Whoops!

[tom101]

So last night I was relaxing, having a drink and browsing the web when all of a sudden an involuntary spasm of my hand knocked over my glass and sent cold beer flooding over my T41 keyboard. I quickly unplugged it and pulled the battery and mopped up everything on the case and keyboard with a towel. Then I flipped it over, took most of the screws out, opened it up and dried under the keyboard and palm rest. It was pretty soaked, beer had made its way out through the battery socket and was on the CD drive and hard disk. I feared the worst but after a night in front of the radiator I stuck the battery back in and was amazed to find that it worked fine Anyway, the only problems left were that I had taken out all the screws in such a hurry that I didn't know which ones went where, and I replaced the four at the front with screws that were two long which went all the way throu h the case and screwed the screen to the palm rest. But I took them out and now just have to live with the four little holes that are left. And I have one screw left, and one hole left, but the screw doesn't fit in the hole. The last problem is that the keyboard is still a bit sticky. Can anyone suggest an effective and safe way of cleaning it?

Ta

Tom

[egibbs]

Have you noticed that pictures of women viewed on the monitor are suddenly more attractive, and somehow everything you write seems absolutely brilliant?

Seriously - I don't think you are out of the woods yet. Beer has a pretty high sugar content, and if you just wiped stuff down there is probably still residue. That residue can cause corrosion and electrical problems down the road, and if it's visible will void your warranty so you should try to get it off.

Distilled water is probably the best choice for cleaning electronics. Take it back apart and use wipes and Q-Tips dipped in distilled water to wipe down everything that had beer on it until the surface is squeaky clean. Let it dry thoroughly, then reassemble.

As far as the keyboard they are cheap and easy to replace, and difficult and time consuming to clean. You could try soaking it in distilled water for a while, but even that probably won't get into all the mechanicals. The alternative it to pull all the keys off, clean the parts of the mechanism and put it back together. But the little plastic scissors mechanisms beneath the keys are notoriously prone to breakage and difficult to reassemble. Plan on spending a weekend at least if you go that route.

Good luck,

Ed Gibbs