Help - Coke on new laptop!

[Openmindedmonkey]

My son has spilt Diet Coke on the keyboard of his brand new Microsoft Surface i5 laptop. Unfortunately he is at his father's (XH) & it happened a couple of hours ago.

DS dried it as best he could, continued to use for an hour - then when he put it on to charge "there was a flash & now it doesn't work".
He says he can see sticky residue in the charging port.

We've told him to leave it in rice overnight to try to dry it; XH can't bring him home until tomorrow evening.
Unsurprisingly, I'm furious at the accident, also at XH who did nothing to help his distraught son.

Does anyone have any technical advice, please?
Fyi we bought it from Amazon, using debit card & vouchers we'd been given

That flash was probably the end of the power supply and possibly some of the electronics. Drying it out will still leave the sticky residue short circuiting components.

Take it to a local repair company for diagnosis and a quote to fix it.

Oh dear; sounds like what we feared - an expensive repair. (Guess that's the end of his Christmas money!)
Thanks cdtaylornats

continued to use for an hour

That was the worst thing he could have done.

Absolutely agree - but DS was at XH's & panicked; XH is useless in many, many ways (I'm not getting angry again, don't have the energy for that) saying "it'll be alright".
In DSs favour, Microsoft do say something about it being liquid-resistant in their blurb.

Turn it upside down (open) and prop it up somewhere warm. I doubt rice will help much as it's a sugary drink so will still leave a sticky residue.

I fear him carrying on using it may have fried it but tell him not to even attempt to turn it on for a day or two.

You are able to take it apart yourself and attempt to clean it but I wouldn't recommend that. You could call Microsoft/amazon and see what the warranty covers.

Don't try anything.

Do you (OP) have accidental damage cover on your home insurance?

The proper thing to is

1. Remove the power lead immediately and turn off the device.
2. Flush it out with clean cold water so that the sugar cannot dry inside.

You could call Microsoft/amazon and see what the warranty covers
support.microsoft.com/en-gb/help/4040687/surface-surface-documents
The warranty documents are here in many languages and it doesn't cover "damaged by any external cause (including, for example, by being dropped, exposed to liquid, used with inadequate ventilation, etc., or failure to follow instructions in the instruction manual)"

Flush it out with clean cold water so that the sugar cannot dry inside
I don't think flushing a laptop with water is a good idea, I really don't.

You fried it. RIP.

Next time, don't try to charge of power up a computer bathed in sticky fluids. Take it to be cleaned.

Flush it out with clean cold water so that the sugar cannot dry inside
I don't think flushing a laptop with water is a good idea, I really don't.
Regardless of what you think, that is the correct thing to do to remove sticky liquids. If the device is already wet inside, plain water will not cause any further harm. The important factor is to remove the sticky liquid before it can congeal on the electrical contacts and start corrosion.
It is of course vital to remove the charging lead first.

Regardless of what you think, that is the correct thing to do to remove sticky liquids. If the device is already wet inside, plain water will not cause any further harm
Rinsing a laptop with water will finish it off completely.

Many people suggest attempting to dry the keyboard by using cotton bids or cloths but I have never seen any reputable source advise rinsing a laptop with water in order to repair it.

If you have any links where this course of action is advised (rinsing a laptop with water) then I would be glad to see them.

Thanks

Whilst I agree that you can clean the laptop with water, saying "flush it out" is probably not the best advice. Ideally the laptop should be taken apart and each individual component cleaned with either water or rubbing alcohol to remove sticky residue. You certainly shouldn't stick the laptop under a tap and cross your fingers.

For someone who has no idea how to take apart and reassemble a computer, I really wouldn't recommend it.

Did you manage to sort it out, OP?

Coke contains phosphoric acid that corrodes electronics components and connections.
While it should ideally be cleaned out by disassembly and proper cleaning solvents, if this can't be done right away it is far better to wash the drink out with plain water before the acid gets to work.
If the spill is the full sugar version of Coke this is even more important.

If it has any chance of being repaired it needs to go to a specialist repair company as someone has already said. I spilled something on my laptop but I was very very lucky and the insurance company paid out and I got a brand new one.

Hi. Sorry to be so slow.
Following a couple of days dryong out, DS's laptop has been working perfectly!
I'm almost too scared to raise the subject of having it checked out professionally, for fear of damaging it somehow - on the other hand, what if we don't??
So I'm not sure if we need to cry Victory or Help!