Water Disaster

My girlfriend startled me awake this morning and I knocked over a huge glass of water that was sitting right above my M17x R1. I watched in what seemed to be slow motion as a torrent of watery death fell directly on top of the laptop. I know how much of an idiot I am for putting my laptop in that situation, so please, no criticism.

Luckily the lid was closed so most of the water splashed right off of the aluminum top. I left it alone for about five hours to be safe before turning it on. The laptop seemed to start normally.. Keyboard lit up, all the fans started, but nothing comes up on the screen. The fans stop and the keyboard stays lit, but the screen remains black. I left it for about 2 minutes before shutting it down.

I have two questions.

1) How much longer should I leave it alone before trying again?

2) I know there is somewhere in the laptop that shows if it has been water damaged. Where is this located?

Thanks.

 

Put it in a bag of rice overnight and try again. While waiting, call Dell and get accidental.

 

Yup thats the reason for accidental coverage. Anyhow let it dry for a day or two at least. If you need to, go in with a brush, and brush the entire motherboard. This should remove minerals from the motherboard. The problem with water is that water, and the minerals it contains,conduct electricity. Once the waters gone, the minerals remain, causing electricity to be routed where it shouldn't be. If you can,you can always rinse it with distilled water, as it has no minerals.

 

I just opened it up and let it air dry for a while, also left a fan on it.

I found a thread talking about a similar issue related to only getting a black screen after turning on the laptop. Someone there said to disconnect the CMOS battery and leave it like that for about a minute. I did that and now my computer is up and running again.

The only problem that I see is that the time is showing up as January 1, 2008.. Also, I don't see my internet or network info in the icon tray, and my anti virus didn't start up. Does this have to do with the CMOS battery reset?

 

Probably does. Reset the time in the BIOS, and it should reset the time in Windows as well. Some programs may not start up because of the date they're seeing.

 

If you have a R1 with complete care and you spilt water or a liquid on your computer and its dead, do you get a replacement R2 or a refurb'd R1

 

Why would you get accidental while waiting?

 

So if he couldn't fix it

 

Hi Beeflan,
Remove the memory, video card/s, bluetooth, and wireless card. If the water sits on the gold contacts, it will cause excessive damage. Also, be sure to disconnect all connectors. At this point in time, I would recommend drying some of the hard to reach areas with canned air (especially the connectors and slots).

Thanks,
Gabe

 

Yeah, get accidental coverage to report an accident that happened prior to actually having accidental warranty. /sarcasm

Crap like this is what drives up warranty for others.

 

Yet the question remains. how is it different than if he had bought the Complete Care when he bought his laptop. Either way water spilled on the system possibly requiring a replacement whether it was bought then or now doesn't really seem to make a difference. Therefore the cost can't really be attributed to people in this situation.

 

So sticking with your mentality, Dell should just not offer complete care warranty and just offer $69 (or whatever the price is to add complete care to a warranty) to repair ANY laptop including replacing a whole system?

And any time I go to an electronics store and they ask if I want to extend my warranty, it's okay to decline because if I break anything I can just go back to the store and buy a new unit and replace it with my old broken unit and refund it for the full price, right?

Dell's complete care warranty is not intended for people who have accidents and decide to exploit their warranty. So if anyone does this (I am not insinuating the OP is doing this) then it is attributing to the cost of the warranty package for others. They need to reclaim their losses some how whether it be increasing warranty price, or the laptop in general.

 

from what i have heard you can only buy accidental dmg warranty when you purchase the computer , and not after you recieved it. thats according to the dell rep that assisted me the other day.

 

Agree with Sirius_GTO. Am tired of seeing people outright abuse the excellent warranty that Dell offers or see people suggest that others abuse it. Even worse, other people see suggestions like this and deliberately damage their systems so they can abuse the warranty process to get a shiny new system.

Would you also say it's ok to drive your car around uninsured but once you have an accident, call up an insurance company, have your insurance start the day of your accident, and blatantly lie about the time it happened? Burn your house down and insure it after the fact? There's a word for this type of abuse - fraud.

 

Totally depends on what dell has sitting around. My original purchase was an 17 inch inspiron about 2 and 1/2 years ago. I dropped it after about a year and a half, and was sent a studio 1737 as a replacement. I had an issue that needed a mobo replaced in the 1737, and the tech managed to mess up the keyboard in the process. I nagged dell for a replacement considering the circumstances and they sent me a M17x R1.

Complete Care was the best investment i've ever made. Still have another 130 days left on it too.

 

Well, I agree. Dell should probably run some remote tests before extending the warranty to complete care (E.g. connect to the PC remote and run some benches, and verify the Service Tag number). Then these tings couldnt happen.

 

Beeflan only asked how to save his unit from water damage, hope he dosn't feel anyone thinks he would defraud Dell. Or will worry about asking anyone a question again. Glade to see he got it working how lucky

 

Certainly not. I'd like to think it is obvious that those comments are instead directed at recommendations which would lead to dishonest/criminal behaviour - not at Beeflan. Enough of that however, back on topic.

 

Theres a difference between buying insurance and buying a warranty, just saying. But I apologize if I have offended you by suggesting the OP to get complete care.

 

I honestly mean you no disrespect mate but I fail to see the difference and I'd be keen to undertstand your reasoning.

Obtaining the Accidental Damage Service after you damage your laptop is fraudulent behaviour. You elect to purchase a warranty - which is in essence insurance for your laptop - in advance to receive protection or reimbursement (in the form of parts/replacement) and avoid being financially disadvantaged in the event something goes wrong.

If you'd like to continue this discussion perhaps we should take it to PM so as not to further derail this thread.

 

The warranty is a one time fee, insurance is a periodic thing. In this case, Dell wouldn't be losing any money compared to if the warranty had been purchased from the beginning.

Doing the same thing with insurance is different as you're starting the term right then when you should have been making payments the whole time.

It's a little dishonest and I'm not condoning it, but It's hard to call it fraud as Dell is in the same position regardless of when the warranty was purchased. If it weren't this way, I'm sure dell would do more to prevent it. Dell gets their entire warranty fee paid in this situation, but the insurance company would be getting screwed hard if you were to do that.

Again, im not trying to condone it (I got my Complete Care warranty when i purchased), but It's not the same as with your insurance example.

 

I appreciate your point of view. We could argue semantics but it's not a little dishonest - it's outright dishonest and it is still fraud.

Dell CompleteCare Cover EU/UK appears to be underwritten by London General Insurance. I imagine that either Dell US handles the Accidental Damage Service in-house or it is underwritten by another company in the US. By adding this type of cover and making a claim after damage occurs, you are committing a fraudulent offense.

Based on your comment, one could argue that the motor vehicle insurance company is in exactly the same position regardless of when I elect to purchase a single year of coverage. Motor Vehicle Insurance could also be a one time fee (eg. annual policy) if I elect to only take out insurance when I had an accident to ensure my car was replaced. Therefore I fail to see the distinction here.

 

Not really sure what the arguement is for anymore. OP got the notebook working and moved on to other questions. If you can't help him with his other questions, please take the arguement to PM.