someone spilled coke all over my notebook, need some assistance

I know the basics... do not be gentle about it.... instead of waiting for it to shut down, pull the cord and take out the battery. Set it on an angle to drain liquid from the computer. Try to wipe off all "pools" that have formed.

What else do I do but wait and hope for the best?

another thing, the keys are going to be rather sticky after this; I have a Presario 2500, are the keys removable or attached. if they are attached, what do I use to clean out under the keys?

Thanks for your help

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commiserations

take out BIOS battery also while you assess & try to clean up

try to ascertain if any detatchable parts are unaffected & remove them

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any parts which have got wet can get wet again! - very important to remove all the Coke residues - highly corrosive residue on circuit boards

I would use water first off, followed by Isopropyl Alcohol (from Chemists shop in UK if you ask politely), get at least a 500ml bottle

distilled water would be better than tap water but avoid distilled H2O as sold by garages for top up as it commonly has small conc. of Sulphuric Acid in it!

(friend with access to Chemistry Lab could be very handy here)

clean the Coke off affected parts of PC boards with water first...

then (at least) two rinses with Isopropyl - use a toothbrush (**edit: and try to keep working in one direction, towards an edge of the board). It will mix with, dilute and thus progressively remove the water, then finally evaporate off to a clean result - as long as you have got rid of *all* the contamination

try to dispel the water (with Isopropyl rinse) as soon as you can...

if there's any sign of corrosion already setting in** through volts being on circuit board while the Coke was there, use a stiff toothbrush to get rid of as much as you can. Corrosion breeds corrosion.

(**green / white stuff at the edges of copper tracks, for example - I'm worried about tracks which would have had volts on them from the BIOS battery. Coke's truly awful - conductive + corrosive)

note that some mfrs use water in an ultrasonic tank to deflux the boards as part of the manufacturing process! So it's not as bad as it sounds.

try to avoid contaminating connectors which have not suffered from the coke though, and if they get wet pay particular attention to being thorough with the Isopropyl afterwards

access to a (clean) photographer's developing tray (or similar) might be helpful - but not one which has been used for photographic chemicals

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would like a 2nd opinion on this! - but if it's really got at the keyboard I would probably try using water on that too - just concentrating on getting rid of as much contaminant as possible. Depends whether the key switch assemblies are sealed units and how far the Coke penetrated I suppose

good luck

best wishes, HJ

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PS Isopropyl is pretty well safe on all electronic components (much better than Trike / PC81 which we used to deflux with back in the '80s - efficient but rots polystyrene capacitors, and bad for health)

Isopropyl might smear paintwork if you are unlucky. Most silk-screened stuff seems to survive pretty well.

 

HJ, a relationship of food acid and sugar. It may take a lot of "flushing" to remove the sugar and take the acid with it.

I like a CO based Contact Cleaner. I think that would take most of the sugar away.

A combination of two different types of "contact cleaners" maybe? One CO based, the other isopropyl based?

Whatever A.JWC uses, I think it should be labelled "Contact Cleaner ", anything else may be close, but not close enough. At least Contact Cleaner would be the best chance of avoiding bad contacts.

I would set the laptop upside-down off the side of a table, so that the all the residue runs back out (might mean that you end up sitting under the outdoor furniture....good laugh for the Missus )

Also, protect the screen from any spray/splash.

Matt

 

I would make very sure, after all of the above, that everything is 100% dry!
I would make very sure, after all of the above, that everything is 100% dry!

Thats worth repeating!

Dont hook anything up to power until absolutely positive its all dry. No sense
doing more damage.

savagcl