Last night I split a drink over my new laptop, I was drunk and don't really remember if I turned it off myself or if it turned itself off. Anyway this morning I booted it up and it froze then shut itself down, saying something along the lines of Windows experienced an error and something critical died. It reset and said no hard drive found.

I haven't turned it on since. Is all hope lost? Can computer repair shops repair stuff like this? If I send it back under warranty after its dried out will they know it had liquid damage?

Thanks

have u tried putting the laptop in the airing cuphoard? or drying it out methodically? it may work again as componant parts are kinda safe , its the motherboard that might be gone thats about all . i lost my laptop yesterday trying to clean the flipping internal fans out but to no avail and tore off an internal part off the motherboard which may be beyond simple soldering ironing out , truth is if its under warranty go get it fixed today and be honest with what happened , best of luck

if the laptop has gone beyond all fix ,save the hard drive , you may need it for back up and it might be an idea to have that data on there saved. doubt it would have damaged that.

Take as much of it apart as u can i.e the battery and even some of the panels on the underside that just have one or two screws in them
do not plug it in to power source either battery or mains power

leave it in a airy place i.e somewhere the air can naturally dry it.
Thing is if its fcked its fcked either way it will have to be switched on at some point to check it, if u can wait a couple days then i would, If not then take it to a shop.

If its wine or coke etc then yes a proper shop will know its liquid damaged , if it was some water its harder to see but most likely still will be spotted by a pro.

what make and model is it btw the parts could be worth money if ur guarantee is voided

It is a hp ab254sa

My home insurance are willing to cover this by offering me a Lenovo idea pad 500. I've looked it up online and they are selling for close to double what I paid for my hp, so it sounds like a no brainier? I've never heard of Lenovo are they ok and will that model be good with 24 tables of pokerstars + holdem manager? I'm assuming it will be given the price of it..

Lenovo is what used to be IBM's laptop business (now Chinese owned). They build machines from quality components, and were always pretty well regarded. Better than most other brands. They have fallen out of favour with some people because last year there was a scandal involving machines being shipped with spyware on them (news widely available so you can read about this). But afaik that has been stopped (question of continuing trust is, I guess, a different matter, and a personal question for you) and I haven't seen anyone questioning the quality of the machines themselves. I think they still sell pretty well.

Cool. Well anyway since this laptop now owes me nothing since I'm having it replaced I may as well have a go at fixing it if that's at all possible, if not I'll maybe I try and pay a shop to fix it.

When I turn I on I get the message boot device not found. Please install operation system on your hard drive. When I search it it is a common fault on the hp laptops, but obv not usually after spilling a drink over them.