[kellyg]

The notebook is a Dell XPS M170. He tells me he spilled "a little bit" of orange juice into the keyboard earlier this evening. He said he turned it off, wiped it off, and then tried to turn it back on and "it didn't work right". I'm not surprised. Anyway - I've not tried to turn it on. I've contacted Dell, but I didn't buy the accidental damage insurance (live and learn on that one with an 18 year old) so I'm to contact the Out of Warranty Repair Dept. tomorrow.
My question is: has anyone had experience with this sort of event and should I try to turn the computer back on or should I let it dry out and then try. Or should I just wait until tomorrow to see how many dollars I'm out? Any advice would be apreeciated (related to the computer not my son - I've a plan for him)

thanks,

Kelly

[Advertisements]

Hehe if some juice managed to get through the keyboard into the computer, you can say goodbye to it. If you get nothing out of the guarranty, you have more chance keeping it alive, not starting it and going to the store for repair.

Lol, that must suck, but if your son is 18 he shouldn't call you for help, funny stuff. Doe suck though.

[Target]

Hehe if some juice managed to get through the keyboard into the computer, you can say goodbye to it. If you get nothing out of the guarranty, you have more chance keeping it alive, not starting it and going to the store for repair.

Lol, that must suck, but if your son is 18 he shouldn't call you for help, funny stuff. Doe suck though.

[kellyg]

Well, I'm having trouble finding the humor in the situation. My son is in High School and lives at home, so it's pretty natural for him to come to me. To say that it sucks puts it pretty mildly, although in the long term scheme of things, it will be fine and is not that big a deal - the world won't stop turning.

kg

[Rockster2U]

I don't know that particular laptop but its not that big of a deal. You should be able to get a whole new keypad for $100 or less if it comes to that. What you don't want to do is turn it on until its been cleaned and thoroughly dried out. You can try misting it with water or windex, towel dry it - pat that puppy and then turn it upside down and let it sit for several hours. Take a hair dryer on a medium or low setting afterwards if you want to be extra cautious. Then try it. If keys stick, repeat the whole process or try an alcohol mist and repeat the whole process. There is probably a membraine under the keypad itself which is going to protect your internal components, but err on the side of caution. Individual keys can also be removed and you can clean it using a Q-Tip with a mild soapy solution. Just don't pull all the keys off at once unless you know how they all go back on.

Good Luck.

[kellyg]

Thanks for the help, I'll give it a try and see what happens.

kg

[thewitness42]

If you use water DO NOT USE TAP WATER IT HAS MINERALS IN IT ! Use distilled water or a good canned computer cleaner then use a hair dryer on lo heat or an oven not over 110 degrees and let it set for a couple of days if he didnt already burn the board up after every thing is cleaned it should work!

[dsenette]

if your son is 18 he shouldn't call you for help

i'll be 24 next month...my mom and dad are the first people i call when i need help....is there a problem with that?

[kellyg]

Thanks for the help - the problem is resolved. I found the service manual for this model on Dell's site; removed the keyboard and found very little OJ under the keyboard - only a little on the frame and none visible on any boards or comonents. I removed the keys until I ran into the dry areas and cleaned with windex and alcohol and a bunch of swabs. I dried it with 120 degree heat from my heat gun, put it all back together and it fired up with no problems. I've found no problems thus far so I'm concluding that disaster was avoided.

Again, thanks for the help.

kg