E1505 water damage

So... Something I never thought would happen, did. Spilt some water on my E1505. Weird thing, though, is that I spilt it on my desk and it washed into one of the grates on the bottom. I didn't know that it had done that, so I left it plugged in and everything, and then a few mins later my music was skipping and screen black. I've tried drying it off and ****, and just got it to start, because if I send it in I want to make sure I have some data off my hard drive copied in case the HDD gets wiped... After it loads, it crashes. If I leave it plugged into the power cord, the screen just goes black and the laptop turns off.

Some questions:
I know water damage is covered under the complete accidental care coverage (which I have).
1. How common are refurbished parts swapped in instead of new ones for the machines that go in for warranty?
2. Will they wipe my hard drive? This seems like a motherboard problem or something.

I plan on calling in tomorrow after I get home from school (good time for my laptop to get ****ed, finals week is over and now I can go home where I can use a desktop). I have a lot of warez (music and movies, primarily) that I'd like to keep, and a bunch of school stuff too. They just send out a box, I send it in, and they send it back, right? How long does this usually take?

Anyone have warranty stories they'd like to share?

TIA everyone.

 

There was a long article on this very site about what to do if you by accident spill liquid on laptop. You might find it very useful.

 

Wow, I never knew water damage was this common. I never understood what was so hard about keeping drinks away from the laptop. You'd just be running a risk that will sooner or later bite you in the ass. It just so happened to occur sooner for you. Best of luck.

 

Your best bet is to call or chat with Dell online (I suggest chatting because you can save the conversation) and see what they say. You'll be able to discuss options for replacement or repair considering you need to keep the data on your hard drive. You'll most likely get refurbished parts or even a whole new refurbished notebook. Dell will send you a box and you send your notebook back in with it. If you really need to keep the data on your hard drive, I suggest you find a way to back all of it up before sending in your computer to Dell.

How does this contribute to this thread?

 

I just got off the phone with the Dell guy.
He said that they won't touch my hard drive without my consent providing that it's OK (and I got my laptop to boot up w/battery power... then it crashed a few mins alter). The water was on the back left of the E1505, so I'm pretty sure the hd is ok.

Have to send in my laptop and stuff. DHL is coming to pick my laptop up tomorrow, heh, and he says it'll take 3-5 business days.

 

jkloor, actually dell SHOULD allow you to ship it without the HD. MOST suggest you do so because while maybe dell wont, many repair jobs will opt to reformat the sucker in attempt to troubleshoot. They will have HD's there with clean installs for testing.

 

I've spilled water on my E1505 and luckily it didn't fry anything. How long did you let it dry out before you started it up again... seems kinda wierd how it works for a few minutes then freaks out.. But IDK

 

maybe next time he won't have drinks anywhere near his laptop.