laptop got water spilled on it!

[mikee]

My dad's girlfriend's kid accidentally spilled a glass of water on the keyboard of my dad's laptop and now it will not turn on. I don't know the specifics of the accident since the laptop has been at her place for a few months and she just told me over the phone. But they did the worst possible thing you can do, the kid immediately tried and turn it back on and tried several times.

The computer sat for 3 hours since the kids were alone with it at the time. I told her to unplug it and take the battery out for a day to let it dry out and now she has a fan blowing on it.

Is there anything else to do to fix this or any further advice I can give her to save it? it is an acer aspire from 2008 with a core 2 duo t5700 3 gb ram, 320gb hdd but I don't remember the exact model.

I guess the moral of the story is do not live 9 year old kids alone with an expensive laptop.

 

[foothead]

Take the thing apart, like every single compone t removed from the chassis. Then, you can dry tyem out individually in rice/plaster.

The fan is a bad idea imo, it will likely cause the water to move deeper into whatever compinents it effects.


Make sure this was only water, nothing else. If it had anything else in it, the approach for drying it will be very different.

 

[Calibound88]

at least it was water. I guess turn it upside down and make sure the water doesn't just pool there

 

[mikee]

I don't have the laptop with me its at my dads gf s place and she is beyond dumb when it comes to computers. I doubt I can walk her through how to take it apart when I myself may have trouble.

 

[mikee]

She just called back it still doesn't work today. It was sitting with air blowing on it for about half a day, tipped upside down to allow the water to come out of the keyboard and today still doesn't turn on. I guess its dead.

It was bought at staples in january 2009 and actually now I remember its an acer extensa not aspire like I mentioned in my first post. She might be bringing it over this weekend so I can actually look at it for myself though.
I think my dad had an extended warranty on it so I'll have to check and see if they will replace the whole thing or repair it. I don't know how they will deal with it since it was a clearance store demo item.

 

[foothead]

You can usually order a new mobo for it, which will most likely be much cheaper than just buying a new laptop. It sounds like it's worth saving.

And most likely, it will be unfixable if it is as you described. Whoever turned it on while wet ruined it, not the water. Water will have absolutely no effect on electronics if there is no power applied.

 

[mikee]

We shall see what goes on. I have never bought a laptop from staples personally but does anyone know if they will replace it if it is dead beyond repair?

All my dad said when he bought it was that he bought 3 years of warranty. He isn't that good with reading fine print in what the warranty will cover. Some of my youtube friends with tech related channels said that if it is something like a carelessness ie. spilling water on the keyboard they will not cover it.
I don't know if that is entirely true though since I have seen videos of people purposely destroying their laptops by dropping it in the bathtub, running it over with a car several times etc, then just taking it in and getting it replaced with no issue.

I really do not know what to think. maybe in a few days I'll try powering it up again if it gets brought to me this weekend

 

[CBrooks]

I really do not know what to think. maybe in a few days I'll try powering it up again if it gets brought to me this weekend

Definitely do this. I had a laptop that had water spilled all over it.. And crazy enough it seemed like it knew it had water in it because the 2nd day all it would do is turn on with the fan going full blast (no post or anything) and the 3rd day it booted up like nothing happened.

The laptop still works fine a month later

 

[foothead]

For now, make sure nobody attempts to power it up again. After a day and a half, chances are that there is still water in there.

And who killed their laptops for free replacements? That is blatant fraud.

 

[mikee]

Definitely do this. I had a laptop that had water spilled all over it.. And crazy enough it seemed like it knew it had water in it because the 2nd day all it would do is turn on with the fan going full blast (no post or anything) and the 3rd day it booted up like nothing happened.

The laptop still works fine a month later

today would be the second day so if this happens then it would work tomorrow. I speak incredibly optimistically of course since you probably knew what you were doing in the event of the spill. These were kids using it with no adult home and they spilled the water then the computer goes off, immediately try powering it up again then again then it sits 3 hours plugged in with the kids not trying to clean it up or do anything, then she gets home and tries powering it up then calls me.

You probably dealt with it the instant it happened without immediately trying to power up

For now, make sure nobody attempts to power it up again. After a day and a half, chances are that there is still water in there.

And who killed their laptops for free replacements? That is blatant fraud.

I watched to very good examples of this last year one was a chick who spilled juice on her friend's laptop but it could have been easily repaired by a repair shop but she had warranty so they went out to the parking lot and jumped on it several times and ran it over with their car then returned it.

The other was a bunch of guys taking a working laptop throwing it off the roof of their house then throwing dumbell weights at it off the roof and then throwing it out of their moving car at 60mph and then claiming they did it because they hated vista then returning it.

I can't find either since they were from 2008 and youtube has remodeled several times since then and they have disappeared

Well I have the laptop with me now and I am finding it hard to believe that it was water that got spilled because most of the keys do not come back up right away as if sticking to something. It still doesn't turn on at all even though completely dry I took the back panel off to see if there appeared to be anything wrong there and there doesn't appear to be.

The real story of what happened to it is that the kids had a babysitter with them and that was who spilled something on the laptop. The babysitter tried to pin it on the little girl Terrible babysitter. So I think what we are going to try and do is take it back and see if it can be fixed or replaced under extended warranty at staples If not the babysitter is being held liable for it and will have to pay half.

Another thing is that my dad wants the data off the hard drive but I do not really know how to go about doing that since the thing doesn't power up also I do not want to risk voiding the warranty by tinkering inside it. While I had the back panel off I could not figure out how the hard drive even comes out. there doesn't appear to be any screws holding it in yet it feels like its held in there pretty good.

The exact model of the laptop is acer extensa 5620-6747