Laptop Cleaner

Just chasing some advice.
Purchased a DV7 2015tx HP lappie about 14mths ago and day 2 of owning it my you daughter spilt a cup of coffee on it.
I got the battery out quick and drained most of the coffee off the keyboard but it didn't like it. Was not happy.
It spilt right over the power on button and Esc key area.Did a little bit of strange audio and visual stuff before i got the battery out.
Left it sitting in the sun all day. I paid $2700 and i tell you it was not a good day in my household that day.Quietest its been with 3 kids in a long time.
12 hrs later it was time to see what damage had been done.
Push the power on and off she went. What a RELIEF.
Apart from sticking keys and now just recently some touch functions stopping i though it was time for a little clean out.
So now it sits before me fully dismantle. It looks clean inside which surprised me as its used in a dusty enviroment.Nothing on the Mobo or H/ds,memory tv card etc. A little evidence of coffee around the exhaust fan and case area but very little dust.
My question is what would be the best electrical solvent spray to use in cleaning the keyboard, chassis area and covers. I know of electra-clean but not sure how that would go.

Regards

 

I have been down this road only with beer. Due the way laptop keyboards are constructed there is zero chance of ever getting the liquid/ residue out of it. Fortunately spare keyboards extremely easy to find on ebay and cheap!

 

For coffee?
I'd start with plain water, followed by ultra-pure water, followed by ethanol, followed by commercial circuit board cleaner.

As long as you dont apply current or let the kit soak in water for any great length of time (hours) its a perfectly good PCB solvent when chased by something that solvates it.

 

Use baby wipes and tooth picks for the keyboard.

Don't use water unless you have a big enough closed container filled with dessicant or rice and don't mind waiting a few days for it to dry completely.

Oh, get a silicon keyboard cover.

 

I'd personally just douse the whole keyboard in metho, then let it dry.

If it's still sticky, new keyboards can be had for ~$50. Good chance to source a backlit one if available, anyway.

 

Ugh, coffee. Not milk as well I hope?

That stuff can go pretty manky very very quickly. Whatever you do, don't delay. And just replace the keyboard outright, they're not designed to be taken apart.

 

It happened 14 months ago.

 

*sigh* coffee fail. I saw the 2 days after owning thing and thought it was 2 days old in total.

Can I say, you're very very lucky then. I've had to pull apart laptops that have had coffee / coke / wine / milky tea / cat piss through them, some after only a weekend of sitting waiting to come in for repair - and some have been absolutely rooted.

 

Seriously, cleaning the keyboard's innards is a complete waste of time -- mechanically and electrically they won't survive the cleaning process, nor will they ever feel as good to use.

Your best bet is to buy a replacement keyboard as a spare part. IT Tools have new ones for $90 ish.

 

I worked in retail IT sales once and we had a service department. The number of coffee spills we got was just unreal.

Most of the time they came right back to me and bought a new one...

Much better off with a desktop. Worst case you just replace the keyboard and it's all good.

 

That's a bit pessimistic bud. Sure a spill does sometimes kill a laptop but often the keyboard holds the liquid, so the laptop is still ok. As the original poster said, his lappy is fine and was asking about the keyboard.

The only keyboards I can find searching ebay for "DV7 2015" are UK layout, but a search for "DV7 keyboard" finds plenty - however none specifically list the 2015, even though they all appear similar. Perhaps compare the photos with yours and try to match one up. Or search by part number.

I had the same trouble with my emachines netbook after the aforementioned beer spill and they only direct match I could find was half the cost of the netbook! But a bit of time searching ebay and matching pics turned up one for $16. I took the punt and it worked. Also you can do silly things like this.

 

Strangley enough after stripping it down to just the mobo and putting it back together with just a little brush out it works perfectly. no more sticking keys and touch pad working fine.
Alfonzo you are right. It was only 2 days after buying it. it was the 2nd time i had booted it up.
Could of been a costly lesson indeed.
I have built heaps of comps but had never pulled apart a laptop before. tricky little buggers that's for sure. They sure do fit alot of parts in a small box.

Thanks for the replies OC's

Regards