Computers + Spilled Drink = Huh?

[DCWildcat]

So my [censored] friend spilled a coke and rum that caused my computer to get funky. That's the short bit.

The long bit is that he didn't actually spill it onto the computer. It's a laptop (Toshiba Satellite A45), and he spilled it next to the computer. Some of it went under the computer (it has little rubber risers like most laptops). I checked the bottom and nothing seemed to have gotten wet. When I booted it, the "K" key wouldn't stop pressing. I took the key off, and it still won't stop pressing. The key wasn't pushed down at all; it was just like the computer had the input of someone leaning on the key and not stopping.Everything else about the computer is fine. My guess is that the drink splashed onto the keyboard.

I'm thinking of taking of the keyboard, etc., and fixing it myself, but is there anything I should know before I do it, so I don't screw up my computer anymore in the process and invalidate my warranty?

[SamJack]

Generally spilled drink avoids the warranty anyway.

SamJack

[Link774]

Well, if you are generally capable of taking things apart without breaking them, then I'd just take it apart, clean the coke off so they can't tell what happened and then try to get a warrantee repair (if you couldn't fix it).

[ QUOTE ]
Generally spilled drink avoids the warranty anyway.

SamJack

[/ QUOTE ]

Not if you don't tell them. I screwed this up the first time, but the second time I got it right [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[smoore]

I would:

1) expend an entire can of air trying to clear the blockage from the keyboard.

2) send it back and play dumb.

[SamJack]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Generally spilled drink avoids the warranty anyway.

SamJack

[/ QUOTE ]

Not if you don't tell them. I screwed this up the first time, but the second time I got it right [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img].

[/ QUOTE ]

I guess it depends, a colleague of mine sent his IBM Thinkpad on which he had spilled lemonade on it a year earlier. He sent it to IBM after computer died. (perhaps unrelated to the spill a year earlier). IBM told him, they detected some spillage with acidic content, etc. and the warranty was voided.

SamJack

[CORed]

You might just try leaving it powered off or a couple of days. If there's just a drop or two of liquid shorting out the key, it may quit after the moisture evaporates.