Troubleshooting a drenched R40

[kugeln]

I have an R40 (2897-GWU) that was given a bath in water. The guy immediately ripped out the battery and AC adapter, and it just won't do much of anything.

I've given it about a week to dry, and now am trying to troubleshoot the board--I would like to avoid having to get an ~800 replacement if at all possible. I've swapped the parts into a known-good 2897-54U, and everything works (CPU, memory, WIFI, HDD, CDRW/DVD) except the LCD.

First question, should the 2987-GWU LCD work with a board from a lower R40 (the 54U has a 15" 1024x768 LCD, the GWU has the 1400x1050)? If so, looks like the LCD is shot from the GWU.

Second question. When you apply power via the AC adapter, the battery charges, and you can hear the high-frequency sound of power flowing through the board. Pushing the power button results in the AC and charging lights going off a second or two after you press the power button, the coming back on. No POST, no fan startup--nothing. Is there any hope for recovering this board short of ordering a replacement?

If both the system board and the LCD are dead, it doesn't look like it would even be worth repairing. Any thoughts on if it would be worth it to send it to one of those shops that claims to be able to fix any system board problem and LCD problem for $75 each?