[aaanorton]

A friend of mine bought a Tangerine iBook a year ago this August. She�s been studying in London the past year and sometime over the last few months managed to spill some non-OEM orange juice on and into the iBook. The machine immediately made the appropriate sizzle effects and died. At this point, she began the arduous task of getting somebody to revive it in an economically sound manner. However, she had some fairly daunting hurdles before her. The worst of these being that, while she was in London, she no longer enjoyed a full-warranty-coverage-long-shot as she might in the States. This and a quantity of OJ in her computer that was decidedly not up to Apple Spec. Someone in London quoted her a price of around $1200 to fix the thing. At this point, she did nothing. This week, when she returned to L.A., she made some more calls and found one place that would attempt a repair for $500. This did not guarantee that the computer would be fixed for $500, rather that it could theoretically be done for this amount. He noted that real-world conditions may double or more this figure when actual damages were assessed.
Things now seemed fairly grim, so I suggested a gamble. It was my feeling that the OJ had done its damage instantly. Counter to all advice from service reps., I suggested she try turning it on. The amount of damage being done, things could hardly get any worse. So she did. And it did, flawlessly. Now that the offending juice was dry, it started right up. And while some keys seemed overly vitamin enriched and sticky, all worked fine. After this, we simply removed the keyboard and sprayed it with an electronics grade contact cleaner which removed most of the lingering juice. The thin membrane under the keys didn�t like this product and promptly melted a little, but upon reassembly all still performed admirably.
Now all is good again throughout the kingdom and the people are happy. I don�t know if there is a moral to this story, and I wouldn�t recommend trying this at home, but it all seems pretty cool anyway.

Cliff

[imacaholic]

This is good sound advice for any liquid spilled on a laptop or desktop keyboard. Shutdown or unplug immediately and let everything dry out thoroughly. Once the conducting liquid is evaporated (if things didn't get overloaded to begin with) many times things will be functional again. Although, depending on the liquid, keys may stick or have impaired function. From this point it may need to be "cleaned" professionally. Glad to hear a happy ending to the story.

[- - e r i k - -]

Yeah. Most electronics survive incidents like this. My cell-phone survived a full program in the washing machine without a hiccup.

Cleaning keyboards are done this way too... With sticky keys, just soak it for some hours in soap-free water, hang it to dry for at least 24 hours and connect. Works like a charm. As long as there's no liquid left it won't be damaged...

Originally posted by - - e r i k - -:
<STRONG>Yeah. Most electronics survive incidents like this. My cell-phone survived a full program in the washing machine without a hiccup.
</STRONG>

Wow! Your phone's manufacturer ought to use you in a commercial.

<STRONG>
Cleaning keyboards are done this way too... With sticky keys, just soak it for some hours in soap-free water, hang it to dry for at least 24 hours and connect. Works like a charm. As long as there's no liquid left it won't be damaged...</STRONG>

To my friends' amazement, I once cleaned a keyboard with "spongy" keys by running it under the bathtub faucet. After drying it thoroughly, the keys were much more responsive - like new, and it worked flawlessly.

[drewman]

Also, if after washing something in water, you wash it again in de-natured alcohol, the alcohol will help it dry nicely and will clean grubby stuff out of corners.

drewman

[ 06-11-2001: Message edited by: drewman ]

[cmcleod design]

Originally posted by aaanorton:
<STRONG>A friend of mine bought a Tangerine iBook a year ago this August. She�s been studying in London the past year and sometime over the last few months managed to spill some non-OEM orange juice on and into the iBook. The machine immediately made the appropriate sizzle effects and died. At this point, she began the arduous task of getting somebody to revive it in an economically sound manner. However, she had some fairly daunting hurdles before her. The worst of these being that, while she was in London, she no longer enjoyed a full-warranty-coverage-long-shot as she might in the States. This and a quantity of OJ in her computer that was decidedly not up to Apple Spec. Someone in London quoted her a price of around $1200 to fix the thing. At this point, she did nothing. This week, when she returned to L.A., she made some more calls and found one place that would attempt a repair for $500. This did not guarantee that the computer would be fixed for $500, rather that it could theoretically be done for this amount. He noted that real-world conditions may double or more this figure when actual damages were assessed.
Things now seemed fairly grim, so I suggested a gamble. It was my feeling that the OJ had done its damage instantly. Counter to all advice from service reps., I suggested she try turning it on. The amount of damage being done, things could hardly get any worse. So she did. And it did, flawlessly. Now that the offending juice was dry, it started right up. And while some keys seemed overly vitamin enriched and sticky, all worked fine. After this, we simply removed the keyboard and sprayed it with an electronics grade contact cleaner which removed most of the lingering juice. The thin membrane under the keys didn�t like this product and promptly melted a little, but upon reassembly all still performed admirably.
Now all is good again throughout the kingdom and the people are happy. I don�t know if there is a moral to this story, and I wouldn�t recommend trying this at home, but it all seems pretty cool anyway.

Cliff</STRONG>

now u tell me they're not made from real oranges

Wish I'd been so lucky when I spilled soy sauce into my PowerBook G3. It didn't like the salt so much, and by the time I got it apart, several circuit tracings had already corroded. Total loss, I'm afraid! I'll never eat sushi and use my PowerBook at the same time again.