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spilt diet coke on laptop
my laptop is a LG LS50_3. i have turned it upside down with a towel between it. can it be fixed. will it work again. i have no idea what to do. my whole life is on that computer and i am having a panic attack. please tell me what to do
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Want to answer more questions in the Technology category?
Maybe give some free advice about: Computers?
1. Turn your laptop off.
2. Take it to a customer repair place and ask them to remove the harddrive and put all the data you need on a disk or another hard drive.
Your laptop is probably through its life span. Your contents may however, not.
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Hello there,
First things first: DO NOT TRY AND DRY IT WITH A HAIR DRYER! This will only bake the toxic chemicals in diet soda on the parts inside.
PULL THE BATTERY OUT IMMEDIATELY! (Laptops are never really "off.")
Now that that has been said: There is good news and bad news... how about we start with the good news?
The good news is that if you shut the computer off right away, your data is most likely safe and sound on the laptop's hard drive.
The bad news is that the laptop may, or may not, ever be ok again.
The artificial sweetener in sodas is called Aspartame, and it is almost as bad for laptops as it is for people, in my opinion. Do a Google search for:
... and you may never drink another diet soda in your life!
Now, as to the proper steps in salvaging your data, here is what you would be wise to do:
Find a computer repair shop that is comfortable working on laptops.
Have them remove the hard drive from the sticky-fied laptop.
Ask them to open the machine and ascertain the damage level.
If the keyboard managed to contain the spill, you can order a replacement keyboard for your laptop from the manufacturer.
If the soda spilled past the keyboard and into the main electronics, you are in trouble.
There are a few "plastic safe" electronics cleaners that you can ask them to apply to the motherboard and other parts in order to try and salvage the machine.
The reason I tell you to specifically mention a "Plastic Safe" electronics cleaner is that most cleaners that will take Aspartame off a circuit board, will also turn every piece of plastic on that board into a puddle of goo.
Now, let us say that everything went well and the machine is working fine... Make a backup of your hard drive IMMEDIATELY. Some problems that arise with a contaminated laptop don't appear until some time later.
Also remember: Laptops were meant to be assembled once, and never taken apart. This is why upgrading of the hard drive or RAM is usually done through a little door on the bottom of the laptop, or by lifting up the keyboard tray.
It takes great care to get a laptop back together once you have taken it apart.
Ask the technician that will be working on your machine: "Are you comfortable working on laptops?"
If they hem, and haw or avoid answering the question directly, leave and find yourself another place.
If they answer: "No, but I will if I have to, or if it is important to you."
... that is a good response. Laptops are hell to work on in general, and anyone who seems really excited about it has either never done it before, or is really stupid. ;-)
If there is a shop near you that specializes in laptops, that should be your first stop.
To give you an idea of the dollar amounts you are looking at here:
If I have to completely disassemble a laptop, I charge $100 to disassemble it, and $100 to re-assemble it.
That is separate from any repairs that it might need.
The reason I charge two fees instead of one is simply that if I open the laptop and it is beyond repair, there is no reason to re-assemble it. This saves you money.
Now, let us for a moment say that the laptop is completely and totally dead.
You had them pull the drive out, right? Good!
Here are your options:
Buy a 2.5" to 3.5" adapter for the laptop drive, connect it to the internal IDE ribbon cable in your machine (Only if you know what you are doing) and use it as a spare drive. You can suck whatever info you want off of it.
You could also buy a handy little external HD kit, which will allow you to put the drive in a nifty case which allows you to plug it into the USB port on your computer and access it that way. This would be my choice in the situation.
These aren't very expensive, and work well for your application.
Last option is to buy an identical computer, and swap drives.
I hope you do well in this situation, and I hope that you will use the feedback comment to let me know how you did.
Good luck,
DN.
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well, i spilt an entire glass of water on my laptop, and i was freaking out too...just try to get all the water out, whatever you have to do(MAKE SURE YOU DRY OUTTHE USB PORTS!) anything that can lead to the inside of ur computer needs to be dried immediatley...dont turn it on for al ittle but because i tried and it didnt work. Now with soda, it might be different..but i dont think it will be. Just a little sticky. Dont worry, everything will be ok. And if worst comes to worst, send it back to the company and they might be able to fix it or give you a new one. ♥dAnieLLe
*rate*
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