[OT] Laptop Cleaning

[Jesterthegreat]

ok people; As a few of you know i am a computer technician.

I have been handed a laptop to fix today. it has had a glass of Orange Squash poured over it (don't ask) and is not working. I have had a look, and cleaned off all the sticky drink from the outside, however from removing the battery and CD Drive i know that the drink has made its way inside the laptop. the keys are covered (and i am sure it has gone into the laptop under the keys).

i have washed the outside (carefully... not dunked it in water :p ) and whiped the screen down (water may not be best for an LCD screen... but its a hell of alot better than orange squash). i have not touched any connectors yet.

i have no cleaning materials at the moment. the power registers, the battery registers (both of these are dodgy however, sometimes it will see no battery and claim it is powered by mains for a second, then not for a second - continuing [even when not plugged in])

when powering up it makes a single beep at the bios screen, not a string of error beeps, however i believe it then stops. i say this because the LCD screen does not bring up any picture (before this point or after). however the sound stops and i do not hear it load from HDD, nor do i hear the windows intro sound.

i will prolly try a CRT monitor, but i am unsure if this is a wise idea if the connectors have orange on them.

any help would be greatly appriciated (FENIX! your tech support! help meh! :D )

Junkie

[BiTeMe]

Step 1 is don't even try and turn it on untill all the juice is well and truely dry. Even then I would strip the laptop down as much as I could depending on the time you have for this. Keyboards are often quite easy to remove from laptops, but it does depend on who made it and what model it is.

Other compoents that are easy to remove are the memory and modems (if built in as I assume you have already taken out the PCMCIA cards). Keyboards are easily removable on most laptops and even screens can be easy.

Once the laptop is open clean as much juice out of it as possible. Water is OK for this provided you don't try and turn it on again till all the water has dried away and you use a damp (read: not dripping wet) lint free cloth or cotton buds.

Obviously the more time you have the more you can stip the laptop down.

If the laptop has been tried while still wet then I am afraid that some components may have been shorted out and are now nothing more than bin fodder.

[\\Fényx//]

was it on at the time the orange juice was poured on it ? o_O

[SynC_187]

Originally posted by \\Fényx//
was it on at the time the orange juice was poured on it ? o_O

That would be my first question ^^

Second would be is it insured?

If the answer to both questions is yes. Write it off and claim on the insurance.

If it was off when the OJ was spilt, strip it down and clean like biteme said.

Then wipe all the connections with meths.

If the keyboard is really bad you can soak it in water for an hour of so. Then allow to dry for a couple of days (its not worth rushing it).

Ensure the water is clean. If your in a hard water area, use de-ionised water (the type you use in irons to stop limescale buildup). This will stop you getting deposits on tracks and connectors.

Allow to dry in bits for at least 24 hours.

[Jesterthegreat]

i believe it was on. i think i will prolly send it off to a company that does repairs for us free of charge (US being the school i work at)

it had been turned on by the owner repeatedly before i got it... i made sure to check this :)

well... its sounding just as good as i expected O_o

Junkie

:edit: yup insured... think I'd let a member of staff touch an uninsured laptop? :D i know better than that :lol:

[Legoias]

I've dealt with this stuff before. Take the keyboard off (usually clips on and off) and carefully detach the ribbon cable. Then run just the keyboard under a tap.

Once the kb is off you will see all the sticky crap the Oj has made, use some cleaning alcohol to wipe up.

Open the memory ports under tha laptop and inspect for damage and Oj, same with the hard disk.

When something is spilt into laptops place tissue paper on a surface and put the laptop face down with the screen open, you might need to hang the screen off the edge of a desk to get the 'main body' sitting level.

Use a can of compressed air to blast the fluff out the laptop (fluff + oj = sticky fluff)

The the SoB he isn't getting a new laptop so dont try it again! (yeh you wont believe what people get up to just to get a new machine)

Good luck :)

[Legoias]

Originally posted by Legoias
I've dealt with this stuff before. Take the keyboard off (usually clips on and off) and carefully detach the ribbon cable. Then run just the keyboard under a tap.

Once the kb is off you will see all the sticky crap the Oj has made, use some cleaning alcohol to wipe up.

Open the memory ports under tha laptop and inspect for damage and Oj, same with the hard disk.

When something is spilt into laptops place tissue paper on a surface and put the laptop face down with the screen open, you might need to hang the screen off the edge of a desk to get the 'main body' sitting level.

Use a can of compressed air to blast the fluff out the laptop (fluff + oj = sticky fluff)

The the SoB he isn't getting a new laptop so dont try it again! (yeh you wont believe what people get up to just to get a new machine)

Good luck :)

= Edit =
Gah I just duplicated some of the other guys comments, nm some other hints for you.

[Ormy]

The sticky residue left by any fruit juice after it has dried tends to conduct electricity rather well, and thus one or more of the highly sensitive micro-electronic components may be rendered useless.

Ur laptop is fucked, bin it, claim insurance, keep ur OJ away from ur laptop in future :rolleyes:

[Tycho C]

Just don't void the waranty, if any. That said, I'm with biteme. Laptops arn't hard to take apart, just different if you havent done it before. LOTS more screws :p and a tighter fit. Other than that, piece a' cake.

[General Crazy]

you have to clean the inside boards and keyboard with No Conductive, Contact Cleaner and a soft brush

[Jesterthegreat]

Originally posted by Ormy
The sticky residue left by any fruit juice after it has dried tends to conduct electricity rather well, and thus one or more of the highly sensitive micro-electronic components may be rendered useless.

Ur laptop is fucked, bin it, claim insurance, keep ur OJ away from ur laptop in future :rolleyes:

haha... not my laptop, not me that spilled... im just the monkey expected to fix it :rolleyes:

Junkie

[Richard Slade]

You guys just haven't been around enough to understand this AT ALL
So here goes the ONLY way to do it:

1.Be sure that u got insurance on the puter

2.Get workers name on a blank paper

3.Connect puter with wall jack

3.Start up puter, see if it works

4.If not, get a car battery

5.Remove all plastic from puter and clean of,

6.Attach car battery to ANY cable

7.Have worker LICK up OJ from cables connected with car battery

8.Claim insurance and also write on blank paper a contract
that tells worker does this on his own risk.

9.Never see any OJ in a puter again
From ANY worker

Now that wasn't so hard was it?