Alcoholic Laptop

[ubiquity0]

So I spilled beer on my laptop (Gateway M500) last night- aaaargh I turned the thing upside down immediately & kind of shook it for a few minutes & then switched it off. I realize it would have been a little more sensible to turn it off immediately, but was concentrating on draining as much out as I could. I’m guessing that something shorted, as the keyboard doesn’t work at all. Fortunately it boots up, & the touchpad works. It’s out of warranty, not that the warranty would help considering that it stinks like beer (“errr, honestly Mr. Gateway it smelt like that when I bought it”) . I’m going to let it dry some more for a day or two, but am not too hopeful. Are keyboards even replaceable on laptops? If they are I guess the whole thing needs to be taken apart & cleaned of stinky residue.

Do you guys think its salvageable, or a lost cause?

Oh, & don’t worry- the beer was crappy Molson, so nothing wasted

[jrdavid68]

http://support.gateway.com/s/Manuals/Mobile/8509520.pdf

[ubiquity0]

thanks for the link David. I think I'll pull the keyboard tonight & see how bad things are underneath.

[jyl]

FWIW I rolled a 4x4 in muddy water once (on Fraser Island, Australia, for those who know where that is) and my laptop was completely submerged. I removed the battery and some panels and dried it for 24 hours under a fan. Worked fine afterwards for 2+ years. I think the main thing is not having the laptop powered up when it is wet. In your situation, do a search on ebay for "gateway laptop keyboard" and you might well find a replacement - I see numerous keyboards for Gateway laptops, for appx $20-40 each.

[djmcmath]

Well, had you poured the beer into some container, like your cup, for example, it might be salvageable. As you describe it, it sounds like the beer pretty much got drained into your lap, the floor, etc., in which case it's not really salvageable at all. Bummer, huh?

Dan

[Adam]

Originally posted by jyl:
FWIW I rolled a 4x4 in muddy water once (on Fraser Island, Australia, for those who know where that is) and my laptop was completely submerged.

LOL! I know where that is. Was it a rental 4x4?

Keyboards are easy to replace on a laptop. I did it on my old Toshiba satellite.

[jyl]

Yes, a horrible little Suzuki. At least it was easy to retrieve.

[ubiquity0]

Fraser Island is the big pile of sand isn't it? 4x4'ing would be fun there. When I was there I was stuck on some nightmare of a bus/truck thing.

[Aurel]

Try to connect an external USB keyboard to check that the rest of the computer works before investing in a replacement keyboard.

Aurel

[id10t]

or even a ps2 keyboard...