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Spilled water on laptop

R

Roegge

Junior Member
Last night I spilled a glass of water on my laptop. So I unplugged everything, and got to work opening it up to see if the water had gotten anywhere important. Just as I feared the water had infiltrated the the keyboard and ran straight to the motherboard. So I dry it up starting with paper towels lightly taping it dry then I move on with Q-tips to finish the job. I then inspect everything for any sign of water. Seeing none I let it dry for a few hours and reassemble it.

First thing I see when it starts up black screen with letters I have never had the pleasure of meeting before, so I think all is lost. It gives me the option to run a diagnostics test, so I do. It goes fine and then boots the system. I explode with joy as everything seems normal.

I then decide too finish my night by forcing my girlfriend to watch "The Matrix Reloaded" to find that my Cd/Dvd drive isn't working. It isn't even listed in device manager. I'm almost 100% sure it didn't even get wet. I tried reinstalling the drivers for it, but they don't even recognize it.

I'm all out of ideas. What do you guys think is the drive trashed or is there some way to fix it?All help is appreciated.

Oh and I just found out the left arrow button on my keyboard doesn't work
 
I would guess that the water may have contained minerals or carried other contaminants that could have shorted contacts on your drive or the drive controller, and there are other ways it could have caused the damage.

Unfortunately, laptops aren't as easy to pull apart and service as a desktop. I think you need professional help to diagnose the problems and give you an idea of the cost of repairing your lappy.

Best for the season and good luck for an inexepensive repair job.
 
it's going to be a minimum of $200 for just a new motherboard, might need new keyboard, ram, cpu, optical drive, and the install, it'll be cheaper to buy a new laptop.
 
Well not the news I was hoping for but thanks for the help.

I'll just have to live with out it then, because I'm broke, so much for getting new games for Christmas lol.

I haven't even had this thing for a year yet.:frown:
 
if the optical drive is modular (removable) you could see if a local pc shop has one you could swap out and test with.
 
The Keyboard works fine with the exception of the right arrow key. The only the thats doesn't work is the Cd/Dvd drive. I'm gonna pop the drive in my friends laptop to see if it works, it's pretty much the same model. If its the mother board ill probly buy a new one.

Anybody know anywhere I could buy one?
 
it'd be cheaper to buy a newer laptop outright than just a motherboard.
I saw C2D laptops going for $250 NIB on ebay.
 
Well now this seems weird. i recently installed a virtual Cd/Dvd manager on my laptop,which installed a new Cd/Dvd driver, and now when I put a cd in the drive WMP pops up showing all the songs on the play list. When it tries to play it says the was an error reading it in digital mode. Then ask if I would like too switch to analog. after clicking ok it comes up again only vice versa.
 
Originally posted by: Roegge
Well now this seems weird. i recently installed a virtual Cd/Dvd manager on my laptop,which installed a new Cd/Dvd driver, and now when I put a cd in the drive WMP pops up showing all the songs on the play list. When it tries to play it says the was an error reading it in digital mode. Then ask if I would like too switch to analog. after clicking ok it comes up again only vice versa.
Click to expand...

When you look into the laptop's BIOS, is the CD/DVD drive seen there?

It appears the drive is working, which suggests a simple filter driver issue. If it's that simple, just read my website (see my .sig) for details on how to fix that; it's the 'cd-dvd rom' entry in the initial blog entry you'll pull up when you go to the page. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to fix if that's all that it is.
 
Originally posted by: Roegge
The Keyboard works fine with the exception of the right arrow key.
Click to expand...

If you can open the machine enough to see the keyboard contacts, sometimes, a shot of WD-40 will clean them. Do it carefully using the extended nozzle tube to hit it with just a quick shot, and use some tissue around the area to limit the spray to just the switch contacts you want to clean.

I'm an electronic design engineer, and I've done this successfully, before. It doesn't always work, but it's not destructive. Since the keyboard is already in failure mode, you may want to try it as a last resort.
 
I own a Toshiba Satellite 1415-S105 .. using it now .... It is about 6 years old.
So far, I have spilled Beer (not much) and also some Zinfandel (not much)
on the keyboard. Last time was by the arrows keys. Keyboard then did not work
at all. Took it out, cleaned the Ribbon cable with Denatured Alcohol, put it all
back together. It still wouldn't work. Shut it down and ordered a new keyboard
for $25 shipped thru Ebay .. Next day, I power it up again and now the keyboard
is fully functioning again. So now I don't need the one I ordered, but will keep it
as a spare, just in case.
 
Looks like everything has worked out for the better. That's great. Sometimes thorough drying takes a bit of time (except here in Arizona.)

But the real bottom line and lesson learned - no food or drink on computer desks. Period!
 
Originally posted by: Roegge
The Keyboard works fine with the exception of the right arrow key. The only the thats doesn't work is the Cd/Dvd drive. I'm gonna pop the drive in my friends laptop to see if it works, it's pretty much the same model. If its the mother board ill probly buy a new one.

Anybody know anywhere I could buy one?
Click to expand...

Did you see this post Rob......the optical is the only thing that is shot. For spilling water on a lappy and having only the optical drive mess up, he is lucky. Stop telling him to buy a new laptop when it works.

I had a cell phone that took a swim, i cleaned it out and let it dry for a few days and then powered it back on and it worked like a champ for a long time.
 
I'm gonna try to fix the keyboard, and if I break it I finally have a reason to buy a real Dvorak if there are any for this model

I always have my USB till then.
 
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