OT cleaning laptop components- sugary liquid contamination

[Russell Reiter]

I've been given a supposedly broken laptop by a neighbour. Someone in
the building was throwing it out and it was rescued by the
superintendent of the building. They apparently took it around to
stores in the neighbourhood and were told it would be impossible or
too expensive to fix. When I first got it, when the power button was
pressed it would shut off after five seconds with no POST beeps and
what I perceived to be excessive heat buildup around the area of the
power supply. The laptop is a hp pavilion dv1000. 1.6 bus and 512 ram.

I monkeyed around with it a bit. ie. turning it on every time it shut
off and was eventually able to get the battery charged and then it
would stay on but with a black screen and two short POST beeps, which
in some computers indicates a normal boot. I attached an external
monitor, got the apparently normal post but still a black screen. I
kept repeating the boot process while placing the laptop screen at
different angles, in case the video cable to the inverter had been
pinched after dropping the laptop or some sort of similar impact.
Assuming normal boot and a display problem I pressed the enter button
to continue to boot windows and the laptop would churn for a few
seconds and then shut off.

Finally I was able to get a flash of text on the attached monitor
which was the windows "boot in safe or normal" prompt. As soon as I
stopped applying pressure to the top of the laptop display that text
would disappear. Again by moving the laptop display during boot while
I applied pressure to the top of the display, and after many attempts
to find an orientation where the display worked, I was able to find an
place where the laptop display kept the message on the attached
monitor. I was then able to watch the windows boot process as it
failed to access the windows system directories, which appeared to be
corrupted and then it would shut down.

I reinstalled from the original disks which had been kept with the
computer in the box it was thrown out in and with the external monitor
attached I was able to reinstall windows. I resized the disk volume
with gparted and installed Debian. After getting this far I assumed
the backlight inverter or its connection was failing and I started to
remove the display. In order to do that you have to remove the
keyboard. I removed the screws indicated by the service manual I had
downloaded, but the keyboard was stuck fast. It was so stuck that when
I was trying to remove it, I would look in the area between the part
of the keyboard I was able to lift and the part that would not
separate and it appeared to be held down with double sided tape. That
was not so.

When I was finaly able to disengage the keyboard, I noticed a caramel
coloured residue on the plate the keyboard rests on. It looks like a
soft drink had been spilled and had soaked the paper label on the back
of the keyboard. I guess the glue dissolved and then re-hardened
essentially gluing the keyboard in place. I also took the faceplate
off the display to access the inverter and cable and noticed the same
caramel residue on the lower left corner of the display case.

Before I search out an new inverter or cable, I was wondering if
anyone has any suggestions on how to clean the soft drink residue from
the components. At this point I am unsure whether the video problem is
in fact the inverter or cable or some sort of loading imbalance in the
related power supply or video components. The power supply, external
monitor attachment and the video port are all clustered in the area
where the liquid was apparently spilled.

Right now as I type, if I pull the display forward the picture
disappears and then appears again in the new forward location. If I
push the display backwards the picture stays normal. This might be the
inverter or the cable. To help with the perceived heating problem I
keep the laptop elevated off the table to allow air to circulate
around the power supply. I really think that a good cleaning might
bring it back to normal service. I could try soap and water and dry
the components in rice or gel packs, but I'm afraid that there would
be some residue from the soap or minerals in the water.

Any cleaning solutions are appreciated.

Thanks
Russell
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