Wet R-51 . . .

[Wayne]

Daughter spilled a glass of water on the keyboard. She was a couple of hundred miles away so the only advice I could give was to power it off and remove the battery. I told her to use a hair dryer to try to dry it out. She just got home with the laptop. I put the battery back and plugged in the power adapter. No lights, no charging indicator, no power from the power button. It almost acts like a fuse has blown. Or, the motherboard is fried. With my luck, it'll be the latter.



Any advice before I take it in?

[sjthinkpader]

My daughter made the same call a few years ago.

Yes, you told her to do the right thing. But the computer needs to be taken apart, cleaned and dried immediately. I was able to do that since my daughter was only at the corner coffee shop and that computer is still working today.

Warranty doesn't apply to liquid damage so this computer is likely toast.

I would go ahead and take it apart and take a good look at extend of the damage. If there are no visible corrosion caused by the spill, may be they will fix it under warranty.

[Wayne]

It happened last Monday, and it's just sat there. Talked to two laptop repair places and they both said it's probably toast, and a new one is cheaper than repair.

[tfflivemb2]

If you have the time an patience, repairing it is much less costly than replacing it. It depends on how involved you'd want to get.

As another option, you can always sell it here as a water doused machine that may or may not be repairable by cleaning it out.

Worse case scenario...replace the systemboard...

[jrmwalsh]

I have often made faulty motherboards start working again by washing them in the kitchen sink with a toothbrush under warm running water (no detergent, clean water only !!) then leaving them out in the sun to dry. One memorable one was from an IBM NetVista desktop. It took a day and a half to fully dry out before it started to work reliably again, and it hasn't missed a beat for two years since then.
The most important thing is that the water dries out before it starts to corrode any components.

If I had spilled water on my laptop, I would remove the battery, open it out like a book, stand it up on its edges to maximise drainage, and set it out in the sun to dry for a couple of days. I would also open any panels to increase ventilation through it. If the weather is not friendly (or the neighbours light-fingered) then keep it inside and blow warm air at it for a day or two.
The idea is to keep it warm, but not hot, and dry it as soon as possible.

Alternatively, if I had a temperature controlled warmer that could heat it up to about 80 C, (my best guess), I would put it in that for a day or so. A temperature of about 80 C would help the water dry out quickly with minimal risk to plastic components and the display.

[Radioguy]

I don't know if it's an urban legend or not, but I have read that some water-logged electronics can and have been saved by pouring pure isopropyl alcohol (91%+) into the device, or immersing it, and letting it dry. Supposedly, the alcohol wicks away the trapped water, and takes that with it when it evaporates.

[jrmwalsh]

I had not heard of the isopropyl alcohol idea before but it will probably work well with most electronic components except entire devices like laptop computers.
Laptop computers often have parts inside them that are held down with tape. These tapes often have glue that will dissolve in isopropyl alcohol, or other alcohols like methyl, or ethyl alcohol.
I would be wary of soaking a laptop in any alcohol because of possible collateral damage.

[Radioguy]

Hmm, most of the adhesives used as tape backing that I'm familiar with, tend not to dissolve in alcohol, hence adhesive tape remover pads, and solvents like Goo-off. I suppose there could be very low-end adhesives that would dissolve, but it would surprise me to hear of them being used in products like laptops.

However, I have heard of moisture reactive tapes, which will change color when exposed or immersed, signaling a maintenance tech to a warranty violation. I'm not sure Lenovo uses those in ThinkPads, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[jrmwalsh]

I admit that I'm entering an area (i.e., the solubility of glues in propyl alcohol) that I am not an expert on.
I agree that most glues do not dissolve rapidly in alcohols, and some not at all, but I have occasionally come across glue residue left from old tapes (that have pulled away from a surface), for which a nice long soak in ethyl alcohol, (aka ethanol) will soften them up quite nicely.
But I don't know how far the properties of ethanol can be extrapolated to propanol.

That's it from me.

[sjthinkpader]

For that instance of spill in my case, it was a cup of coffee. I used spray contact cleaner from electronic store, clean the MB, dried it under the sun, then reassembled the computer.