Water Damaged Laptop

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Hi OcUK,

Got myself a free laptop that somehow got water spilled inside it.

It came with no power cord or battery, so I purchased a power cord.

The lights come on but pressing the power button does nothing, I've tested the RAM and HDD and they work perfectly, it has been dried out. Any ideas what could be a fix?

Edit: Oh and I realise it may be doomed, but a £450+ laptop for free wouldn't be too shabby P:
 
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Well, "Pressing the power button does nothing" covers both of them.

It doesn't power, although lights show there is power.
 
So the system has no battery? Do laptops work without a battery being fitted then?

The damage caused by the water may have fried the mainboard totally or could still be kicking about inside there and shorting it out.
 
Well yeah that was my thought Tealc, if you plug in the charger I bought for it the power lights flash as if it was in hibernate.

And Jaffa Far, I did not steal the laptop, I was given it by my mothers friend at work, as she somehow managed to chuck lots of water in it (Don't ask me how), along with this she also gave me a really crappy PC, with 512mb RAM in it.
 
probably fried. laptops do work with no battery in Tealc.
Take it apart and have a look at it all, might be residue left on stuffs or something, or even wetness still inside it somewhere. Worth a go :D
 
i have to be honest and say your best bet is to simply salvage any parts that are still working and bin the rest. if there is still moisture present, every time you try to switch it on and pass power through the motherboard more damage will be getting done to it in all likely hood. if you can strip it down, look for obvious signs of damage, scortching etc. problem with laptops and water damage is the the cost of repair will likely be more than its worth.

sorry if i'm the bearer of bad news :(
 
Thekwango said:
i have to be honest and say your best bet is to simply salvage any parts that are still working and bin the rest. if there is still moisture present, every time you try to switch it on and pass power through the motherboard more damage will be getting done to it in all likely hood. if you can strip it down, look for obvious signs of damage, scortching etc. problem with laptops and water damage is the the cost of repair will likely be more than its worth.

sorry if i'm the bearer of bad news :(
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I plan to have a look with my dad (Who is an electrical engineer) at the motherboard, as supposedly the person who looked at it before she gave me it said that there was corrosion, I'd imagine this would mean the motherboard as it's the main place I haven't checked.

I'm going to look for any corrosion on solder joints and attempt a resolder, if not no money lost, it was given to me after all :D

Shame though, was a 2.2GHz Dual Core, 4GB, 500GB HDD, oh well!
 
get a new mobo for it if you can easily see thats the problem :)

Water shouldnt corrode it should it? The amount of times people say its "water damage" though when in fact its something else lol.
 
Ch3m1c4L said:
get a new mobo for it if you can easily see thats the problem :)

Water shouldnt corrode it should it? The amount of times people say its "water damage" though when in fact its something else lol.
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Well, the only mobo I've seen for it on ebay, with a 30 day return time, and it's a refurb, for £140+, not so sure that'd be best, although I'd imagine it's the only issue and the only thing needing a fix.

And well I dunno, that's what the chap who looked at it said, I've seen you can remove corrosion on solder joints with some kind of liquid stuff. Saying that, I'm sure on the battery pins there is like green stuff, I'd imagine it's from whatever was poured on it.
 
take it apart, clean it all with tim cleaner or some such stuffs and leave it apart for a while to let it properly dry, then stick it all together and wish like mad, then party if it works, if it fails, gief to me and ill harvest parts from it for my laptop lol
 
Yep it's probably still wet inside. You can either dismantle or draw the moisture out but the idea of using ipa or tim cleaner is good.

I dropped my iPod touch in the bath ( which I'm typing this on) and that needed 10 days in a bag of rice on top of the radiator to get rid of the moisture. Just leaving it somewhere warm doesn't work so well as the moisture just gets trapped. The rice attracts and absorbs stray moisture and the warmth helps it get moving.

I've got a wine damaged laptop coming with similar problems so it'll be interesting to see if yours comes back to life.
 
Plan of attack is just to open it up, remove any corrosion I can see, try and voltage test anywhere that looks a bit iffy. Then bag it with some rice and leave it on my cooker.

My question is, why use an iPod in the bath xD?
 
I know it was a bit foolish but I was watching YouTube videos over the edge of the bath and somehow I slipped and in it went. Bit more careful now I can tell you as even though it works mostly there are a few little things not right with it.
 
If it had water poured on it and was then dried it would be fine. So it wasn't water, or it wasn't dry. Either way applying power before stripping down and cleaning was a very bad plan.

If you want it to live again, get it to someone who knows what they are doing asap.

Failing that, post the exact spec and i can almost certainly source a new motherboard for you.
 
Well, I expected it to be dry after like 3 weeks of it being left somewhere warm.

Also, it's an Acer Aspire 5536-744G50Mn
 
Well, I've opened it up, fair amounts of corrosion from the board, looks like I might just buy a new board (If I can find a new one)
 
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