Dell 1525 Won't Boot, water damaged

Hey everyone,I did a search for dells that wont boot and water damaged computers, and after trying all of their recommendations the thing still wont boot.

So what happened is I sit down at my desk, after my computer was copying a CD. My computer wasnt responsive to anything thing then it shut down. The screen went black and I thought maybe the battery just died so I lift it up to see my worst nightmare, water dripping from the bottom. I immediatley removed the battery and unscrewed my keyboard and back access panel to the RAM to let it dry faster. I also removed the CD tray and the hard drive. Its been drying for 2 days now so I decided to boot it since finals start in 3 days and I need to study lol.

I did have a keyboard protector ( or a keyboard condom as my friends would call it) over my keyboard because I spilled milk on my computer last year, I sort of learned from my mistake I guess.

When I try to start it (on battery or connected to a power supply its both the same) the lights on the touch area (backward,stop,play/pause, forward, vol up, down, mute) light up in sequence like they should from left to right. Then nothing happens and the power light blinks, about every 5 seconds. FYI blue is the only color I have ever seen it.

While holding down the FN key the same happens except the scroll and caps lock light up and the num lock indicator flashes. Please help, and thanks for reading my problem.

And no it was not beer that was spilt on my computer just water. I dont think it made a popping noise.There was no burning smell/smoke

I just don't know if I should send my laptop in to get fixed, or if there is something small I can fix myself

 

You should have immediately removed all power and put it in a warm place like a towel cupboard for 2 -3 days.

The more you muck with it while internal contacts are connected by water the more damage you can do

 

"won't boot, probably wrecked beyond economical repair"

 

The laptop's probably fubar, but as bruboo mentioned, you can still take it apart completely, let all the parts dry for a couple of days, and put it back together to see if it works. Chances are it probably won't, but you might be lucky.

 

Did you try booting W/O the HDD? if the water got in and ruined it that could stop the power up. I ask as you never stated you heard the HDD spin up.

 

take it apart, use an electric dryer with NO heat, and air dry the MB, and the internal components. the next thing is tosee if its receiving power if no light comes on it need to have some parts on the MB replaced, or the entire MB its self. there are some guys on the interenet that claim to have a 60% reviaval rate on water damage, seems unlikely, but ts worth a shot. i think they charge $100 or something....ill see if i can find it for you.

 

better than moving air/low heat is to use rice as a drying medium.

Seal the laptop components in a baggie with at least a pound of very dry (par boiled) uncooked rice for 12+ hours. The rice will pull all available moisture.

But if the machine has been soaked multiple times with multiple liquids, never cleaned properly, and has been soaked yet again and allowed to dry improperly, the thing is toast. Maybe good to strip components out of and part out on ebay, but it may never start up again.

 

I often bake stuff in the toaster oven. Never lost anything that way but I have disfigured a couple things when I wasn't extra careful. Can't go over 110F when plastic is involved as it will warp at 120F or more.

A blowdryer would be safer, but it would be harder to get the hot dry air into all the spaces in the components very well.

The safest way would be to disassemble the laptop and let it dry in the sun. 2 days of just letting it sit as is will not dry it out.

 

The main thing is not to try to power or use it before it has completely dried out. How long it takes to dry a laptop is a piece of string question I agree and clearly if the OP is happy dismantling laptops to dry them out then great.

Otherwise just open any flaps , remove battery etc and leave in a clear space in a hot cupboard (30 - 40 degrees C in our towel cupboard) This has worked with a digital camera too although the lens only fully de misted after a few more days.

It is unlikely you have flooded the HDD given the tiny size of the vent hole so if you have no joy your data is probably retrievable using a UDB HDD caddy.

 

I suspect that all of our advice is useless.

Who picks up their notebook to 'discover' that the bottom is saturated with water.

 

There isn't much you're going to be able to do with that system. The best advise I can give, if time is of the essence, is to buy an external hard drive enclosure to help you pull data off of the old hard drive and buy a new system.

...and learn to be more responsible.

 

Well he has dried a cople of days already, few more will do no harm but agree damage probably done on the spot.

And anyone with kids knows that expensive things break, delete, absorb drink and vanish all with no outside influence at all. It is a strange phenomenon

 

First of all thanks for all the replies guys!

And as soon as I realized water had been poured on it I immediately took everything apart that i could. This included taking the keyboard off, removing the cd tray and hard drive. I also removed the back faceplate that covered the RAM slots. It spent 2 days partially folded in a v pattern, standing itself up.

Now I think its come to the point where im just going to have to call dell and just have them replace the motherboard, which im told will cost me around 500, right?

 

'fer ghods sakes, for 500 bucks you can almost get a new i3 based laptop with 16" screen, lots-o-goodies, and a new machine warranty.

be sure to buy the additional accidental damage coverage though.

 

Yeah but the system I have cost 1000 and it still is fast compared to new machines

 

and it's been damaged repeatedly by liquid spills. It is no longer a $1000- system......

 

The 1525 is from 2008 so it's worth less than half of that now (I mean one that hasn't been subjected to spills; yours is worth a lot less). More importantly, there is absolutely no guarantee that once you put humpty-dumpty together again it will work perfectly or even at all. If the motherboard shorted out to the point where you need a new one, other components may also have been damaged. I don't know how likely that is, but it's certainly possible.

 

Thanks again for all you help guys, cause I honestly don't know too much about computers.

I was going to say this is the only time I've spilled something on my laptop but I forgot when I had to replace the keyboard. I guess I over looked the fact where that could of also affected my computer.

And the laptop had a 2.4 GHz processor and 4GB RAM, is it still not worth much?

So I have two more questions for everyone here:
1. Is it a waste of my time and money to send the system into dell to have them look at it and fix it
and
2. If I do need a new one, could I get some advice on which system would be good for me

 

Computers are a black hole into which you can pour as much money as you care to.

Note that being a black hole, the computer will never release the money you pour into it. In the HP forum there was a recent laugher where someone found a 3 year old VooDoo/Envy machine on Ebay that the seller originally spent over $7000- for and now had an auction reserve price of $1800. The machine specs were easily exceeded by a $600 new machine bought just about anywhere.

Anyway..........

If you want to be cautious, get a worst-case repair quote from Dell and then look to see what kind of machine you can get for the same or similar money.

Remember that a repaired machine from Dell will still be out of warranty and 2 years old.

The same money spent on a new machine, well, will get you a new machine with new warranty.

 

You can also sell your computer on Ebay. Might pocket $100 from that.