any hint of sugar in the tea will FUBAR the mainboard.

Django x2 · 23 Mar 2010 at 15:18

You fumbled your sister! You da man!!!

Namsnik · 24 Mar 2010 at 23:25

Sugar??!! Are you sure? AFAIK its an insulator.... Seems unlikely to be a killer to me but I have absolutely no direct knowledge - just suprised.

BigBoy · 24 Mar 2010 at 23:47

Diluted in a liquid and then dried to a PCB will cause no end of problems. (I know from experience)

Little_Crow · 25 Mar 2010 at 09:43

Yep, the sugar tends to be the difference between fairly easy to clean up as described above and horrible sticky mess.

edscdk · 25 Mar 2010 at 09:47

if its dead you can sell the hard drive (Assueming its not also wet) / power adapter on ebay, and also sell the laptop as faulty / water dammage as someone may want the screen...

Buggaton · 25 Mar 2010 at 09:48

BigBoy said:
Open it right up and clean all affected parts with IsoPropanol (sp?) (TIM cleaner works to) As any hint of sugar in the tea will FUBAR the mainboard.

That's the correct spelling but IPA for short works too

. Methylated (sp? XD) spirits also work well.

VeNT · 25 Mar 2010 at 11:52

meths can leave a residue on the board tho.
worth stripping down as there MAY be a fluids tray that caught most of it.
or it could have a big ass short across the motherboard and it be DEAD.
check for burn marks.

dimo · 26 Mar 2010 at 13:11

Out of curiosity, what Dell laptop was it?