Water spilled, damage control

I would guess the warranty issue is out.. so tear it down if you can and try to see what got wet. Your best damage control would have been to immediately disassemble it and dry it rather than "letting it dry". I havent tore down one of those but you might be just swapping the vid card. If its more then your looking at a mobo and prob vid card.. $$$

They (the video chipsets in the CL56) are soldered onto the motherboard. Any damage of the video chipset will require a replacement motherboard. As I understand it this often means an entire new chassis (Which includes a new LCD among other things).

If you have waited more hours and you still have a problem, have the laptop replaced/repaired under warranty.

Dude, never turn on a notebook if you suspect that there is any water at all left in there. Liquids do much less damage when there is no flow of electricity. And don't turn it on again until you are absolutely sure that the chassis is completely dry.

If the warranty is void, try to dissasemble the keyboard from the chassis, and turn it upside down, and let it dry for the next 48 hours, and then see what happens.


Notebook video cards are generally built on onto the same PCB as the rest of the mobo components, so it likely won't be replacable. There is a possibility that only the connection between the RAMDAC and the LCD is done, by the rest of the video card might be OK; in that case, you might only need to replace the wires and resolder a few connections, (one of my friends' compaq had that problem after a spill), or it could be a replacable capacitor on the mobo, but both of these look doubtful at this point, since you have been running it for a significant period of time.


Just stay calm for the moment. It could turn out to be OK, after everything completely dries, and it could be completely fried due to the attempt to turn it on. Be patient, and wait 48 - 72 hours, and keep it in a cool and dry place. If you get too trigger happy, any chance of it coming back might be gone to the wind.

Any way;
Was meinst du mit deinem Moniker; ist das deine deutsche Spitzname, oder hat es etwa mit den Hochshculestudent, der in Minn. vor einem Monat den acht Leute mit einer Pistolen geschossen hat?

Consider yourself extremely lucky if it still works. Even a little bit of moisture on a system can kill it. That's one of the biggest mistakes people make when they spill water on a laptop. Even after cleaning it up, it may look dry on the outside, but on the inside there is still some water. This is more than enough to cause a short in a system. Then they turn it on and, poof!

If your notebook get's wet. Turn it off. Unplug it. Turn it upside down to let the water run off it. Take out the battery. Dry it with a cloth then hair dryer. Get a plastic bag and put your laptop in side with some of those moisture absorbing packets. Wrap the whole thing up and let it sit there drying for a few days to a week and you should be fine.

Also, if u r stil under warranty just take it/send it back. Theres no need to tell anyone that water was spilled. In fact in a way you r extremely lucky that it was water and not coffee or soda or orange juice that was spilled.
When water evaporates it generally doesn't leave any residue. So just tell them that it started acting weird all of a sudden.

What the worse that can happen?

They'll figure out liquid was spilt and refuse to fix it unless their is compensation. Worth a shot.

Good luck.

Sorry, but lying is not a solution. Follow the suggestions to turn it up-side-down, take it apart, etc. and let it sit for a few days in a cool and dry place. Let us know what happens.

So I suppose given the choice between springing for a new motherboard OR getting it fixed under warranty, you would opt to inform tech support that you fried your laptop and that they need to charge you for a new motherboard and the labor to install it?

Really? You would do that?

Yeah I would opt for the warranty and just say that you switched on the laptop and it did not boot up. Really though try and keep any liquid away from your laptop. I know its nice to sit back chill and drink a bud while on your laptop, but your lucky its just water not coke or beer

You aren't the original poster so who are you to say whether lying is a solution. Besides, all he has to do is say it doesn't work without giving any other reason. Unless they specifically ask about spills there isn't any lying.

Just be careful though. I know cell phones have little indicators (usually a small white spot with a small stripe or spot of red ink that runs/turns the indicator pink if gotten wet). I don't think notebooks have these, but you might want to look around to be sure.

"When water evaporates it generally doesn't leave any residue."

That's not true at all if he turned on the notebook while water was still present. Any half ass tech will open that notebook and immediately notice the oxidization on the motherboard and say sorry buddy hand over the $$$ for repairs.

Best wishes to you and your baby.

Just a word of advice to anyone in similar situations:

The most damage to everything will occur because of the moisture on the exposed circuits during a powered on phase. So if you leave the equipment off to dry, you have much less risk of damaging the equipment beyond repair. I would strongly recommend placing the notebook inside a sealed environment (closed plastic bag) in a dark location with a big handful of silica dessicants (like the ones that come with shoes inside of shoeboxes). I would probably leave it in there for upwards of 24-48 hours. And I would definetly not turn on the notebook after only a few hours. If there was any moisture down on the motherboard inside, there's a good chance it was still there.

Well, I honestly can't say what my human instincts would dictate and whether I would choke, but the right thing to do would be not to take advantage.

Without turning this thread into a moral "debate", I just want to say that lies are implicit, not explicit. In other words, telling a partial truth is still a lie.

Good luck! I hope it works for you!