Thinkpads Forum

My T60 got wet when I left it near a window in my home and it rained.
I booted immediately, but it didn't boot up after 6hours, all the lights on LCD light up but it doesn't boot.

Can anybody suggest me what I can do.

When you turned off the computer you should have removed the power as well (battery and unplug the power cord). Then make sure it's completely dry before you connect the power again.

When you turn on the computer do you see the IBM/Lenovo logo that is shown before booting or do you see a black screen? If the screen is black does it seems like the computer is booting (disk activity)? If you see the IBM/Lenovo logo is there any error message?

If the computer seems to boot maybe it's the LCD and you could try to see if working while using an external monitor. If it seems like the computer doesn't boot at all and the screen is black then i'll guess it might be the motherboard.

Hi there. Sorry to hear that. Been there myself unfortunately, and the prospects where not so good.

Yes. I got mine T60 rained on, while it was plugged in, some water leaked in underneath the keyboard, and I think some things fried. I was in Kenya. Incredibly, I'll be more believing next time, although I wasn't in a country covered by the warranty, one local computer service was so smart (the guy held a degree in hardware computer engineering and he replaced some fuses on the motherboard...RESPEKT! He actually showed me... on the motherboard before assembling the computer back.

So if you're not booting...I doubt any US service would do the same work that the kenyan man did, but they would replace the motherboard most likely...

If you find someone that loves working and computers he might actually get it back to you if your warranty is done...

Hope it works out alright...

Please tell me, who he is and what's the address of the engineer in Kenia!!

I'm a PC support tech in Silicon Valley and this is what I do when someone gets a Thinkpad wet.

0) Do NOT turn the laptop on until you've done the following! Turning on a wet laptop may result in a shorted out motherboard or components.

1) Get a small container to put screws and parts in, and some paper towels.

2) Remove the hard drive ASAP! If water gets in the drive or under the drive controller board you'll be in really big trouble. I remove the metal shield held in by the 4 screws and examine the drive carefully for water.

3) Take every single thing you can out or off the laptop:
* CD/DVD drive
* Take the keyboard and palm rest off [there are 5 screws on the bottom of the T61 I have that have a keyboard/palm rest symbol next to them]
* remove all wireless and other daughter cards you can, making special note of which goes where, especially the antenna wires and so forth. If water to inside the LCD or hit near the hinges, I *might* remove the bezel around the keyboard or the LCD but it's not as easy as taking off the keyboard and palm rest and is not something for anyone who not comfortable with small parts and figuring out how the things snap together - it's a bit tricky.

4) Dry any visible water out of the laptop. Leave the laptop some place with low humidity and let the system air dry. I usually let the system and components air dry for THREE TO FOUR days, then re-assemble it.

Do NOT attempt to force drying with a hair dryer or blast it with an air compresser or canned air! I had an employee here in the office use a hair dryer on the laptop, thought it was dry and destroyed the motherboard and a RAM chip.

I've worked on a couple dozen water/coffee/tea/soda spilled Thinkpads in the past several several years. If the steps are followed above, I've seen a 90% success rate. In the cases where I was unable to revive the system it usually was usually because the customer had turned attempted to turn on the system while it was still wet.

Now let's assume that someone has attempted to power it up probably a bit to soon and it doesn't power up! It only shows the 120V AC adapter connected(green icon) and an (orange) Battery flashing! The hard drive has been removed and in an external housing works fine. Is there a next reasonable step?
Do you find someone with another T60 and check each FRU in another system or start with a system board and add your FRU's to it?


Thanks,
-Dave

I'd check carefully for visible signs of shorts or corrosion on the motherboard and daughter card parts.

In my previous post on this thread, the laptop that got a soda spill had a totally destroyed motherboard. It was pretty obvious - one of the daughter cards had gotten hit with the soda and shorted in it's slot. The slot was melted and had obvious signs of green metal (copper?) oxidation/corrosion. Both the motherboard and daughter card had to be replaced (at the the employee department's expense).

If there is signs of a short, you're hosed. You might try and see an an Lenovo authorized repair company will do the motherboard replacment for you as it will probably be cheaper than sending it to the Lenovo repair depot.

You could try installing just one RAM, the keyboard and see if you can get to the BIOS Screen.

You might also doing remove battery and AC, push power button 10 times and hold for 30 seconds reset trick and see if that helps, but I suspect if you're not getting the BIOS screen that the motherboard is toast.

You could try installing just one RAM, the keyboard and see if you can get to the BIOS Screen

I didn't intend to "Hijack" the OP's thread but it seems maybe my questions might help anyone in the situation I find myself in!

Are you implying removing all of the "daughter" cards and with just a stick of ram see if the machine will go to the BIOS?

Same thing happened to a Vaio of mine awhile back. You turn it on too soon when there is still water on mobo. It's done. The Vaio doesn't even post. The CPU is working(gets hot), that's it.

WVZR1 wrote:

Are you implying removing all of the "daughter" cards and with just a stick of ram see if the machine will go to the BIOS?

Yes, exactly, providing you let the system air dry with all the guts exposed in a low humidity environment (I work in an air conditioned office so water evaporates easily...).