Liquid Spill killed laptop video

[mattpatter]

A friend spilled tea on his HP zd7260. It wouldn't boot at all at first, but after a thorough cleaning, everything worked except the LCD. Vga port works fine, as does s-video output. The liquid seemed to puddle right where the lcd connects to the main board, so I don't know for sure whether the problem lies with the main board, the display cable, or the lcd itself. Is there some way to determine which is faulty (perhaps with a meter) without having spare parts to swap with?

Would the lcd connections on other HP laptops be the same as this one, or are they different for every model?

p.s. The laptop was turned on when the tea was spilled

 

[Harvey]

There are a couple of possibilities, neither of them very helpful:

1. Residue from the liquid is shorting our a couple of contacts of some component, or between components, leaving the video dark.

2. Something shorted a component, causing it to fail.

If you're inside the case, try using a toothbrush and some alcohol or other cleaner that won't leave a residue to remove all traces of the crud. Pay particular attention to any areas on and around exposed soldered areas.

Take your time, be gentle and don't soak the tiny surface mounted components, either mechanically or by saturating them with your solvent.

If that doesn't get it, his next stop is probably a laptop repair place.

Good luck.

 

[thescreensavers]

your lcd inverter my of gone down in cowinsedince. or it got shortted out.

 

[mattpatter]

Thanks Guys.
I had already cleaned the connections with toothbrush/alcohol, but that didn't seem to help. Guess I'll start searching for a repair shop. He said he had an extended warranty at Best Buy, but apparently when he bought it, they didn't cover accidental damage like spills. He said they told him that 3 months after he bought it they changed their warranty policy, and now it covers accidental damage and costs the same as the warranty he purchased. Such is life :frown:

 

[thescreensavers]

just dont tell them you spilled anny thing and thats it just say it stoped workimng

 

[Kromis]

Originally posted by: thescreensavers
just dont tell them you spilled anny thing and thats it just say it stoped workimng

:thumbsdown:

They'll find out...eventually!

 

[thescreensavers]

naa there stupids I stuck a copper pipe in my heat sink shortted out the mobo and the fins on my heat sink were bent but they still fixed it