Any risk in taking components from a water damaged laptop and testing them in a different machine?

RAM, wireless card, HDD (CPU)?
Just trying to ascertain if anything from the machine is salvageable. Pretty sure the main board is fried, but if any of the other hardware not soldered on was pht in another laptop could I damage the machine?
The water damaged ,machine has been in a warm dry room for 3 weeks now so it should be bone dry by now

 

Take all the components and to be sure; put them all in a bag of rice (that will ensure no moisture shortage will be the cause) and seal the bag for another week or more.

The HDD I would take a hammer to, but it is worth a bag of rice and some time to try to salvage the other components.

A point to keep in mind is whether or not the components have been customized to the damaged system? If they have, the only way to test them is to have an identical machine (or sell them on ebay).

 

I see no reason why you could not test the components (ram, HDD, etc). The ram if it's supported by anything else you have would be fine to test, as i've never heard of a ram module being capable of damaging the motherboard. Same with the HDD, i see no reason why you could not attemp to test if it works. IF its damaged it most likely will just not allow the machine to boot or not show up that it's connected.

Of course, test at your own risk. If you have a cheap computer to test with it would be worth a shot.

 

No risk whatsoever. A warm dry room for three weeks is more than enough time for everything to dry out. I used to wash desktop parts in the kitchen sink. I also test possibly non-working components all the time.

 

Outside of the motherboard (if it is actually fried), the only thing that I'd expect wouldn't work would be the HDD, depending on how it got wet, if it did at all.

The rest of it I would just risk/try and see what happens.

 

I repair water damage quite a bit. One of the biggest mistakes people make is trying to get them dry but, that does the most damage. It wasn't long before i figured out why crime investigators like things that got wet or soaked to be kept in wet or in a container of purified water.

It's far easier to decontaminate and remove the offending minerals and deposits while it's still wet. they tend to get stuck in places you can't reach like under ICs and Ball Grid Arrays.

That's why i have heated tank i clean motherboards in with distilled water water when i work on spill jobs. I have a decent success rate. If use soaps or chems to clean i always do a rinse cycle and give boards several days to dry after blowing out the ICs and BGAs with compressed air.

 

I was going to say be sure to rinse it well with distilled water only. And maybe follow up with a good dose of 99.999% alcohol to help dry out all the nooks and crannies. Let it sit for a couple days in each direction (upside down, upside up, each side). HDD's aren't fully sealed, there is at least one air hole, but it's so small unless there was a lot of pressure, unlikely any water got inside. Just be thorough in drying, and there really is minimal risk to the PC you're testing with.