Hi folks, I just wanted to ask if anything can be done about a laptop that someone spilled some fluid on the touchpad. Is it worth trying to revive it?
The only thing I know so far, is that only the power led is on, and it's impossible to start the laptop, so I assume that the mainboard is dead. I don't know however how would you go about diagnosing other parts. Any suggestions are welcome

If it's out of warranty, take it apart, and try to let the parts dry out in a dry environment. Then put back together and see how you get on. I had this problem with a HP dv1000 laptop, it was completely dead, and i ended up taking it apart to look around it, found the problem area, dried it out, and now it works 100%!

Depends a bit on the fluid and where it went; I suspect you don't mean distilled water (which wouldn't have been a bad fluid to spill) but mean something more like coffee or coke (which would have been bad fluids).

The more like distilled water the fluid was, the more it is likely that you just let it dry out or encourage the process by putting it somewhere warm.

If just letting it dry out is likely to leave a sticky residue, then you have more chance if you try to get as much of the residue out as possible. This may entail laptop disection (you may want to take pictures for re-assembly, always have a little pot by one side to put all the screws and fixings into). You might want to invest in something like isopropyl alcohol and some swabs.

The keyboard might be a particularly problematic area.

As laptop disection isn't easy (try the net to see if there are any instructions for your particular model), is insurance and a professional repairer an option?

salasi, i like your address! bit of lateral thinking going on there!