Computer question:Spilled milk in laptop, now what?

9/20/04 | finnman69

[finnman69]

Please no spilled milk jokes.

Ok, spilled milk into my Inspiron laptop keyboard, (PIII 700 Mhz, 256k RAM, 30 GB HD, Win 98). I turned it over and powered down. I disconnected it, battery out, drives out, HD out, keyboard removed and all dried out for 36 hours. Cleaned out all the visible residue which seemed confined to the QWERTY area and some on the circuit board where the power button was (not the mother board).

It now powers on and functions normally with the exception of the keyboard not working (5-6 keys mis typing), I figure it needs replacement, ok. But more ominously the fans are not powering on and I notice a slight whirring noise near the fans (never heard this noise before), but only when the AC adapted is plugged in, not when it's just on battery power.

Thinking about sending it back to Dell, NOT UNDER WARRANTY. So im looking at $270 just to get it looked at. I could order the keyboard and put it in myself no prob. Have not run the diagnostics yet and am planning to do that tonight to check the fan status and see if errors pop up. Am praying it's not the motherboard as I dont want to spend the $ on a brand new computer. Just bought a brand new HD.

Any recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[Conservative Infidel]

Don't you have that insurance?

[finnman69]

thanks all

miraculously the keyboard came back to life tonight and is working fine. The fans are working and diagnostics are all green

Feel free to make milk jokes now

[perfect stranger]

Put it in the dishwasher, then, using a hammer, whack all the water out.

I'm perusing some old threads tonite. I ran across this comment of yours and got a great laugh and now I need some windex for my monitor.

Everything was going quite well until you mentioned the hammer.