Thinkpads Forum

Hi guys,

I accidentally spilled some drops of water on my X220 tablet. It now won't even turn on. The battery icon does light up when you charge and the finger print reader also lights up.

Do you think I need to get a new motherboard? processor? or more?

I have data on a micro SATA hard drive and a solid state hard drive.

I'm tempted to just buy a used x220 tablet and just plug in the hard drives?

Please advise. How should I proceed? I have experience working on laptops so I can do fixes myself.

Thank you

Welcome to the forum.
If you haven't done so yet, take the whole machine apart and let it dry for at least 24 hours.
But if you didn't do so right away, it may be too late already.
Check everywhere if there is any corrosion.
It's easy enough to replace parts (mobo and/or keyboard) and would definitely be cheaper than buying a replacement.
Wait until you try your dried-out machine again before you decide.
BTW, CPU is soldered onto the mobo.
Used machines on eBay vary around ~$150-200 but you never really know about any issues they may have.
You can also try our Marketforum (there's an X230T there for sale).

RealBlackStuff wrote:Welcome to the forum.
If you haven't done so yet, take the whole machine apart and let it dry for at least 24 hours.
But if you didn't do so right away, it may be too late already.
Check everywhere if there is any corrosion.
It's easy enough to replace parts (mobo and/or keyboard) and would definitely be cheaper than buying a replacement.
Wait until you try your dried-out machine again before you decide.
BTW, CPU is soldered onto the mobo.
Used machines on eBay vary around ~$150-200 but you never really know about any issues they may have.
You can also try our Marketforum (there's an X230T there for sale).

I just feel like it's gone. The machine was powered on when the spill happened, and then it shut of. Then I stupidly didn't realize that all this could have happened due to the spill so I turned it back on. Thanks so much. Should I just get a new motherboard?

Thanks

bonoz wrote:Should I just get a new motherboard?

You could try take it to repair shop - I'm sure it would cost less than a new MB.

nitrocaster wrote:

bonoz wrote:Should I just get a new motherboard?

You could try take it to repair shop - I'm sure it would cost less than a new MB.

I can get a new motherboard for $120... I doubt a repair shop would be that cheap?

What is the 7-char. TYPE on the label on the bottom of the laptop?
There are umpteen different mobos with different CPUs, on eBay there are some for about $70
If the wifi/hd/mSATA/RAM are not damaged you can transfer them.
One critical item might be the keyboard.
If you have other machines like T410/T510/T420/T520/W510/W520, their keyboards are an exact replacement.

There aren't many repair shops that do component level repair. They would most likely just buy a new motherboard and install it. I can't imagine any repair shop doing this for just $120.

If the motherboard is the culprit, I would buy a new or used one and install it myself. You learn a lot in the process and save a lot of $$.

I see machines on ebay for under $200.
Buying a machine is reasonable, of course it depends how you value your time.

Your data is unaffected by the motherboard dying.

The service manual for your machine is here:
http://www.thinkpads.com/support/hmm/hm ... 175_04.pdf

If you have soldering skills, you could try fix it yourself. I expect that to be easy enough.

UPDATE! Fixed it. Rice worked for me. The only thing that doesn't work is the power button on the keyboard. The screen has a power button so I was able to use that. Thanks so much for the help everyone!