Beer in Laptop Test - Which Brand is Best?

[Old Moparz]

I caved in & decided to get a laptop after watching the sale fliers over the last few weeks. My wife & daughter use the same computer that I do, so a second one was a good idea. A laptop was a better idea since the times my daughter, who's 9 years old would be on it, she can use it near my wife or myself & we can monitor what she's doing. I found a Toshiba with 4GB & 320GB memory for $599 at Radio Shack. The plan was to make this an early family Christmas gift for all of us.

That "WAS" the plan.

I picked it up today after the store called to tell me it was in. I ran some errands, fixed some broken house related crap, & when my daughter went to her friend's house, I unpacked the laptop to set it up & test it out. I placed it next to my desktop PC & before even plugging it in, I decided to give it the "Surface Penetration Test" with Blue Moon Belgian White Ale. I was making room on the desk so the laptop would be "much, much, safer" than sitting on the edge where it might fall & break. My hand bumped a freshly opened, full bottle of beer directly onto the new laptop.

After the laptop with the perfect profile easily passed the "Fulcrum Edge Test" I then witnessed the "Foaming Test"  as the beer foam mounded beautifully between the right side enter key, & as far left as the F key. It also covered 3 full rows of keys as well as the space bar. As necessary for testing, I shouted a series of four letter words & grabbed the keyboard to flip it upside down. Amazingly, the $8.95 desktop keyboard did not receive one single drop of beer. It did however, stop the now half full beer from rolling across the entire desk. That was the "Level Flooring Test" which failed by the way.

So after I cleaned up the mess, I went back over to Radio Shack to ask what the extended warranty covers. I had 30 days to add it to the factory warranty, but after asking the salesperson if it covers mishaps like American Express does, or beer testing results one might perform, I was told no. I got as much beer out of it as I could & now have it upside down to dry. I removed the bottom panels & the battery & everything else inside looked dry. I'm hoping that since it was never turned on it stands a chance of being salvaged.

I'll be returning it to get serviced, hope it doesn't cost me a whole new laptop.   

[TeeWJay426]

Sounds like a tough loss of a perfectly good Blue Moon Belgian White to me, Bob.... 

[Just 6T9 CHGR]

Very funny and sadly descriptive Bob!  Hopefully it works out.   I too just ordered a new laptop from Dell.....mental note, no beer testing near the new laptop

[Hemidog]

Hopefully your lap still works fine!
I myself had some mishaps with various sodas, the buttons get really sticky and hard to press, so I sprayed some WD-40 in there, now it works fine!.

[400/6/PAC]

My Toshiba just survived the Gatorade test last week.
The keys are still sticky and take a few seconds to pop back up but everything still works.

[A383Wing]

I have used the spray can of electrical cleaner on various electrical items that were wet and not supposed to be...

CRC brand of "Mass Air Flow Sensor Cleaner" evaporates fast also....

Just a couple of suggestions in case you get stuck for options

[BigBlockSam]

don't use a hair drier on it! . i did that to my keyboard and it melted the little plastic thingy's that make the keys pop back up .

[2Gunz]

It will survive. Just make sure its completely dry before you power it it.

Dont go spraying random crap into it as I can only see that doing more harm then good.

If you power it up and it fails to work correctly you should take it a part and use electrical
contact cleaner on it.


Anyway..... Your lucky it wasnt soda.

I had a mixing console that I spilled a number of beers in.

One soda and it died.

[bakerhillpins]

If you pulled everything out that you could get to (Hard drive and other stuff) and there wasn't any liquid in there then you should be fine. You should be able to pry up the power switch console thingie (plastic cover above the keyboard where the power button is) and then remove a few screws and look under the keyboard to see if anything got in from the top.

Had a long chat with the wife one day when her HD crashed, I pulled it out to find it wet with grape juice!!! Turns out one of my boys spilled it on the keyboard 2 days earlier and she thought that just soaking it up with a paper towel was fine. It actually go in through the display latch holes in the body, not through the keyboard. They usually build in a small catch pan to the keyboard for this type of thing.

Soda is nasty... I restore pinball machines and when soda is spilled inside the games it eats everything. Coke -a - cola is a good PB Blaster substitute for those stubborn bolts.

Bryan

[Charger_Fan]

Well, it's been three days now, how did it fare? 

[Silver R/T]

Ive rebuilt our Toshiba laptop before. They are prone to overheating (cause they stick pretty powerful processor and expect it to cool through a couple slots on the BOTTOM of the laptop). A/C jack went faulty on it so I got another jack and then hardwired some wires from it and resoldered connections. Ive also went and upgraded from stock thermal paste to Arctic Silver (supposed to make it run cooler a few degrees).

[A383Wing]

Well, it's been three days now, how did it fare? 

He's probably still sucking the beer out of the keyboard with a straw   

[Old Moparz]

Well, it's been three days now, how did it fare? 

He's probably still sucking the beer out of the keyboard with a straw   

Close, I used my shop-vac with a baggy instead of the filter.   

Well, I was ready to return it so I could have someone open it, maybe service it, but when I was checking all the keys tonight to see if they were still sticking, it got turned on by accident. I didn't hit the power, so whatever other button I touched powered it up.

It seems to work fine. 

I set up the password, logged into it, played a DVD, & so far no issues. Maybe the life expectancy will be less, but who knows? Since it appears to be working, I am charging the battery right now & will try some things out tomorrow, including getting it on line so I can post something stupid on DC.com..... 

After reading some of the posts by you guys spilling things & having your laptops survive, I feel more confident that mine will function. The only issue right now is that while sitting at it, it smells like old beer in an old bar. I bet Charger_Fan would dig that.   

[A383Wing]

Picturing Bob sitting in front of his laptop smelling the keys