Any computer geeks? I spilled soup on my lap top and it won't turn on

[debbierlus]

I am such an idiot.

What do I do? Is it toast? Can it be repaired?

It won't power on. It did power on once but then shut off. And, now it won't do anything.

Oh god.

Any advice? (Please no sarcasm, I really can't afford a broke laptop right now)!

[Mojambo]

1. How long ago did you spill on it?

Give it some time to fully dry out and then try again.

You might try removing the battery and then putting it back in as well.

[debbierlus]

2. I went to a website and apparently I screwed up in addition to spilling soup

You are supposed to remove the battery immediately and unplug from power source and shut off.

I didn't know that so I restarted it. It worked fine the first couple of times (except the mouse wouldn't work), but now it won't turn on at all).

I have it sitting upside down with the battery out and I am going to let it dry overnight. From what I am reading on forums they can be cleaned or repaired, in some/most cases.

Damn it!

[Mojambo]

4. Best of luck. n/t

[seabeyond]

10. i spilled a whole glass of red wine on my once. didnt know that either.

i am gonna remember pulling out battery ect...

bummer

isnt there just moments you would love to take back sometimes.

time for a new laptop....

[quakerboy]

3. Do you know any local computer people?

I assume you did your best to remove all the liquid and whatnot? And once it stopped working, that you removed the battery and power cord? If not, those would be the first two steps.

If you have a local computer person, have them come take it apart and clean it as best as can be done. If not, either get brave and do it(which requires really careful and delicate fingers with most laptops, but really isn't as scary as it sounds even for a layman. Just be very careful to diagram what went where, including screws. I recommend paper and pen to diagram, tape to properly place screws on the diagram so they are not lost or mixed up.)

Or wait for it to completely dry(may take a while, if it fully penetrated the interior), and hope for the best.

I did that once with ginger ale. Granted, I then knelt on the screen, which put paid to that, but in concept similar. I cant count how many of other peoples laptops I had to open and dry/clean while in college.

[debbierlus]

5. I removed the battery and unplugged it. I am letting it dry overnight opened and upside down

I opened all the back units to let air in.

Send positive and dry thoughts for my computer to heal!

Thanks all!

[Swede]

6. Sideways might be better,the moister will come off the boards better.

At least it wasn't something sweet,then you'd have a real sticky mess.

[debbierlus]

7. Thanks, I just turned it...

I also made sure to rotate it to all sort of different angles so that any pools would be dispersed.

I have taken it apart as much as possible to let dry.

It will sit overnight. There isn't much I can do - and I will need to wait until morning to retry starting it. If it doesn't start I will take it in to be cleaned.

Just trying to remind myself that far worse things happen, and this can be dealt with!

[DainBramaged]

14. A trick I use to clean out spills as a last resort.

buy 100% rubbing alcohol WITHOUT oil from the pharmacy. With the battery out and unplugged pour into the keyboard as if you are spilling it like your soup, roll the laptop around and hope it pulls the contaminants away from the switches and circuitry. LET IT DRY OVERNIGHT.

If that don't work, you can always pull the hard drive, buy an external USB connector and transfer the data to your main system.


Good luck

[debbierlus]

16. Woah. That sounds last resort. Thankfully it didn't get that far!

I am SO happy that it is working, I can't tell yeah!

[DainBramaged]

17. It has worked more often than not......

I dropped my nearly four year old Nokia brick cell phone in an unflushed toilet. Fished it out slid off the battery, poured alcohol all over it and let it dry for two days.


It sits on my desk charging as I type, two years on from it's little swim..


I have saved many laptops from coffee, tea, soup, soda (the WORST because of the HFCS) and even orange juice using the flush.......


:hi:

[Tesha]

18. I've had a hard time buying "high test" rubbing alcohol at the pharmacy, but...

...you can get the same effect if you buy an isopropyl
alcohol-based gas line dryer at your local auto parts
store.

Tesha

[david13]

8. There is a computer help section under du groups. dc

[HopeHoops]

9. What KIND of soup?

If it is meat based, you may have a huge problem. The fat will congeal and probably never come out. Keyboards are generally waterproof, but animal fat will gum them up - so will sugary drinks like soda.

[debbierlus]

11. Cup of Noodles

About a fourth of a cup.

[debbierlus]

12. It's working this morning! No problems at all :)

Oh man, what a relief.

After I came here for advice last night, I went on-line and read everything I could. Best I could do was dismantle to a point, and blow dry lightly on a cool low setting for about ten minutes.

It said to wait at least overnight, up to 24 hours. It was a relatively small amount of liquid, so I figured it would be okay after 12 hours.

It is working fine. No problems at all. Ran diagnostics - everything passed.

Phew! If you ever spill anything on your laptop - remember this -

Shut down immediately

Turn the laptop upside down get as much fluid off as possible

Take out the battery immediately

Disconnect from any plug ins (printer, speakers, whatever)

Turn on its side to dry or dismantle to clean. I dismantled my laptop to a point, but I know myself, and figured it would be a bigger risk to dismantle it. So I removed the back and then blow dried through the side and back and top....

Let dry at least overnight - wait at least 24 hours if you didn't blow dry.

Keep fingers crossed.

I wish I knew this before last night because I did all the wrong things! Thanks for the empathetic ear last night, this is a work computer and it would have been a huge financial blow to have to replace it!

[NJmaverick]

13. Make sure you back up all your important data

just in case this is only a temporary reprieve

[debbierlus]

15. It's on the hard-drive but I have used it all day and it is working great

No weird sounds, no buzzing, starts up and shuts down without issue.

[Tesha]

19. The long-term risk for you...

...is that the chlorides ("salts") in the soup will get
someplace that they don't belong and corrode a connection
or poison an integrated circuit (a "chip"). Enjoy the fact
that the laptop is working, but please keep mindful that
it may not live as long as it might have without the soup,
so keep your back-ups up to date.

I honestly don't know if there are professional cleaning
services for laptop spills (I'd suppose there are), but if
it were mine, I might *CONSIDER* stripping the whole thing
down, examining everything for soup traces, and for those
items that look like they "got it", I'd carefully rinse
them with distilled water followed up by an isopropyl
alcohol "drying" bath. (The poster who suggested that
wasn't kidding and was well-informed.) I don't know whether
you have the skills to do all that without damaging the
laptop, so take this advice with (excuse me) a grain of salt.

But even after doing all that, I'd probably worry about
that laptop from that point onwards.

Tesha

[Name removed]

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