Spilled some coffee on my keyboard.

The left side, and it was just maybe 2-3 tbsp of black coffee (no sugar, no creamer). The first thing I did was start drying the keyboard by wiping (stupid, stupid) the coffee up. After a moment the screen turned off and starting flashing white. I unplugged everything, took out the battery, and it's currently sitting upside-down on a towel. That was about six or seven hours ago.

I'm assuming that it would be alright to just let it dry, as it was just coffee without sugar or anything.

My questions:
Do I need to take it apart (not entirely comfortable doing so, but I think I could manage) and clean it? Distilled water, 99% alcohol?
If not, how long should I let it air out before trying to turn it back on?
I don't think I heard anything dodgy from my laptop and I didn't smell anything peculiar, what are the chances that something shorted out?

I'm currently on the pessimistic route and I'm planning on calling technical support after I try to turn it on. I am, however, not entirely sure whether I payed for the accident coverage and I'm not sure what to look for in my invoice.

Screenshots of the warranty page/everything mentioning warranties in my invoice:
Photo Album - Imgur

Thanks.

 

To check your warranty; enter your Service Tag (bottom of your laptop) into:
Welcome to Home User Support
You should create a real account (not alias account) if you are planning on getting any service.

 

imo, the laptop would be okay IF u turned it upside down and shut it down the moment u spilled coffee on it. Try turning it on after several more hours and call Dell if it's not running (sorry but i suspect this would be the case )

 

Hub, I checked that, that's where I got the screenshots. What I wanted to is is whether it would specifically say "Accident Protection" on those if I had it?

And what do you mean by 'make a real account'?

 

could have ben a baaaaadd mistake. perhaps u can get dell to send a new if u have the rite warrenties! lol

ask me for help on any problums u have from coffee i fixed this things all the time!!! trust me im pc engineer so i know this things.

 

How long should I wait before trying to plug it in/turn it on?

And does anyone know what Hub meant by 'make a real account'?

 

From that page, on the left is 'Warranty Status'
Does it look anything like this >>

 

That's exactly what mine looks like.

 

Absolutely take it apart (if you are capable) and check for wet spots that might other wise take ALONG time to dry.

Do not turn it on till you have done that period.

Also clean with rubbing alcohol any area you see that might be stained with coffee, then let it dry some more.

There is no rush at this point to try and get the machine working, so take your time and be thorough.

Reason i say there is no rush is because if you do a half a** job or nothing at all and it gos up in smoke then you will have to deal with service calls, more waiting and all kinds of other headaches.

Good luck though hope you get it all sorted.

 

Rubbing alcohol... Will 70% do?

 

I prefer 99%

 

100%. I've done this many times with a lot of notebooks, - it works!

 

Mmkay, I opened it up, no wet spots. Cleaned a bit of coffee off of the bottom of the keyboard. Put everything back together, and it works.
Well, except for the fact that my wlan card is either broken or hooked-up incorrectly. I'll worry about that later.

 

Okay, the wifi problem and the invisible icons on my system tray were fixed with a reboot/power drain. Thanks for the help everyone.

 

Good to know it worked for you!

 

i'm just glad your alienfx didn't turn into a fizzling light show