Somebody poured half a cup of tea with sweetner into my laptop. So far the keyboard and mouse do not work.

What is the likleyhood that it will suffer from more damage?

What would a computer repair shop do with it? Repair it or suggest a replacment. The repair shop was the suggestion of my insurance company.

Was it swithced on at the time?? Best thing you can do is take the battery out of it and stick it upside down on a radiator or somewhere very warm. If it was off then it could be fine. If it was on then it's more likely to be knackered. let it dry out before plugging it back in.

whats the make and model?

It was a custom built Laptop 17" jobber from Rock Direct.

It was on. My GF saw it happen but didn't tell me cos she thought it would be alright. It then stayed on for about an hour or two. I left it upside down for most of saturday and all day sunday.

I turned it on this morning. It beeps loads, boots to windows but the keyboard and built in track pad/buttons do not work.

I think someone else on the forum may have had a similar problem and it was suggested that they clean the contacts for the keys. Not my idea of fun with all of that work.

You may like to try a can of compressed air used for cleaning dust off circuits & the like, you know the stuff (http://www.maplin.co.uk/Free_UK_Delivery/Air_Duster_25351/Air_Duster_25351.htm)

If you give a good blast the propellant squirts out. The solvent propellant evaporates cleanly, & may get through the sugarry nastiness gunking up the keys. Worth a go unless you spend £10 for a tin through Maplins. Seen the stuff for sale for about £4 in arty supply shops.

Best option is to take the keyboard off completly, the give it a good wash in warm soapy water, then rince, then leave to dry or dry it with a hair dryer or something. you can get quite small external keyboards now as a temp measure.

DON'T do what my friend did when someone spilled a can of coke on her laptop - She decided to dry it out with a hairdryer!

The sugar in the coke heated up & melted all of the keys, and the all buckled & popped off! The whole laptop needed replacing.

if -all- the keys dont work then its not likely to be the keys themselves but a connector that is gunked up or borked.

some laptops come with an external keyboard connector. try attaching another to it and see if that works. or try a usb keyboard.

No keys at all work, including the mouse buttons. the machine beeps like hell, indicating a fault too.

It's more likely to have got into the keyboard connector than caused any key trouble. You need to take the keybaord out and disconnect it then try to clean the contacts, not easy.

I wouldn't suggest not washing these with warm soapy water, i would look at using cotton buds or a lint free cloth.

its' normally sugar in drinks that causes the corrosion so you might be lucky and just have a bit of moisture in the connections.

Out of interest does the keyboard have any part numbers on the back? it may be a comon type of keyboard so you may be able to try a different make's keyboard that is really the same. I have a dell and a Tosh keyboard so may be worth checking it's not the same as one of those.

Originally posted by Lickable
Somebody poured half a cup of tea with sweetner into my laptop. So far the keyboard and mouse do not work.

What is the likleyhood that it will suffer from more damage?

What would a computer repair shop do with it? Repair it or suggest a replacment. The repair shop was the suggestion of my insurance company.
Surely butterfingers should replace it for you? :confused:

Butter fingers is 18 months! :D

Heating anything with a PCB in it is likely to cause dry joints :confused:

If it's beeping like hell, is it coz a contact has been made on one or more keys, so this is overriding your efforts at stabbing the keyboard?