Informed Opinions Wanted - Coffee Spill on Alienware 15 R3 - Track Pad and Mouse Button issues

Hey Folks,

Yesterday, I spilt a couple of oz of coffee on my Alienware 15 R3 laptop with some of it getting to the track pad and mouse buttons.

Dried it out and put it near a dehumidifier for a few hours yesterday but symptoms still persists.

Track pad tracks but doesn't click/select. Left mouse button doesn't work. Right mouse button works.

I've repaired my own computers in the past and have the proper tools. Enough knowledge to get by.

My question is could replacing the track pad and mouse buttons be a likely fix or would I have to be concerned about the boards beneath them?

What about disconnecting, cleaning and reconnecting the connections in the area? Any recommended cleaning products specific to this purpose.

(External mouse works fine but it's a PITA...)

I know long distance diagnosing is a long shot. Thanks for reading!

 

My guess that fluid got in/on contacts. That needs to be cleaned. They make spray contact/electronic cleaner.

 

. Thanks. I've got some of that on hand!

 

First you're going to need to clean out the coffee schmoo from anywhere it has touched. Drying it out doesn't really help and you should avoid turning it on because power flowing through the traces will cause corrosion very quickly. The best way to do the cleaning is by taking it apart and using your spay cleaner and some q-tips. Be gentle. (and take pictures so you can put it back the way it was)

This is where it becomes hit or miss. I've seen laptops with a full cup of coffee spilled on them go back to work with a little cleaning, and others with just a little spill be unrepairable. Once it's clean and dry plug it in and give it a try. If it works great! If not look for corrosion on the traces and components and start replacing them. This is another area that can be a challenge. If there are multiple damaged components it can be more expensive to repair than to buy new computer. If it's just a damaged touch pad that's one thing, but if the motherboard is impacted that's another. Our rule is if the repair is more than 50% of the cost of new, cut your loses and buy new.

good luck

 

Awesome info! Thanks, I really appreciate it and the time you took to write it up.

Pics are a great idea! Dell lets you download the Service Manual so having pics to back it up would be good.

 

No problem. Working in IT for a very big company means seeing spills on laptops is very common.

 

You’ve instilled some hope!

One last question- would you recommend replacement touch pad and mouse button parts (the only affected i can see) or is just the cleaning indicted from your experience?

In appreciation ..

 

At work we don't mess around and just replace the parts. The impact on someone's productivity isn't worth a few dollars in parts. That's doesn't mean the cleaned parts won't work, just the repair pile is tall and time is money.

 

Using the Dell service manual, I removed the touchpad and click buttons, spayed it down w the clear as above, dabbed the connections with the cleaner and swabs, let everything dry and reassembled.

Touchpad and click feature seemed to be working fine but now I’m getting boot errors. HD was removed and reinstalled per procedures...

Saved the limb only to kill the patient me thinks..

Appreciate the help though

 

Is it refusing to boot, or just not booting properly? Some laptops have tamper sensors, and maybe something in the bios needs to be reset.

 

Thanks!

Refusing to boot. I’ll do some more digging into the BIOS.

 

If you see any corrosion try DeoxIT. I had success reviving a glitchy 10yr old circuit board after spreading that on it. I don't have experience on a computer but I have used at least 70% alcohol to clean off circuits that got wet and didn't work. Key is solvent or DI water to clean off the residue, dissolved compounds with moisture is what conducts. Like others said, clean it good before running to prevent shorts. For preventing corrosion or maybe displace a little remaining residue the DeoxIT should help

$18 CAIG LABORATORIES DeoxIT D100L-2DB Brush Applicator, More Than A Contact Cleaner, 7.4mL, Pack of 1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002BBVN2

 

Appreciate the info .

My situation was a small splash of coffee that seeped past the cutout for the touchpad. I didn’t see any corrosion or spooge from the coffee for that matter.

 

I guess to clarify its not like I could see anything wrong with that glitchy circuit, but it worked normal again after applying the cleaner. The big thing is to remove all residue otherwise even humidity could be enough to create dissolved ions and a conductive path.

 

It’s not seeing my hard drive. Had to F12 to get it to boot from a recovery USB downloaded from Dell.

It booted up with that.

Smart Repair didn’t find any errors.

Went to the next step to back up my data and it couldn’t see the HDD..

I attempted to reset the connection to the HDD, no go..

Thanks for everyone’s input .

 

Do you have a way to connect the HDD to another machine?

 

Just realized I can hear the disk spinning...

I can hook the HDD up to another machine but probably not today.

I got to Support Assist and it’s telling me no bootable devices were found. Possible causes corrupt OS image or boot device not enable in BIOS setup....

 

Edit- got to move on for today. I’ll try the HDD on another machine tomorrow...

Thanks for the help!

 

So,,,, the disk spins up when connected to another computer, can access data ok.

Getting a ‘check cable connection’ notice in DOS. Checked all that I disconnected and found one that doesn’t seem to sit correctly..labeled ‘KB BL’ with a black gate that doesn’t seem to set tightly...

 

My best guess is 'KB BL' is the keyboard backlight.