[Ham-Computers] Help with HP laptop

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

I agree with Herb.  I've had two experiences with keyboards with conductive 
liquid spilled into them where after a fresh water washdown and drying they 
were returned to service.  Neither were laptop keyboards but unless in your 
case the liquid got across lands carrying 120 VAC I don't see that as 
making any difference.  Just more trouble to disassemble and wash down.

In a message dated 3/21/2010 10:40:28 PM Central Standard Time, 
hgerhardt at wavecable.com writes: 
> If it was mine, I would open it up and visually inspect the innards.  
> Then I
> would wash the areas where the liquid had spilled and dried with distilled
> water.  I would make sure there was no visible dried stuff anywhere.  Once
> cleaned, I would thoroughly dry all the components.  You can use many 
> things
> to dry it with, from a food dehydrator to a hair drier......
> 
> Once cleaned and completely dry, I would reassemble all the pieces and try
> to power it up.  I would expect it to power up again.....
> 
> Have had a similar thing happen to one of my hand held ham radios and it
> worked just fine after washing it, cleaning it and drying it.  Might not
> work but what do you have to lose.
> 
> >From my experience with modern low voltage electronics, shorting things 
> out
> with a liquid or other substance, generally does not burn out any
> components.  Instead as the liquid dries, it bridges the traces on the
> printed circuit boards creating shorts till the substance is
> cleaned/removed.
> 
> If that does not work, I would install the hard drive into another laptop
> that uses the same hard drive and then try to write the contents to an
> external hard drive.  My laptop has two separate hard drives in it and 
> that
> would be the ideal way of trying to retrieve the data.  Maybe you can find
> someone in your area with a dual hard drive laptop that uses the same hard
> drives or if your friend has not bought a replacement yet, maybe he can 
> buy
> one with dual hard drives or at least a hard drive expansion slot.
> 
> Good luck,
> 
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
MVPA 9480