[TriLUG] OT - cleaning laptop after coffee spill

[Liyun Yu]

Mike Norwood wrote:

>My wife called me at work to say that she was ambushed by our cat causing 
>her to spill coffee into her laptop.  Has anyone had any luck (either good 
>or bad) in trying to clean liquid from a laptop?  Just looking for any 
>hints anyone can offer.  In searching online I have seen mention of 
>something called Contact Cleaner which may be available at Radio Shack 
>that some people say they have had luck with.  
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Mike Norwood
>
>  
>
Mike:

Before you apply any "contact" stuff, I would suggest to apply some
un-contact technique to let it dry first. There are some silicon
beads that you might want to borrow from any Bio or Chem lab, sorry
I did not have the exact name of it but that is the stuff they usually
using in their lab where they keep the medicine or chemical specimens
or lenses. You might want to borrow a whole bottle of it, then
put these colorless particles into the same bag with the laptop for 
overnight.
Next morning, when the water was absorbed by the particles, they will
change the color to blue ( beautiful blue). You just use the microwave
to "cook" the particles to let them turn into colorless again before you
return them. It is re-usable stuff. You may apply several times until
the particle did not change color at all that means there is no water
in the laptop.

That should make the laptop working again, no contact needed.

I don't think you would need to even open the laptop or clean
from inside since the substance that the coffee brought in could be used
as the "sealer" or "calking" to prevent future incidence.

However, if some KEY did not working properly, that will need some
work and that should be very easy.

Let me know if this won't work and I will try to provide more tricks.
Should we all "calking" our laptop sometime?

Thanks,

Liyun

-- 
Liyun Yu, Ph.D.
System Specialist
Dept of Radiation Oncology, UNC-CH
101 Manning Drive
Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7512
Office: (919) 966-7704 EXT 1
FAX:	(919) 966-7681