So I just sent in my m18x to the repair depot, and I have a few questions

Specs:
i7 processor (don't remember which)
SLI'd AMD 7970s
16 gb RAM
750 gb hard drive (not SSD)

(Storytime)
I just sent in my laptop a few days ago. I managed to go almost 2 years without issues, but then there was unfortunately some alcohol spillage into it around the middle area of the keyboard (college and all that jazz), which promptly caused the keyboard to screw up for a few days (which surprised me, I thought it'd kill the thing) where I'd press one key and it'd press like 6 others as well. After a couple days of this, the keyboard thing somehow fixed itself and it was back up and running.

Fast forward three weeks, and I've noticed that the front left part of my laptop in front of the keyboard runs EXTREMELY hot when gaming (like hot to the touch at some points). I start using temp monitors, and they don't really show anything crazy going on so I said whatever. Then, I start getting the crashes with thick gray vertical lines across the screen. I thought hey maybe it's not the spill that caused this, seeing as I hadn't updated my drivers since like 12.4 beta (plus when I uninstalled them the comp ran just fine). So I went through the arduous uninstall, driver sweeper/ccleaner/etc., went to 13.9 and managed like 1.5 hours then boom crash. From this point on I could probably play maybe like an hour or two of games in a day before it'd start crashing.

Seeing as it was now time-based, I admitted defeat and accepted the spill must have messed up some inside parts (I'm guessing GPU? Idk, not that good with hardware stuff as you can tell by my half-a'd specs). So, I sent it in. Aside from my absolute dreading fear of the repair depot (oh god the stories I've read...just hoping they manage to fix it the first time and put it back together correctly), I had a few questions I wanted to pose:

1. Since I have AMD cards, and they've stopped running those as they went to the 18, should I expect them to switch them out for equivalent Nvidias (at which point I'd prolly just ask to pay to upgrade to 780ms or whathaveyou...), or do you think I will be waiting weeks on them ordering in extras?

2. How much do you think it'd cost to upgrade to SSD for my hard drive?

3. How long do repairs usually take when you send them in?

4. How conservative are they with replacing parts? I mentioned the above issues in the note that goes to them, but it's possible to boot up my laptop for like an hour and not have problems. I just don't want them to be like oh hey let's just replace the drivers send it back to the guy and call it good and have him send it back in again if there's more problems (I use this computer for school, which is why I sent it in now, finals happening and hoping to get it back before next semester in working condition)

5. When I get it back, if I install a new SSD hard drive, I've heard this doesn't void the warranty but it won't be covered by dell if I send it in. If I purchase the SSD drive separately FROM dell, then will that be covered if I send it in?


Any and all help is appreciated. Thanks for reading