Rip my laptop

[HotelMinion]

Soooo yesterday I spillied some milk on my laptops keyboard. I turned it off and tilted it so it spilled out right away, but soon the keyboard started acting up. I waited a full day for it to dry, but it's still all wonky. So then I took a hair dryer and set it on low and used cold air setting, and gave it a good blasting, but now it's even worse. Is it time for a new laptop? or should I just give it a while? It's only 3 years old.

[wolfie]

By "wonky", is it just keys being sticky/not responding properly, or are there other symptoms? If the former, a keyboard cleaning/repair/replacement (what's needed depends on the model) could be all that's needed. If the latter, you've probably got motherboard issues, which would dictate replacement.

Is there anything about the old laptop that a new laptop can't do (you use a docking station that would need to be replaced, it's got a real serial port that you use with VAG-COM on a VW with an ALH engine so you'd need to upgrade the software and buy the combined USB interface/dongle to work with a new laptop, etc.)? If you'd need to upgrade other hardware/software because they're incompatible with the old laptop, that's a point in favour of getting the old one fixed.

What model is the old laptop, and what are its specs? What operating system are you running? If you're running XP or Windows 7 and don't want Windows 10 (has a LOT of "Microsoft is the ultimate authority on what you do with that computer - you have no say in the matter" stuff), you'll probably want to get your old one fixed (from what I've heard, Windows 8 has been forcing downgrades to 10).

[EricKei]

To be fair, I would only consider Windows 8 to be an "upgrade" as compared to Windows 98 or Vista...

[lordlundar]

I wouldn't even label it an upgrade for 98. Now ME on the other hand...

[Jetfire]

Milk can leave a residue behind, so you may still need to clean it up more/clean the keys.

If you can, borrow/buy a cheap keyboard and plug it in and see if the wonkiness continues (make sure none of the laptop keys are stuck down, disable the laptop keyboard and touchpad if you can).

If the wonkiness continues even with a clean keyboard, then you may need more tech work. If it goes away, then you're probably lucky and just need a keyboard cleaning.

[It's me]

Keyboard replacement on most laptops is very easy. Four or five screws and a cable lock. 10-15 minutes to replace most of the time. Lots of YouTube tutorials out there, likely one for your computer.

You can find replacement keyboards on eBay for not a lot of money. Just search for "keyboard" along with your computer's make and model.

Tip: once you find some listings for the correct keyboard: most listings include a part number (or several part numbers) for the keyboard. Re-do the search using the part number(s) as the search criteria. You will very likely get additional hits for the same keyboard, but listed for different computer models. There is a good chance that you will get a better price that way.

[HotelMinion]

Idk my laptop specs, when I need those I go into the computer to get them. Since I can't do that all I know is it's an Asus with Windows 10. Mircrosoft forced me to put that on, so annoying. It made it super slow and just chugging along, so I've been eyeing others. My dad took it apart and there was this dried up yellow residue everywhere and I smelled it, yup it's was milk! Dad thinks it can be fixed but I already ordered another. It's cheap but hopefully it won't chug along...it's so annoying when you have to wait hours for it to start up. Plus, it's shiny! *_*

[raw1989]

My dad took it apart and there was this dried up yellow residue everywhere and I smelled it, yup it's was milk!

yuck it will start to smell

[Mental_Mouse]

Idk my laptop specs, when I need those I go into the computer to get them. Since I can't do that all I know is it's an Asus with Windows 10. Mircrosoft forced me to put that on, so annoying.

For the specs: next time round, print out the specs and save them with your paper files for this kind of situation. The Control Panel should have at least one option for printing out the hardware configuration.

As far as Windows 10, "Microsoft forced me"... well, I use Linux, because even before Windows 10 I'd seen way too much coming from Microsoft. I'll spare you the full rant, you can find enough of them around the Web, but: Atrocious security and privacy, generally slower than Linux, and nowadays there's not all that much stuff Windows can do that Linux can't. (At least, not stuff you want it doing.) If you really want to, you can dual-boot Windows and Linux.

[raw1989]

if it makes it any better my husband a few years ago had a custom built computer over 6k into this computer stops working last year replace power supply under warranty yah no still wont work so we paid to have it rebuilt this year less expensive parts come to find out one of the video cards went bad he had 4 and fired the motherboard. We could have replaced it but if we did we'd be in the same spot as the motherboard is no longer made and a replacement wouldn't be compatible with his processer so we'd have to replace the whole computer anyways and the reason it was a lot is because it is a gaming computer and had water cooling in it.

[Food Lady]

I threw up on mine in Sept. I have a bluetooth keyboard for it now. I just rest it on top of the old keyboard.