Wine spilt on laptop. Please help!?

Question

I've just had a phone call from a friend who tells me that she has managed to tip a glass of wine over her laptop keyboard !

Of course, she poured it off as quickly as possible but not before it had switched itself off. On trying to reboot, it would not start up.

I have advised her to leave it switched off for at least 48 hours to allow it to dry thoroughly as I thought that trying it before then could simply make it worse.

She did mention between tears that when she had tried to reboot it had given an error message saying it could not find Drive C - although she was a bit vague at what point that had happened.

Any advice as to what she can do to resolve the problem? Is the laptop likely to be totally goosed ? Will any of the data on the hard drive be recoverable?

Answer 1

Look, the laptop is fried unless you can take it apart and clean thoroughly. Are you handy? If so, you can probably fix it by removing the motherboard, rinsing in distilled water, blotting, blow drying w/ warm (not hot) air, and reassembling. DO NOT PUT IT IN THE OVEN. If you do, go straight to the store to buy a new one. Otherwise, watch for sales. I just bought a brand new Toshiba laptop / XP Media Center Edition w/ 17" screen at Office Depot 12/26 for $499 ($400 off).

Answer 2

Sorry - the laptop is fried. Most likely the wine has affected the drive controller - thats why it can't find the disk drive. You'll have to replace it to get it working again. You may find it a better move to get a new laptop.

If you're lucky, the hard disk drive itself will be OK, and will work in another laptop. Of course, it could also have had a little drink and fried its circuits too. The data on the disk can still be recovered as long at the platters aren't damaged - but you're looking at a _big_ bill for data recovery services.

Answer 3

It's cooked. But you can get the hard drive out and recover the data. A shop will be able to put the drive into a usb enclosure so you can get to it.
The wine will have left traces of sugar all over everything. It probably blew some stuff and wouldn't be worth fixing.

Answer 4

What eveyone said is valid. Your system needs professional help immediately. Count on replacing the computer as a spill is not a warrantied event and the cost of repair may be more than buying a replacement. at best, it may cost you a few $$hundred.

You can pull the drive and put it into a USB drive enclosure and it will become a USB drive and you can retrieve your data.

Answer 5

there is an danger that some harm would have befell, that's not difficulty-free to assert (for the reason that i'm in basic terms a guy at a working laptop or computing device someplace interior the international...). sturdy activity on quickly drying up what wine became spilled on the computing device. i could take it to a restore place and in basic terms get them to look interior to be sure no longer something became too heavily broken.

Answer 6

ok well the computer is probably fried. I would try to salvage the hard drive which is drive c but if there was an error the laptop is probably totaly destroyed. Sorry

Answer 7

The data can be recovered no problem, tell her to dry it for 24 hours with the hair dryer but remove the battery as it gives electricity to components and harmfull with dryer. she should not have opened sooner, if its starting then things will be right as some liquid till it exists it works to harm laptop. so dry as much as you can.

Answer 8

i would take it too a pro now and have it looked at and let them do the clean up on the thing so many people try to do everything there self and end up losing alot of money because of it take it to a computer place and let them clean it up for ya merry christmas

Answer 9

Take it to a shop and tell them what happened and what you were trying to do so then he/she can explain what to do.