liquid Damage on Laptop

[Sde]

Hi, I’ve a dell inspiron 15 7000 by my stupidity I spilled some of my pop drink on the right side of the keyboard section of the laptop and what I did was immediately shut down the laptop using the power button, I first ran to get a hairdryer to dry it up as much as possible then I flipped it upside down to let it drain out. Is there any advice anyone has before I take any further action? I honestly feel really stupid I’ve never done this before with electronics and I’m really concerned about preserving the data on that laptop. 

[LukeSavenije]

i normally put it in rice

[sharknado34]

 

This is a pretty good video. I think there are a few other similar ones on youtube as well. I havn't done something like that before, but taking it apart and letting it dry is probably a good idea.

[Sde]

Does that work on pop drinks cause then the sugar would remain sticky inside right?

[W-L]

6 minutes ago, Sde said:

Hi, I’ve a dell inspiron 15 7000 by my stupidity I spilled some of my pop drink on the right side of the keyboard section of the laptop and what I did was immediately shut down the laptop using the power button, I first ran to get a hairdryer to dry it up as much as possible then I flipped it upside down to let it drain out. Is there any advice anyone has before I take any further action? I honestly feel really stupid I’ve never done this before with electronics and I’m really concerned about preserving the data on that laptop. 

If it's sugary your going to need to tear down the laptop and properly clean the PCB and surfaces with isopropyl to remove any residue and ensure there is no corrosion. 

[sharknado34]

1 minute ago, Sde said:

Does that work on pop drinks cause then the sugar would remain sticky inside right?

I would say mostly yes, but then on top of what they did in the video you might want to take the keyboard (separate from anything electronics or batteries) and wipe it down/ wash it off. 

[sharknado34]

2 minutes ago, W-L said:

If it's sugary your going to need to tear down the laptop and properly clean the PCB and surfaces with isopropyl to remove any residue and ensure there is no corrosion. 

Thats probably a good idea. Isopropl alchohol will evaporate quickly preventing parts from getting ruined too. So do that and probably avoid water if you can...

[Sde]

Uh ok if I don’t feel completely confident in taking it apart should I send it to someplace like bestbuy to do it? @W-L

[W-L]

4 minutes ago, Sde said:

Uh ok if I don’t feel completely confident in taking it apart should I send it to someplace like bestbuy to do it?   

If you have a local electronics repair shop that can do liquid damage repair it would be best to go and get a quote. Best buy might do liquid damage I'm not sure if they will tackle that

[SenKa]

Dell is surprisingly good about servicing devices, actually.

 

May be worth talking to them directly, even if you are out of warrenty.

[sharknado34]

10 minutes ago, Sde said:

Uh ok if I don’t feel completely confident in taking it apart should I send it to someplace like bestbuy to do it? @W-L

I mean its not that hard to take one apart. It is cheaper to take it apart, but yes you could get somewhere to fix it for you

 

[Sde]

Thank you guys for the advice, I will look into these ideas you all suggested. Also my laptop uses a SSD will that leave my data at a higher risk of getting lost due to liquid damage?

[sharknado34]

2 hours ago, Sde said:

Thank you guys for the advice, I will look into these ideas you all suggested. Also my laptop uses a SSD will that leave my data at a higher risk of getting lost due to liquid damage?

either way it is probably about the same risk I would think... they are usally fairly well contained... (aside from m.2 ssds) but if it is smaller then less chance of there being water there too. 

[Sde]

Thank you guys you’ve been very helpful

[Sde]

Hello just to update, I opened the laptop myself and investigated. So far nothing apart from the keyboard has been affected and I'm backing up all my contents as I speak. I thank you for the advice you all gave. Now I need to remove the sugar from the keyboard... Would it be a good idea to slowly and carefully use alcohol to clean up or should I disassemble completely and clean only the keyboard?

[W-L]

1 hour ago, Sde said:

Hello just to update, I opened the laptop myself and investigated. So far nothing apart from the keyboard has been affected and I'm backing up all my contents as I speak. I thank you for the advice you all gave. Now I need to remove the sugar from the keyboard... Would it be a good idea to slowly and carefully use alcohol to clean up or should I disassemble completely and clean only the keyboard?

Isopropyl >70% would be good for removing and displacing any remaining sugar or liquid that still may be trapped in places, just be sure to let it dry for an hour or so after for everything to evaporate. 

[Sde]

Oh yeah I've left it to dry for about 25 hours now so all is well. Now i'm just gonna ship it to dell to fix up the keyboard then all is well