[plug] Fluid damage to Laptop

[Gavin Chester]

On Mon, 2006-09-11 at 13:52 +0800, Kev wrote:
> >> you can wash it with the garden hose if you like!  
> >>     
> >
> > Um, Don't do this. You'll oxidise the heck out of the solder joints
> > seriously reducing the life time.
> >   
> Did you read any further from this line?  I suspect a little
> selective 
> reading has occurred here.  After wine, water is (/*relatively*/) 
> inert.  You do what you can with what you have.  The alternative is
> do 
> nothing.  So, if the item is dead now, and you don't know how much
> money 
> you want to throw at it on the off chance that it might come back to 
> life, I'd say that the "hose" treatment is a good way to go -
> especially 
> given that it works fine.
> 
> > Use a proper cleaning solution, something that is NON conductive,
> and
> > preferably inert. 
> >   
> Obviously the best solution.  But MUCH more expensive than mine, and 
> mine works-a-treat.  Mind you I don't use the garden hose as a rule,
> but 
> the kitchen sink.  I have used the hose on a couple of keyboards and
> I'm 
> still using one of them right this minute. 

Hmm, despite the little tiff of claim and counterclaim that erupted
here, I think you guys need to be explicit for the uninformed that might
be reading this thread and end up applying your 'wisdom' for themselves
sometime in the future :-(. 

Cleaning keyboard membranes with water followed by a neat alcohol (eg,
meths or ethyl) is fine because it is a plastic membrane substrate.
Cleaning, or heaven forbid, SOAKING a printed circuit board (PCB) with
water is to be avoided at ALL costs because it absorbs moisture and will
swell.  In extreme cases, that swelling can pop off surface mounted
components or even crack the tracks - with disastorus results! :-O  

If you care about trying to revive the laptop at all, spend the money at
Dick Smith, Jaycar or wherever and get a proper PCB cleaner and contact
cleaner (for all those switches and connectors).  If the laptop is dead,
then so be it, but if your actions bring it back to life for the $20 you
paid for the cleaners then you're ahead, aren't you?

Gavin.