Computer Repair recommendations - spilled milk!

I have a Sony laptop which no longer works due to a bowl of cereal being spilled on to it. I took to Best Buy who sent it out for an estimate. Ouch! at least $1,200. So, I bought I new one for less money.

But, it's been sitting around and I was wondering if there was a local shop or kid who might be able to get it running again. I'm willing to spend a few hundred $'s. If you have any thoughts please let me know.

Thank you

 

does it turn on at all? it could be something as simple as a new keyboard

 

no, it doesn't turn on at all unfortunately. I was hoping it was the keyboard since I had to have that replaced once before

 

The hard-drive still probably works! I've seen a hard-drive boot up just fine after having been totally immersed in Sprite. Remove it and see if you can hook it up to an external drive bay so that you can use it with your new computer.

For the rest of it, if you want to use the actual laptop after you've salvaged the hard-drive, you may need to take it apart (carefully!) and remember what came from which location! And then use an air-blower and a moistened q-tip to get rid of the milk solids that are on the electronics.

 

I guess this is one time where the expression "No use crying over spilt milk." doesnt apply.

 

yea at this point I would recommend taking it apart, piece by piece and cleaning as good as you can. The part that would be a little tricky is knowing how to clean some of the sensitive electronic pieces, but I bet it is as simple as making sure that all important contact points are clean, dry and not affected by gunk. The main reason it will not turn on is most likely due to some residue on certain contacts, creating a problem with the normal electrical operating conditions. At this point, what do you have to lose...

And like someone else said, the hard drive should be fine if you want to access the data.

 

Thanks, I sure did do plenty of crying and yelling since I wasn't the one who spilled on it!

I'll see what I can do. I had started to take it apart but began to worry about putting it back together. The laptop is a bit more complicated than a desktop.

I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

I highly reccomend Richard's Computers near Tysons.

www.richardscomputer.com

 

Thanks Kaosdad. I'll check them out.

 

No matter what shop works on it, it will still most likely run more than its worth to save it.

I'd suggest what Liz mentioned: getting a 2.5" IDE>USB box and taking the laptop drive out and hooking it in this. Then you could save all your files. I'd bet the drive is still fine.

You can get one locally (well semi-locally) from Microcenter like this one:
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0238053

Amazon.com has a ton as well.