Thinkpads Forum

About 3 hours ago my t61p was not working, i spilt coke every were about 500ml and i got the blue screen of death but about 20mins ago i phoned IBM and had the worst possible outcome some complete idiot picked up ( at this time i was worried i broke my thinkpad) and i said " could i get a box to get it fixed " his reply was "unless i could run pc doctor it would cost $950" and i said "i have warrenty covering accedentle damage and the laptop will not turn on so how am i meant to run it and he went on with if you can not run it. it will cost $950 so i put the phone down and some time later my pc works fine . But what i would like to know is are all IBM reps that incompetent the only reason i purchased a IBM was for the support i heard was so great


Thank god the laptop fixed it self

You have to clean that machine immediately.

Coke is very acidic and will eat at all the components in your machine. If it were me, I'd completely disassemble the machine and wash every thing, set it out to dry overnight by a fan and put it back together.

But you have to get that soda out of there, and fast.

And welcome to the forum!

Wash everything?

Please explain.

I'm curious about what's washable and what's not.

just make sure to separate whites from colors

By wash, I mean clean. With water and gentle finger rubbing. Take apart the entire base of the machine, looking for signs of a spill and get it all off.

Use warm running water for places you can't see. There will be a lot of those places. Rinse with alcohol if you like. That will dry quickly and leave no sign it was there.

If it's already got Coke on it, water won't make it worse, so wash it.

JUST MAKE VERY SURE IT IS DRY BEFORE YOU PUT ANY POWER TO IT! Water probably won't hurt an electronic device if it is turned off, not plugged in, battery removed, etc.--no actual or potential source of power allowed--and completely dry before any source of power is reapplied to the device! Having said that, I don't know what I would do if I was you . . . I think it's worth another call to IBM to see if a second opinion wouldn't yield a different (and happier) result. If that doesn't work, try a third call (third time lucky and all that). "Spilled drinks" are a big part of their warranty advertising--they ought to honour it.

So sorry to hear about the Coke . . . Accidents suck!

Paul Unger wrote:<snipped>battery removed

Does that include the CMOS battery?

Why not? Better safe than sorry. Again, I'm not saying I'd wash the thing before having another go at getting it looked at under warranty, but if it comes to that, then yeah--remove the CMOS battery too. It's not worth the risk, as far as I'm concerned (not of killing a person, but of frying sensitive electronics). For what it's worth . . .

Before removing CMOS battery, make sure you do not have any type of password set in the BIOS and security chip.

just use a q-tip dipped with diluted isopropyl alcohol and get at the stick areas