I have no personal experience in this, but that won't stop me from
making some comments.  :)

First of all, you have two different possible problems.  The first is
the keyboard.  I have seen suggestions on these pages that putting a
keyboard through a dishwasher cycle (no soap, I suspect) can help to
make it work again more often than you would suppose.

The second is the other internal parts.  If it were my computer, my
first choice would be carbon tet or naphtha - one of the dry cleaning
fluids that  used to come in cans.  (I have not purchased this for many
years.)  The reason is that they are petroleum based and will likely not
conduct electricity.  However, the main ingredient in soda is sugar,
which best dissolves in water, suggesting the use of distilled water for
a solvent.  If the traces on the motherboard have been shorted, then you
will need to be very, very careful not to tear them when cleaning.  I
would try patting with a wet, soft lint-free cloth.

Another choice would be to use a compressed air can close enough to the
material to, perhaps, make it a bit moist.

There used to be commercial cleaners.  For example, I have an old can of
"GC Static Free Contact Kleen NRF," which one could try.  It contains
alcohol and trichlorotrifluoroethane, which sounds like a substance that
is now banned or only available to professionals, because of the
"fluoro" part, which I presume is fluorine.  It may be that newer
products are available at electronics places such as
www.partsexpress.com.

I don't have a lot of hope for a successful end to this operation.  If
the notebook is still new and quite expensive, maybe  you can find a
tech somewhere who has had experience with this type of cleaning.

Dean Kukral

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Vernon Plumlee" Sent: Tuesday, February 12, 2008 10:42 AM
Subject: [PCBUILD] Cleaning the innards, Compaq Providian


Anybody know what the best cleaning solution is to clean the innards of
a
notebook? A friend of mine spilled soda into his laptop and is amazed it
doesn't work anymore?!? I took it apart and now want to clean it up and
then
see what happens. So, I need to know the best cleaner to use. Anybody.
TIA,
Vern Plumlee

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