iBook + Iced tea = 1 stressful afternoon

[rolex54]

So this morning I was cleaning up my room when I knocked a glass of iced tea onto my laptops keyboard. I freaked out, grabbed the laptop turned it on its side to let all the liquid drip out while at the same time pressing the power button to turn it off. I took out the battery and cleaned up as much of it as I could, I opened up the RAM shield and blow dried it, I really didn't think anything got in there, I only did it as a precaution. So I then put the battery back in and pressed the power button, I heard a half chime and then nothing. I then started to really freak out, I took the whole computer apart and realized that the problem was a lot worse than I thought. There were little puddles all over the logic board, I blow dried it to death and let it sit under a light for a couple hours, I then reassembled the entire thing and to my complete surprise it booted with no problems at all!

I was just so happy that I didn't destroy my computer, even by turning it on while it still had tea in it

Has anyone else had successes with reviving computers after a liquid spill?

 

[opti]

Has anyone else had successes with reviving computers after a liquid spill?

Funny you should ask

I just procured a cheap MacBook on eBay, supposedly destroyed by a coffee spill. On my first test it would not start up. But I took a peek inside, cleaned up what coffee residue I could find, then tried to start it up and amazingly it started just fine. I just reset the admin password... hmm, now if I was really evil I could start looking through all of these documents from Becky's students ;-)

I'm not sure what I did to fix it honestly...
For an extreme example of system recovery after (purposeful) liquid spill, see here. Anecdotally, I gather that people do it all the time.

 

[CanadaRAM]

#1 newbie error -- turning it on again too soon to see 'if it still works'

Often, that does more damage than the initial spill, pushing voltage through still damp circuits can short them out.

There should be a 48 hour time out rule - unplugged and batteries out for a minimum of 2 days after a spill.

 

[blisters]

put it in a bag of rice.

 

[Osarkon]

put it in a bag of rice.

He doesn't need to, it was stated in the first post that it works.

 

[Hrududu]

I've heard of using distilled water to clean off electronics that have suffered a spill. The concept makes sense because there are no minerals/impurities in the water to short things out, but has anyone successfully pulled this off?

 

[timestoby]

after you turned if off you should have let everything totally dry out.maybe used a blow dryer etc.

 

[ShaneR]

I would recommend putting in a large pan with enough rice to cover the entire book. Just leave it in there for a day or two and occassionally taking a blow dryer to the (stirfry ). I know that this works well with phones and pdas and such. The last thing you want to do is to turn the computer on and use it without ensuring it is entirely dry.

 

[*Sandy*]

a warm window sill also works great i am a klutz..

 

[Diseal3]

Forget the blow dryer take some q-tips and some rubbing alchol and clean dem circuits!

 

[Winter Charm]

Forget the blow dryer take some q-tips and some rubbing alchol and clean dem circuits!

DUDE!!! dont do that... while it is a "quick fix" that works... its only temporary... the alcohol will corrode the circuits.. and then you are REALLY skrewd... so yeah! DONT do that!