a small amount of coke fell in the keyboard of my laptop. after it dried we can't get certain letters and numbers to work and the screen has become very light and can't be adjusted.

If it was a regular key board I would say disasemble and put it in the dish washer---(all except the circits)
Your probobly gonna have to take it apart and clead it very carefully
but if the screen is giving you problems already then i would say the damage has been done you might have ruined it.It's probobly got coke all over the circuts.

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Death has come to our windows.

-- Jeremiah 9:21
(undoubtedly a Biblical reference to a Microsoft product!)

YODA74@carolina.rr.com

The problem with laptops is there's a lot of stuff in there, all of it is tiny, and none of it is very strong. Also, things are real close together and it's not always obvious how connectors work, which screws have to be removed to take off the keyboard, and so on. They're not a good computer learning experience. I'd take your machine to a repair shop and ask them for an estimate. They won't be able to tell you the high end because it is possible that several important parts have been trashed but they should give you a price to open it up, replace or clean the keyboard, and see if anything else needs to be done. And go from there ... I'd bet that the odds are 50-50 that only the keyboard is messed up and that it can be disassembled and cleaned -- though it may be cheaper to replace the whole thing, than pay $lots per hour for someone to clean it.

Laptop keyboards are typically a sandwich made of three layers of thin plastic. Top and bottom layers have contacts printed on them, middle layer has holes through which the contacts touch when a key is pressed. The key might go down 1/16", but the contact spacing is closer to 1/200" and if a liquid gets in there, it ain't come'n out in this lifetime. On my machines you could take the three layers apart, rinse with distilled water, dry, and reassemble. Whether that's possible on later machines or other makes, I don't know.

If your machine is near new and not too much is wrong, repairing is probably worthwhile. If it's like this one (a TI-4000M/100MHz machine, worth no more than $100 on a good day)I wouldn't even bother getting an estimate. I'd sell it for 'parts' and get a new machine.

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Walt
Proving daily that the Peter Principle applies even to acolyte geeks ...