Broken PowerBook...HELP!

[MacAztec]

We have a PowerBook G3 Pismo w/Airport card. Well, this morning, my dad spilt coffee down the keyboard, and immedately shut the computer down. He took out the battery, the CD Drive, opened it up, and started using air cans to dry it.

After about 2 1/2 hours of drying, we put the battery back in, and the CD Drive, and started it up. Ok, so its working fine...

Well, we were using an external keyboard since the built in one was sticky with coffee. Opened up excel, and noticed the the ";" key was repeating like crazy. Then, we heard a high pitched ZIP noise, and smoke started rising from where the built in keyboard was. The computer was still running, so we shut it down, took the battery and CD out, and started blowing more air.

The computer still works, but something happened. We have not booted it since, and we want to find out what went wrong. My dad may take it up to a Mac place in Newport Beach, CA called "The Mac Guys". Anyone else have a few suggestions on what to do?

 

[GeeYouEye]

Yikes! I think you're mostly screwed... here's a suggestion tho... pour distilled water (not just tap water) where the coffee was spilled and dry. Repeat twice. that should get rid of anything that can conduct electricity and screw up the comp even more.

EDIT: MacGuys is a good place. There's one in Pleasant Hill too. They are generally pretty good and will even repair computers out of warrenty... it'll cost you though.

 

[MacAztec]

Hey...

Ok this is what we are thinking.

A) Sell the machine on ebay (working) as is. Will work on arrival, but sold as is. Then, using the money and spending about 300 more dollars and buying a 550Mhz Powerbook G4.

B) Going to MacGuys and seeing whats wrong.

Hey, are you sure its OK to pour tap water into a computer? Doesnt that mess it up?

 

[mc68k]

Re: Hey...

Originally posted by MacAztec
Hey, are you sure its OK to pour tap water into a computer? Doesnt that mess it up?

no, they taught us this trick in my A+ class. As long as the computer is off, and the water just hits they keyboard (there's a ribbon you can disconnect the KB with) then you should be fine. Done this before with other KBs.

make sure the water is distilled and KB is dried thouroughly. alcohol won't dissolve the sugar, only water will.

 

[MacBandit]

No tap water. Be very clear about this DISTILLED WATER ONLY. This would have been the remedy if you hadn't already fried it.

The difference is when the tap water dries it leaves behind any mineral or chemical it might of had in it on the surface it dried on. This could be leaving a conductive coating just like the cup of coffee did. Distilled water is pure water there are very little to no trace elements in it.

It's actually quite amazing how wet you can get electronics and not harm them if they dry out first. If you are dealing with hard state electronics (i.e. circuit boards chips etc., not hard drives and moving parts) you can actually soak it in distilled water and clean it as long as you let it completely dry.