Thinkpads Forum

I loaned my friend my T420 long-term, as he needed it for work and lacked the means to buy a laptop. Unfortunately, while he was asleep, he kicked an entire jug of water onto the open, sleeping laptop. He's not particularly computer-saavy, but when he woke up he unplugged it, removed the battery, did his best to drain the computer of water, and gave me a call. He dropped it off with me, and I let the laptop sit for 72 hours before I tried turning it on again. The battery symbol flickered green for a split second, then nothing. The laptop won't power on, with or without the battery, plugged in or not. All of the keys feel a bit spongier than they used to.

If any of you have any advice on how I might test and potentially salvage components (or even the entire laptop), I'd very much appreciate it. The laptop is under warranty -- I'm assuming this falls outside the scope of the warranty, of course, but I thought I'd mention it just in case.

tl;dr: Loaned thinkpad to friend, who spilled lots of water on it, and now it won't power on. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Remove the motherboard and let it sit in a bag of rice for a couple of days...then re-install and hope for the best.

This might work if the tea was unsweetened...if there was sugar in it, the prospects of getting it to work are quite dim...

Good luck.

Thanks for the advice & the luck -- it was water, not tea, so hopefully the bag of rice method will help. As it's already been more than 72 hours, and I'm in a dry climate (SoCal), I'm not very hopeful. But, fingers crossed!

You might try spraying an electronics cleaner on it, just to remove any residue.
It's been quite some time since I've had to clean a circuit board, perhaps someone
else on this forum might be able to make a suggestion.

Otherwise, you might have to buy a motherboard, but the prices for those are
coming down of late, so it's not a big deal. You didn't say what kind of display
you have, you might want to check the HMM to see if you need a particular FRU
motherboard to work with your display.

Thanks for the advice -- I've got a 1600 by 900 display, and I'll be sure to check the HMM to see which mobo's work with that. I've never cleaned a circuit board before, but hey, now's a good time to give it a whirl I guess!

BTW, any suggestions on where to purchase a mobo? Prices on eBay seem to vary widely, and I'm not experienced enough to know what is and isn't a fair price. Thanks again!

tsivist wrote:
BTW, any suggestions on where to purchase a mobo? Prices on eBay seem to vary widely, and I'm not experienced enough to know what is and isn't a fair price. Thanks again!

Post a WTB (want to buy) ad in the forum's Marketplace and buy with confidence, unlike feebay...

tsivist wrote:tl;dr: Loaned thinkpad to friend, who spilled lots of water on it, and now it won't power on. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Don't ever loan another computer to this "friend" again .

Just in case: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=114903

Thanks all!

I was given a Inspiron N4110 that had water dumped on it as well. It had also sat for a few days and was already dry inside yet what interestingly revived it was taking out the motherboard and giving it a wash. After that it started up fine as if nothing ever happened - sans the keyboard.

Interesting -- what method did you use to wash the motherboard?

Thanks!

rkawakami wrote: Don't ever loan another computer to this "friend" again .

The best advice ever!

tsivist wrote:Interesting -- what method did you use to wash the motherboard?

Thanks!

Just sink water myself as I didn't have anything to lose - if it did any more damage it was already deemed dead to start with. Afterwards I let it sit outside for a couple days on some bricks to dry off and tested it.

Just water by itself is good- alcohol as well if you have enough to douse whatever faulty component you have.

My friend spilled soda onto my Clevo's keyboard, which usually costs $50-$80 to replace, due to the scarcity of parts. Keys became stuck on even if not pressed- the laptop couldn't even boot because it would freeze and stick a continuous tone on at BIOS post. I already ordered the spare keyboard so the old one was garbage as far as I was concerned, and out of curiosity I decided to spray some water on it and let it dry- to see if any difference came out. Most of the keys started working again! I haven't got all the keys working- I believe the A and tilde key still get stuck on occasion.

But just for information's sake. Either way- good luck with your T420. Accidents happen...!

Thanks for the advice and encouragement all -- I'm planning to give the motherboard cleaning tactic a shot this weekend, and I'll be sure to follow up next week with an update. Fingers crossed!

Long story, but my t500 literally took a bath last year. It was not plugged in but was on standby via the battery. I ended up taking the whole thing COMPLETELY apart, including motherboard. (Left screen inside top cover, though.) Let all the components sit and dry for a full two weeks. Lo and behold, plugged it in and the darn thing worked, and still is. Had to get a new battery.

Did not use rice to dry it but simply air dry. I did find that there was a lot of residual water in the unit as I took it apart, which was not initially apparent. That is why I ended up having to pretty much completely disassemble it.

Not sure I understand rationale for cleaning the motherboard with yet more water, as it was simply water that got spilled on it.

Good luck.

I've never actually had to do this, so take this FWIW:

you might consider removing the CPU and making sure that there is no residual moisture
in the CPU socket. I would think that it would be hard for the socket to air dry.

Following up, some promising stuff this afternoon: the Thinkpad turned on and worked! There are some problems -- the fingerprint reader is likely dead and it's likely hardware (BIOS can't locate fingerprint reader), a full system scan threw a warning about the GPU, and when i power the laptop down it won't power on again unless i unplug, remove the battery, replace the battery, and then press the power button. I'm concerned that these symptoms connote a larger and perhaps pervasive electrical problem, but all in all I'm thrilled and shocked that the thing powered on at all. Thinkpads truly are built like tanks. Or submarines, maybe.

Let all the components sit and dry for a full two weeks. Lo and behold, plugged it in and the darn thing worked, and still is. Had to get a new battery.

My battery appears to be charging and holding a charge, but I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks!

Not sure I understand rationale for cleaning the motherboard with yet more water, as it was simply water that got spilled on it.

I'd love to hear the rationale for this as well -- is it worth it, or should i opt for alcohol instead?

you might consider removing the CPU and making sure that there is no residual moisture
in the CPU socket. I would think that it would be hard for the socket to air dry.

Interesting, I'll definitely consider that. I'm not particularly experienced assembling/disassembling computer hardware, but I'm willing to learn. I'll take a look around teh interwebs for some good tutorials, etc. Thanks!

Great news...thanks for the update.

Well done..

Brad

but all in all I'm thrilled and shocked that the thing powered on at all. Thinkpads truly are built like tanks. Or submarines, maybe.

I'm with you. These things continue to surprise me...

As for the issue with your Fingerprint reader and GPU- the Fingerprint reader has it's own PCB, you can perhaps look into giving it more treatment. As for the GPU and shutdown issue- sounds like something more serious has occurred in the electrics, which can only be fixed with extensive repair ability. You can try treating it again, but I doubt it'll fix the issue if you did a good job the first time.

Either way- I suppose you can still use your machine if it works otherwise fine. Wouldn't be surprised if other issues become apparent, coupled with the shutdown issue... using it might get irritating. But good on you for doing what you can, and hope this works out good for you.