Spilled Coffee on R60e and System won't light up.

[jimwg]

Hello,

Stupidly preoccupied with worry I knocked a cup of lukewarm black coffee over the upper left hand corner of my R60e's keyboard. After a few seconds the system went off, no lights anywhere. I disconnected AC and battery and shook what coffee was dripping out bottomm especially the side and rear fan vents, and shortly after I opened it up via instructions for changing keyboard and found everything inside still dry -- even underside of keyboard -- except a few coffee drops around fan area which I further napkin dabbed and dried and closed up. I waited fifteen minutes and attached battery and did power button and for a half second the green Battery indicator flashed then nothing more. I briefly did same with AC in and same effect.

I Googled for remedies in case all isn't lost and did a popular one that entailed pressing the power button down ten times, once per second, then down for over thirty seconds and a short wait to supposedly reset system I guess, but no go. I'm putting the R60e aside in case there's someplace deep inside that did get wet didn't dry out to try this re-set squence again and now working on a backup R31 with Linux Maya. Thank God my R60e had a Copy.com account that constantly backs-up your files to resort to! Since the innards were remarkably dry, could it be coffee seeped deep some small area around the fans and shorted something that's still recoverable? Can anyone make any recommendations I can try in the meanwhile?

Truly would be grateful for any assist!

Jim in NYC

[Hans Gruber]

Hello,

Stupidly preoccupied with worry I knocked a cup of lukewarm black coffee over the upper left hand corner of my R60e's keyboard. After a few seconds the system went off, no lights anywhere. I disconnected AC and battery and shook what coffee was dripping out bottomm especially the side and rear fan vents, and shortly after I opened it up via instructions for changing keyboard and found everything inside still dry -- even underside of keyboard -- except a few coffee drops around fan area which I further napkin dabbed and dried and closed up. I waited fifteen minutes and attached battery and did power button and for a half second the green Battery indicator flashed then nothing more. I briefly did same with AC in and same effect.

I Googled for remedies in case all isn't lost and did a popular one that entailed pressing the power button down ten times, once per second, then down for over thirty seconds and a short wait to supposedly reset system I guess, but no go. I'm putting the R60e aside in case there's someplace deep inside that did get wet didn't dry out to try this re-set squence again and now working on a backup R31 with Linux Maya. Thank God my R60e had a Copy.com account that constantly backs-up your files to resort to! Since the innards were remarkably dry, could it be coffee seeped deep some small area around the fans and shorted something that's still recoverable? Can anyone make any recommendations I can try in the meanwhile?

Truly would be grateful for any assist!

Jim in NYC

You need to do a hard reset of your computer. Unplug the battery and AC and hold down the power button for 10 seconds around 10 successive times. The final time hold it down for 30 seconds. I think your thinkpad should be fine.

[jimwg]

Thank you VERY much for the encouraging tip! Unlike the startling YouTube Thinkpad dunking demos, it took LOTS of sober takes with that button sequence to get the system to finally light up, including a heart-sinking false alarm when it started up and died shortly after Windows started to boot! The left side keyboard keys were a little sticky though my coffee didn't have sugar -- (which I read is notorious to keyboards), just Equal, but maybe tapping them freed them from a constant pressed-down position. This piques my curiosity as just how and what tripped the system to "only" need a reset instead of new motherboard after such a near disaster. Was this recovering from a short or a stuck switch or whatever? I'm still fascinated that despite all that coffee spilled that the board under the keyboard was still dust-dry except some damp and drops in the fan area where the keyboard took the main hit. More Thinkpad users should be enlightened on this last-ditch bacon-saver technique!

Thanks!!

Jim in NYC

[Hans Gruber]

Jim,
If you look under your R60e you should notice drain holes for liquids that spill onto your laptop and keyboard. It's part of the design feature that made the Thinkpad unique. Part of figuring things out is a trial and error process. Glad to hear your thinkpad is back up and running. You may want to check ebay for a replacement or backup keyboard for your R60e.