So yeah, was working on my acer laptop. Spilled tea on it. Let it dry a bit. Some of my keys aren't working. What do?
edit: "dry" not "fry" lol
So yeah, was working on my acer laptop. Spilled tea on it. Let it dry a bit. Some of my keys aren't working. What do?
edit: "dry" not "fry" lol
Last edited by bajerman; 2011-03-12 at 02:19 AM.
Get a new laptop?
I'm broke at the moment -_-
I don't think you can just pull keys off....can you?!? OP is computard btw :P
Even if he does dry every key, some of them wont work...
The liquid caused a short circuit... he'll need to open his laptop and replace wires...
I can do that for a mere price of your soul
Yeah, I troll, WhateverOriginally Posted by Membrane
Most laptops can have their keyboards removed. Suggest you try googling for a guide to dismantling your laptop if you want to go that route.
You can then try soaking your keyboard on its own in hot water, with some detergent, and then rinsing it off. Leave it to dry in an airing cupboard for a good eight or twelve hours before reconnecting it.
If that doesn't fix it, replace the keyboard.
The only thing your "sticky tea" can slow down is your HD (Though if you spill tea on that, it's all sorts of bad.) or your fan. Nothing else.
Take a hair dryer and dry over the keys for about 15 minutes. Make sure your computer isn't running when you do it, it may overheat it. This will make sure everything else is dry and prevent more shorts.
Alright. thanks all of you. Damn these tea-spilling hands! Off to the bathroom to spend a couple hours drying my computer :/
The point is the design of laptop keys is susceptible to interference from liquids coating contacts.
If his laptop has not already died from the tea, it is unlikely to. Unless he spilled tea on the bottom, it is unlikely to have reached the harddrive, CPU or fan without rendering the entire thing inoperable. Sticky keys are annoying, but if they work then they work. Nobody actually mentioned the tea causing problems with anything but keys.
As I suggested; disassemble, wash keyboard, rinse keyboard, dry keyboard, reinstall keyboard. If that fails, keyboard is always replaceable.
Last edited by FlawlessSoul; 2011-03-12 at 02:46 AM. Reason: Woo 600
Just about every laptop can have the keyboard removed. I work for a tech support company, and during our free time we actually diagnose and repair laptops. I have 7 partially or fully dismantled laptops on and around my desk as I type this. Most likely the bottom of your laptop will have symbols showing which screws are required to remove the keyboard. Otherwise check online to find a guide for removing the keyboard. Once removed, you can try drying it as suggested in several posts above. My personal selection for it is to get a large bag of rice and put the keyboard in the bag and leave it there for 24 hours. The rice will actually draw moisture out of the keyboard, and more often than not will leave circuits completely dry. It's not 100% guaranteed, but it's what I recommend to anyone anytime they get water on electronic components (so long as it is small enough to fit into a bag of rice). Works wonders for cell phones as well.
If the keyboard is actually ruined because of the liquid damage, you should be able to order a replacement. In fact if you REALLY need one I could probably pull one from our spares. Feel free to PM me if you need to.
Last edited by Deathmaw; 2011-03-12 at 02:52 AM. Reason: typo
My Dad broke my mums keyboard last week spilling tea on it, every key worked except for asdf jkl; had to replace the keyboard which cost £30, the £120 for the engineer to come to the house to fit it was a pain though...
Personally i spilt iced tea on my laptop, left it to dry for a day or so and it worked fine, although the keys were sticky as hell, which took a bit of use to free them again.