Spilled drink on Dell Latitude D630 keyboard

Hi

I just had an "accident" - spilled about a half cup of tea on my work Dell Latitude D630. It turned off automatically(short circuit?). I couldn't remove the keyboard so I turned it upside down and put aside. So from my search in Google I found that I must leave it like that about few days untill everything is completely dry.I also panicked a bit and it took me about a minute to remove the charger and about few minutes to remove the battery.


My questions are:
1.The laptop turned off - does it mean that it was short circuit or it could be some defence mechanism?

2.If it was a short circuit - does it mean likely I'll have to visit computer repair labaratory?

3.Is there anything else I should do now?
I saw different opinions about using hairdrier,some websites say it isn't such a good idea.

Thanks a lot in advance.

 

Instructions for removing the keyboard are here.

A hair dryer is too aggressive. A warm dry place and more time is better. However, if your tea contains sugar and/or milk then you should wash the keyboard to remove any residues.

There's also a good chance that some of the tea will have got down onto the mainboard. You can see once you have removed the keyboard. If it has then it will also need to be cleaned.

John

 

if ur stuck im sure a keyboard from ebay wouldnt cost too much and they are easy to replace provided nothing went downstairs

half a cup would no doubt have went under the keyboard too but u never know your luck

 

Water itself isnt too bad for the mainboard, its the salts/sugars in it that are bad.
Open up the laptop and see if the liquid got inside the laptop and onto the mainboard (the signs will be visible). I assume it did since the laptop shut itslef off.

If so, get distilled water from the store (so that it does not have any salts), take out the mainboard, and wash it in distilled water. Do it ASAP so that salts dont get a chance to corrode stuff. Then just let it dry.

Letting it dry now is not advisable, gets the salts etc out with distilled water and THEN let it dry.

 

Did the D-series machines come with Mylar sealed keyboards? I know the Inspiron's did with the summer 07 refresh that introduced the colored lids (1420, 1520, etc..) and the Vostro's gained it due to being kissing cousins.

I could have swore I saw a blurb about the Latitude's having it as well at that time. I know the E-Series does though.

 

http://www.dell.com/downloads/global/products/latit/en/spec_latit_d630_en.pdf

"87-Key US [...] Sealed keyboard design"

So apparently it is...I have a D630 keyboard in my D620, and the backing of the keyboard is similar (although the D630 keyboard has the Vista WinKey and is much quieter). The keyboard has a tiny wall on all sides, but I doubt that'll do much if the amount of liquid is more than an ounce or two.

 

XD, I googled for the answer and came up with shill reviews and other garbage. I should have went straight to the source!

Yeah i noticed the small wall around the keyboard, your right, doesn't seem like it'll hold much. However, if it helps prevent a failure after a small spill, then it and the Mylar is well worth it.

 

An interesting thing I noticed is that the bottom of the keyboard is completely sealed. IBM ThinkPads (yes, IBM...haven't touched any ThinkPads since Lenovo acquired them, so I'm not sure if things have changed) have holes in the keyboard which align with holes on the laptop, which should theoretically allow the liquid to drain out the bottom of the laptop.

I would imagine that IBM's design would work better than trying to contain it...