Keyboard Stuck Alcohol Spill Acer Aspire, Windows Vista

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Some idiot spilled alcohol on my laptop and now the keyboard wont work. I caught it a couple of hours after the alcoho spilled and it turned on to the main screen where i enter my password. Since then I have put it in the airing cupboard (covered in a towell) and used a hair dryer on it, but now all that happens is when I turn it on, it makes a continuous beeping noise, will not let me press any other keys, goes to the boot screen after I press F2 (the only button that seems to work) then restarts itself. Is there anyway that I can fix it? I'm not great with computers and do not have the confidence to take it apart myself, does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this problem? Thank you
 

mavroxur

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Feb 8, 2009
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Being that your keyboard was damaged by the liquid, it will HAVE to be removed. Removing a laptop keyboard is by no means a difficult process. Usually it involves maybe a half dozen screws and 1 or 2 ribbon cables connecting it. Google your laptop make/model and try and find a tutorial on it.
The keyboards themselves are generally inexpensive. eBay is a good source for replacements. Just search the make/model of the laptop, or after removing the keyboard, search the part #.
You need to make sure the liquid hasn't gotten further into the laptop. Removing the keyboard will allow you to visually inspect the inside of the laptop for more liquid. If there IS, further disassembly might be necessary. Just because you dry the liquid, doesn't mean the problem goes away. Drinks contain sugars that turn into a sticky goo when they dry out. This goo conducts electricity. It needs to be cleaned out, not just dried. The keyboard is usually just a "replace and forget", since most laptop keyboards are virtually impossible to disassemble and clean. And at $20-$30, why bother? If i were you, i'd remove the keyboard, check for further liquid damage. If the laptop itself is dry and clean, try and boot it with no keyboard. If you have a USB keyboard, plug it in and use it. If you don't, it's fine. Just remove it and boot it up. If it still acts weird, shuts down, etc, you might have more problems. The beeping will most likely go away, since your keyboard is obviously experiencing a "stuck key" condition. Post results and we can go from there.
 

kingnoobe

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You said it makes a coninuous beep. I don't know what type of keyboard you have on it. But I would pull off all keys, just because it's dried doesn't mean some keys arn't stuck. So take off all keys, whipe it down, let it dry, put it all back together. Push all buttons to see if they feel right.

This could save you 20-30 so to me that's worth it. As it shouldn't take that long anyways as long as you know how the keys go.
 

mavroxur

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Removing the keys won't do anything if the liquid has gotten trapped between the plastic membrane layers of the keyboard. Almost all laptops keyboards are made of three layers of plastic sheets. The top and bottom layers have conductive traces, and the middle layer has cutouts at the contact points to seperate them when a key isn't being pressed. If liquid wicks between those sheets, it's not going to come out on it's own. You generally have to disassemble the keyboard, remove the sheets, clean and dry them, and reassemble. On most laptop keyboards, however, there aren't screws holding the layers together. They're usually glued or heat fused at certain points.

Just replace it and move on.
 

ken888

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Jul 17, 2011
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Some idiot spilled alcohol on my laptop and now the keyboard wont work. I caught it a couple of hours after the alcoho spilled and it turned on to the main screen where i enter my password. Since then I have put it in the airing cupboard (covered in a towell) and used a hair dryer on it, but now all that happens is when I turn it on, it makes a continuous beeping noise, will not let me press any other keys, goes to the boot screen after I press F2 (the only button that seems to work) then restarts itself. Is there anyway that I can fix it? I'm not great with computers and do not have the confidence to take it apart myself, does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this problem? Thank you



I have the same problem. My keyboard is stuck and I spilled even just a little water on it... not even on the entire keyboard. If the water dries out, will my keyboard work again? Please help.
 
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Some idiot spilled alcohol on my laptop and now the keyboard wont work. I caught it a couple of hours after the alcoho spilled and it turned on to the main screen where i enter my password. Since then I have put it in the airing cupboard (covered in a towell) and used a hair dryer on it, but now all that happens is when I turn it on, it makes a continuous beeping noise, will not let me press any other keys, goes to the boot screen after I press F2 (the only button that seems to work) then restarts itself. Is there anyway that I can fix it? I'm not great with computers and do not have the confidence to take it apart myself, does anyone have any ideas on how to solve this problem? Thank you

have, literally, exactly the same problem...

I can start windows properly when pressing f2 on start up, but every key on the far left side of the keyboard is not working.

let us know how you get on with fixing your laptop...

my god, it's reely hard to type without the cps lock, shift or the vowel that's not e, i, o, or u. thank god for chrome nd its spell checker.
 

Loomy83

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Jan 18, 2012
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My shift key was stuck from a spill, I popped it off and took a flat head screwdriver underneath the first plastic layer and wiggled it a little bit, popped the key back on and it works fine now....of course I was planning on taking it to a repair shop.....
 

yanonon

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Jan 19, 2012
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let us know how you get on with fixing your laptop...