[fearsnake]

Good morning. Allow me first of all to introduce myself. My name is Andrew, and I am a new member here. In fact, this is my first post - I have what seems to me to be a less than hopeful computer problem, but I thought I'd give you guys a try.

I am a computer science student, and I've been working with computers for several years now. I'm aware, however, that I have far less experience than many of you, especially where laptop systems are concerned. I will provide you with a description of the problem in as much detail as possible - I know it can be hard to give advice without sufficient information.

My brother brought his laptop in to me a couple of weeks ago, having spilled a full mug of coffee on the system. He had turned it upside down as soon as the spill occurred in an attempt to dump as much of the coffee out of the system as possible. When he brought it to me, it was still powered on - the system was frozen and he had tried holding down the power button to no avail. I removed the battery, feeling that it would be best to get the power off expeditiously so as to decrease the likelihood of a short circuit.

I dried the system as much as possible from the outside, then proceeded to take it apart. I stripped the system completely and cleaned each component with denatured alcohol. I allowed the various parts to dry fully, then reassembled the machine. The system would power on, but would beep forty to seventy times in a row at POST, and powered off at apparently random intervals. I disconnected the touchpad and keyboard, which allowed the system to boot into Windows Vista with a USB keyboard plugged in. Short of the touchpad and keyboard, all of the hardware appeared to be functioning.

At this point, I returned the system to my brother, advising him to back up any important as soon as possible. I was under the impression that damage from short circuits can weaken a component, causing it to fail sooner than normal. He used the system for little over an hour, at which time he attempted to remove a USB cable from the system. The machine shut off when he did this, and has not booted successfully since. In fact, the fans spin up and then down again. I believe the lights come on and then turn off, and the display remains blank. It has been several days now since this occurred, and there has been no improvement. I was hoping that someone here might have some suggestions, but I understand that it is entirely possible that she system is past the point of no return.

The system is an HP Pavilion laptop, and, as I have mentioned above, it is running some version of Windows Vista. I believe it is Vista Home, but I am not sure as far as service pack is concerned.

Regardless of whether or not there is anything that can be done at this point, I appreciate your time and assistance.