Lemonade Laptop

I have a new 700m that had an unfortunate encounter with a toppled glass of sugar-free lemonade last week, just a few days after I got it. Very little liquid actually got into the machine (when I took the keyboard out I found just a few drops to clean up underneath) but there was enough someplace critical that it wouldn't power-up until it'd been blow dried for almost 24 hours. Fortunately, since it was a sugar-free drink, there's doesn't seem to be any sticky residue anywhere.

Once the computer recovered from it's bath, it's been fine, except for one thing: most of the time, it won't power up under battery power, and if the battery is in, it won't power up under AC power. Take the battery out, it powers up just fine. Insert the battery after it's up and running, and it'll both run on, and charge, the battery just fine.

When the battery is in, I can shut the computer down (either completely, or by hibernation) and it'll powerup okay-- as long as it's only been a few minutes since it was shut down. But if I try to do so after an hour or more, hitting the power button will do nothing, and the only option is to remove the battery, plug in the AC, after which it'll powerup just fine.

I'm assuming, of course, that this problem is lemonade-related, but it's always possible it's not, which is why I wanted to post the story here. Has anybody seen this type of behavior in a laptop that hasn't had a bath? Short of sending it in to Dell for a (non-warranty) repair, any suggestions as to how I might fix it?

Thanks!

 

It sounds like you didn't take complete care...
If you didn't when you call Dell try to get the battery replace or tell that there's something wrong with the MB....assuming that there's no trace of that liquid...

 

This is why I took Accidental Damage. Sad to hear; I hope you get it taken care of.

011100110110111001101111011101110110001101110010011000010111001101101000

 

No Complete Care, I never buy extended or accidental damage warranties on anything. I may regret it this time.[ ]

I'm fairly certain the problem isn't with the battery itself-- I have two, and it bahaves the same with both.

And I can't, in good conscience, try to get Dell to fix it under warranty if the problem was lemonade induced-- if it was my fault, I'll take my lumps. However, I'm not sure it was, since I didn't have the computer long enough before the incident to know if it was having the same problem then or not. Everything else works absolutely perfectly, which makes me wonder if something else is in play here.

I've read a couple of reports that a bad or loose memory card can cause problems like this, so I plan to remove, clean, and swap cards one day next week to see if it makes a difference (I'm a little busy for the rest of this week; my wife is having some surgery tomorrow).

But that brings up another question: if I check System Properties (right-click My Computer, Properties) it shows I only have 496MB of memory, when in reality I have 512MB. Is this normal (ie, is the missing 16MB being used as video memory or something), or is this an indication of a problem with a memory card?

Thanks!

Denny

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by flibmeister

 

Heartofgold, you just gave me a wakeup call which may make this a lot easier to deal with.

I purchased the computer with my GM Mastercard, which comes with something called "Purchase Assurance"-- which covers theft or damage to items purchased with the card for 90 days after purchase. I'd totally forgotten that such coverage existed until I read your post.

I called 'em, they seem to think it will be covered. Be a few days before I know for sure, but it looks promising.

Thanks for the heads-up! I'll post here when I know how it comes out.

Denny

 

One of the biggest bonueses with credit cards. It's also the reason I got the 1 year waranty. It's automatically extended to two, for free.

inspiron 9300
1.6GHz
1GB DDR2
X300 128mb
DVD DL

 

The intermittent nature of the problem with this 700m is driving me crazy, and although it looks like the MasterCard "Purchase Assurance" program will cover a repair or replacement, it may take 90 days to do it-- and if they choose to repair it (I get no say in that decision), I'll be without it for however long that takes.

Don't care for that idea, so I just ordered a new 700m-- no Complete Care (hey, it couldn't happen twice....), but I made sure to pay with a credit card that extends the warranty to two years. Thanks for the reminder, guys.

Once I get the lemonaded 700m sorted out, I'll sell it to my brother-in-law (he's been lusting for one) or eBay it. Probably cost me a little more out-of-pocket this way, but worth it to be rid of the aggravation!

Denny

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by flibmeister

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by heartofgold

 

The problem with trying to get the computer fixed under warranty is that the lemonade spill is already on record with them--I called tech support when it happened for advice on the best way to deal with the situation. Their advice worked, in that the computer did eventually start working again, albeit with the intermittent problem I've been experiencing.

I did asked specifically how this would affect any warranty claims in the future, and was told that if any future warranty claims were found to be caused by damage from a liquid, they would, of course, be denied-- but they also said that such claims are always denied, even if the customer denies any spill incidents, so reporting it really had no negative ramifications. That said, the fact that I reported it obviously makes it easier for them to make the case that I was responsible for the damage and deny the claim.

The only "clean" way out of this is to have the computer gone over by their out-of-warranty repair department-- if I do that, when they send the computer back to me, the effects of the spill would be judged to be fully repaired to Dell specs and the factory warranty would be unaffected-- ie, I'd be able to justify acting as if the spill never happened. Problem is, the flat-rate for that is $269, and if they have to replace the motherboard (which they thought was probable), the cost would be $699. At that price, I'm better off buying a new computer and selling the old one on ebay as-is.

What I'm hoping to achieve via use of the MasterCard "Purchase Assurance" program is to get them to either pay for a replacement computer, or to pay for the $699 trip to Dell out-of-warranty repair. Either way, I'd be in pretty good shape-- even if they insisted that I send it in for the $699 repair, when I got it back I could sell it as still covered by the original factory warranty. I couldn't, in good conscience, do that right now.

Bottom line, I'm looking forward to getting the new computer for my own use, and I'll probably get most of my money out of this one eventually; if I do great; if I don't, that's the price I'll pay for my carelessness. Stuff happens.

BTW, it was interesting pricing out the new 700m with the coupons available at the time. I had intended to order one just like the one I have: 1.8 mhz processor, 512MB RAM, 80GB hard drive, and DVD burner. That combination was $1207 after coupons. Moving up to the 2.0 mhz processor and increasing the RAM to 1GB increased the before-coupon price substantially, of course-- but the after-coupon price only went up $34 to $1241, so I ordered it that way!

Denny

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by flibmeister

 

<blockquote id='quote'> quote:<hr height='1' noshade id='quote'>Originally posted by flibmeister

 

An update, bad news first (but it gets MUCH better):

The lemonade laptop continues to misbehave, but only when used with the battery installed. About 2/3 of the time, it acts as if it's totally dead when I try to power it on, and when it does try to boot up, it's rarely a clean boot. I also experience random lockups when the battery is installed. OTOH, if I leave the battery out of the computer altogether, all is well-- the machine boots up cleanly and runs fine.

The good news:

I don't really care that the computer misbehaves, because I'm typing this on my new 700m, which has yet to be baptized with lemonade and behaves impeccably.

The better news:

The new 700m didn't cost me anything, because I received a check for $1000 today from the MasterCard Purchase Assurance program. My brother-in-law wants the lemonade laptop, and I'm selling it to him, cheap-- but combined with the $1000 from MasterCard, I'm actually coming out ahead on this whole deal!

Thanks, again, to those here that, upon reading of the mishap with my first 700m, reminded me to check out the damage insurance program offered by my credit card company-- obviously, that was great advice!

Denny

 

was wondering what happend to you glad to hear everything worked out.
yea that buyers assurance is a great thing.

 

Hello,

I never forgot about this topic but I'm not subscribed . I thought I would check on your status and all seems well.

They really should post a "sticky' telling people about their credit cards. I'm always telling people and they say that they never even had a clue. When I mentioned it to you originally you knew about it but said that it hadn't ocurred to you until I brought it up!

Glad to hear all worked out in the end,

Heart [ ]

Karma,It'll Get You!

 

Wow, did the credit card company just send you the money???
They didn't even send off an agent or someone to check out your claim, or make sure that the broken laptop was actually broken??

Sweet deal![ ]

 

Hi there -- I have a similar story to your lemonade problem. Last summer I spilled a small amount of coffee on my Sony laptop keyboard. I shut it down immediately, mopped up as best I could, removed the keys and dried underneath, etc. etc. When I powered up again, it seemed OK for a time, but eventually I had to put plug in a standard keyboard to use instead. But - here is the strange thing that happened: the spill caused some electrical type problem inside the computer - so it will all of a sudden start typing by itself - OR - a key will stick and that letter, or command, will repeat continuously until the computer is shut down. Sometimes I can stop the process and other times I can't. Very frustrating and if I'm wiorking on a long document, it can all be lost in a split second. Strangely enough, except for this the computer still works very well, and is amazing fast for being an older model (bought it in 2000). Finally however, I've bought a new laptop - Dell 6000 - coming any day now.