Big problem but somewhat fixed

Hi,

So today I accidently spilled lift plus over my xps 1530 laptop. It was running fine when I was split but I quickly shutdown the pc by holding the power button and cleaned up the spill. When I went to turn it back on nothing happened, the power light would flash but then nothing - no noise, nothing. I pretty much agreed to myself that the motherboard was fried and short circuited and went about ringing dell. The guy said to even consider fixing it, I would need to extend my warranty to the tune of $450 nzd. I wasn't going to pay that too quickly.

What I did was pull my whole laptop apart untill I had every single piece on my desk. I cleaned with water (by dabbing with paper towels) and then hair dried that components that appeared to have spillage. I then reseted the cmos and put everything back together. To my amazement it worked and my laptop boots up. A few problems still exist though, one usb port doesn't work but I think that may be because I didnt connect it back properly. But the audio doesn't work either (device not present). The hard drive was making a beeping noise and making a clicking sound but now thats gone. I was thinking of upgrading it anyway though. The hard drive did not appear to get liquid on or around it so I am suprised it made the noises. I am overall pretty happy because it is working now.

My questions are... will the lift plus carrode the components? Do I need to wash them better to prevent this if it will? How should I wash them?

Also how do I wash the keyboard as some keys stick more and don't press so easily? I can wash the top but not under the keys.

Cheers,

Jeremy

 

I don't know about this Lift Plus in particular, but most drinks are somewhat damaging to the health of your computer. That being said, you should not be dabbing your motherboard with water. You should be using something like rubbing alcohol. You may have made it worse with the water.

That being said, you can get a toothbrush and some rubbing alcohol to try to clean under the keys. Or get a new keyboard as they're really cheap. I doubt anything's gonna fix that USB port (assuming it's not a connection problem), though.

 

Cheers for the reply, I might take it apart again and re-wash it with deionised water but I still have a few questions. It seems to me it may be worth just replacing the whole motherboard or whatever components have failed. Since it is just out of warranty do you know how much dell would charge in to replace a motherboard? Also, since I don't think I can renew my warratny now that the computer is damaged, would it be cheaper to get a local PC shop to do the repair instead? The PC works fine apart from the audio and one usb port - but they could be connection issues, but I think the audio might be a damaged motherboard. I really have not had enough time to check this yet,

Cheers

 

Be ready to fork out over a grand for the motherboard. A friend recently spilled water on her laptop, and the motherboard quote was $1200.

PS. Wouldn't have had this problem if you drank L&P instead

 

well youre going to fork out over a grand for a new mobo just get a new laptop

 

Call Dell, you can get your warranty re-instated. There are threads about it in this forum. Essentially, you pay a $50 re-certification/reinstatement fee and then pay for the 1 year warranty and add 1 year of Complete Care. That should cost you somewhere in the neighborhood of $300-350. Here's a thread that discusses this option and the favorable outcome.

In the same thread, the guy said the Dell rep told him not to say anything about prior damage when calling for service.

Just go to http://support.dell.com and on the left side, check your warranty status. Enter your service tag number and then there should be a link on that page to view warranty options (if I recall, the UK Dell site makes you fill out a form for a callback). If you scroll down, you'll see a $49 reinstatement fee or something to that effect.

Alternatively, I was just browsing eBay last night and saw a few used M1530 motherboards in the neighborhood of $100.

 

Hey thanks for the replies guys, turns out I am getting insurance to pay for it as I had the laptop included in our insurance. I pay around $100 for the excess and I get a new laptop. I will post back when I know what exactly is happening - but since it was an accident they said it was covered. Stoked!