Coffee spill -- please help me troubleshoot

Question

I know, I know -- my first problem is having a liquid anywhere near my computer.
About 10 days ago my PowerBook accidentally had a 16-ounce coffee with creamer dumped into it. I turned it off and pulled power/battery immediately, drained it, opened it up and cleaned it out as much as possible. I used some rubbing alcohol, and have let it sit and air out.
After all of that, it'll start up most of the time. When it does start up, I get the familiar screen with the Apple logo on it, and then after 10 or 15 seconds the video gets garbled and eventually goes away.
I'm wondering if anyone can provide any advice on what might be wrong, and/or how I'd go about further troubleshooting. Thanks for your help.
-Mike

Answer 1

That is really unfortunate. You probably also had sugar in the coffee, which is very corrosive. The only time I have had any success with this is to completely disassemble the entire interior, clean every part and rinse the boards under warm water until all traces of the foreign liquid are gone. Some mechanical parts should not be washed under water, but almost everything on a circuit board is manufactured this way, with water soluble solder flux washed away this way. A low temperature oven bake dries the water away, but it is important to dry every bit out. The slightest bit of water in the wrong place will stop everything. A hairdryer might substitute. Also, the keyboard is almost certainly toast. IME, the sheet plastic contacts are impossible to remove the liquid from cleanly, and replacement is really the only viable course.
Now, all this may not fix it, but you have little to lose at this point. I think most repairers will only want to replace everything at high cost.