Fixing a Soaking Wet Computer

I found it almost shocking that this worked. So, I decided to share this story just in case you ever have a similar catastrophe.

My sister left a basement window open while the lawn sprinklers were on. Her laptop, which was powered on, was soaked for several hours and rendered useless. The power indicator would light but the system did not do a Power On Self Test (POST). I had a feeling an internal protection mechanism was blocking power to the main components; permanent damage may not have occurred.

The first order of business was drying the unit. All easy-to-remove items were unfastened and everything was left to air dry for a week. After this, the laptop actually ran for several hours before the same problem re-occurred. I was more convinced than ever that an internal protection mechanism was triggered.

This weekend I completely disassembled the lap top and cleaned every part with contact cleaner. The brand I used (not available at the moment) is plastic friendly and could be used to rinse nearly everything (DVD, floppy and fans excluded). Since contact cleaner dries clean, the pressurized cleaning solution removed any residue left by evaporated water.

Re-assembly wasn't difficult, but did require patience. It is important to keep track off all those little parts and the various screws!

The laptop has been running a series of burn-in tests for the last twelve hours and shows no signs of quitting. It has also been power cycled a dozen times to confirm that the assumed internal protection mechanism would not be triggered.

Wow, that is pretty amazing! I know that multiple people have asked about that here, so I'm sure that it will come in handy in the future!

Yeah, maybe it'll turn up in a search engine and save someone's day.

sounds good to me -- great story, thanks.

water certainly isn't as damaging to electronics these days as
in the past. There was a time when a single drop of water could have
been devestating to something electronic. Circuitry
and wiring is all so well protected now, that some water isn't
too big of a deal. Just have some time, patience, and a little
know-how (like you do), and voila! it can be fixed. Nice to hear.

Wel this isn't to brag but I have taken my old IBM 560x laptop out on a few jobs were there was rain coming down and it ran fine with out a dry out phase. But then again it wasn't soaked, it's a good running little laptop

Dragnet, are you like 12 years old?

11.5

thats amazing how it still works. i mean crazy.

11.5 im 12.5 u tottally out beat me there. Id never know how to clean it like that.

Dragnet -- posts like that will get you banned. Please stay on
topic or simply do not post. This is a professional forum, not a
playground for kiddies.

chaoskid03 - for the same reasons, please change your avatar
to something more appropriate.

Wow!

Truthly that really helped..
It actually helped me clean my laptop, and repair it.

Thanks,

you saved me $150 dollars £75

David.

Great story! Im secretly tempted to put my laptop in the srinklers and try it out...........then again maybe not. NJ sticking with it though. I might have given up.

this might sound stupid but... what's the internal protection mechanism?? does it actually sense water and dirt inside the laptop?

i got a problem along the same lines, my tower was laying on its side and my house flooded, the computer only was submerged by about an inch of water, but it was dirty water(dose that affect anything) and i need to know if i should just scrap it?

ok i think i got it now all i need is a new frame, sound card, and power box and it'll be running again, i hope.