Hi. Please save my laptop :')

Yesterday around 6pm I spilled +- 150cc of black coffee (without sugar) over my laptop. It did not immediately drop dead.
I turned it off fully, unplugged everything, fully opened it (can do a 180) and turnsd it upside down on a towel, and I replaced the towel every few minutes.
Only around 8pm did I think of disconnecting the battery, and so I did. Looking at the inside, the only visible liquid is at the place where the battery connects to the rest of the hardware. I did not notice any damage or liquid at different places.

Lenovo
L340-15IRH Gaming Laptop (ideapad) - Type 81LK

I tried switching it on the next morning, around 9am. Upon starting, the on/off indicator flickers at a very low frequency with a blue light. Googling tells me this means the computer is in sleep mode. However, I cannot get it to activate no matter what I try: moving the mouse, pressing the buttons, turning off and back on, closing and opening the lid,...
On the inside, when I plug in the charger (with both laptop on or off), it shows a white LED turned on next to the charge port, it is not flickering.
Furthermore, there is a LED called LED4 on the inside that flickers a white light at the same frequency as the on/off indicator next to the battery, when the laptop is switched on.

On one end I am inclined to open everything up and give it a good IPA 99% rub, but on the other it feels like a hail mary.
My thoughts are:
1. It does not successfully draw power out of the battery (considering the liquid at its connection) and so all it can do is flicker a light to indicate being switched on. This is consistent with stories I read on the internet on Lenovo spillage problems.
2. The battery is fine and the laptop fails to take in any input from my keyboard/mouse, and so I am utterly unable to get it out of sleep mode. I suppose this means the motherboard is done for.

Help 🙃

This post was edited by Leeevee on Jul 22 2023 02:17am

I brought it in to see what the repairmen think.
My friend tells me sometimes if a laptop fully dries it just starts working again with no explanation and advised me to wait another 24h, but that brings me to a Sunday and I have no time window to bring it inside next week.

Let's hope for the best q.q

Well when you spill liquids on a laptop most of the times the keyboard get broken or a tranzistor from motherboard can fry .. so

1. Can you measure the voltage it goes in the laptop on motherboard ?
To see if it enters the same amount it says on the charger .. if not, you need to go and repair it

2. You can remove the keyboard from motherboard and try power it on without it and see if the keyboards got stuck and keeps your laptop on sleep mode
If thats the case you need only to replace the keyboard ..

Let me know after you tryed this

Hey,

I don't think I fully understand what you're suggesting. How do I measure the voltage that the motherboard is getting upon attempting to start up?
As for the keyboard, you want me to try and start up with the keyboard disconnected from the motherboard? Wouldn't this just continue to cause for a startup without input? I could maybe try a standalone keyboad connected with an USB to see if it takes input from that..
When I have the laptop back, anyway. Repairmen are looking at it at their first convenience. If the conclusion is motherboard I'll get a second opinion elsewhere or see if I can still do something about it myself, but if it's something else I may be saved yet :-)

"I don't think I fully understand what you're suggesting. How do I measure the voltage that the motherboard is getting upon attempting to start up?"

- You can measure voltage with a digital multimeter, you can look on google how to measure voltage on ...and type your laptop series .. maybe you can find an exact one and check how he is doing

"As for the keyboard, you want me to try and start up with the keyboard disconnected from the motherboard?"

- Look on google on how start your laptop without keyboard, you will find tutorials, it cant be started with a normal keyboard, you need to remove and plug in the bios battery or the jumper.

"If the conclusion is motherboard I'll get a second opinion elsewhere or see if I can still do something about it myself"

- Look on internet how much is a motherboard for your laptop, usually they are cheaper then repair a damaged one.


And lastly, don't do it yourself if your knowledge is low, you can damage your motherboard without knowing it or other components that can lead to more money investment then have a repairman do it for you.

The company I went to concluded that the motherboard was completely oxidized. I went for that second opinion but realistically I'm expecting the same answer.
The man told me a new motherboard would be around 600 euro's. The laptop itself is a few years old and it costed me, iirc, 900 euro's or something.

I'm probably going to have to make do with my old laptop until next payday. I hope it'll be able to keep up with my work :/ Guess I know what I'll buy myself for Christmas.. lol

Last month i spilled chocolate milk all over my laptop. I cleaned what i could, took a tooth pick and got the keys to "unstick"...did what i had to do to get as much liquid out of the ports, and went to bed. I woke up and it was working perfectly fine so much to the point where I forgot it happened (it was in the middle of the night) until later that day.

Give it a try in 24 hours. Maybe you'll get lucky.

This post was edited by PRY on Jul 25 2023 04:08pm

If it's already 'dead' and you're keen to tinker, you could try just taking it apart and scrubbing off the oxidation with a tooth brush and some isopropyl alcohol (99%). I had a friend who spilled an entire beer in his Xbox and I did this (it was horrible) but it works to this day.

y, IPA 99% is my next step if the shop concludes it's dead. Doesn't hurt to try and it'll be good for my mindfulness >_<..
Thanks for giving me hope.

Open the back, fill with rice. Close back up. Place in a garbage bag with rice. Wait 48 hours. Open back case, remove rice. Plug in. Turn on.