Dropped a needle inside laptop.

Yeah, I dropped an iron sewing needle inside the laptop's hardware 2 days ago. At the time I dropped it, I tried to flip the laptop to get it out, but instead it just went farther in.

I heard it roll down to the same area as the hard disk is and then it got stuck there and I never heard of it again, but unfortunately it is too far in to get out without taking the whole laptop apart.

I need to know if I should pay too much attention to this, as it could cause short-circuits which would damage the nearest hardware and the battery.

But I haven't witnessed any problems yet.

 

If you do see a problem, it would be huge!
I would open the laptop apart and try finding that needle.

 

if its in direct contact with the mb then yes, although the chances of damage are small considering the needles size. So if i were you dismantle your laptop, find the needle, take it out, and put your laptop back together

 

Well I will try, thanks...

 

You said stuck by HDD? Well HDD is not hard to remove go for it. If it goes beyond that well depends on how comfortable you are with computers. If causing no problem I would not encourage some one to dismantle things like heat sinks and such. Meaning sometimes the cure is more dangerous than the problem.

 

I would definitely want to get that out. Even if there are no problems now, it's a laptop and it is going to be carried around at some point, which could cause the needle to shift. If it crossed the wrong points on your mobo... bad news man, could take out your entire motherboard.

 

I agree. I wouldnt go just taking things apart. Although, the HDD is easy to remove, since there is a "door" under the notebook. But I wouldnt go past that if it isnt causing problems. If you still do worry about it, then i would take it to a knowledgable person, store, or repair shop and get it done if you are unsure of exactly what you are doing.

 

I'd suggest removing the hard drive, RAM, and keyboard to start with. All of those are fairly easy/safe to remove. After that you could probably remove the palmrest as well after that.

 

I would say take out the battery first then try to remember the entry point then open up your laptop observe the harware structure and imagine how the needle would roll with regards to the components of the board and then check out which place would have the highest possibility of it rolling there.

I wouldn't wanna just leave it there if i were you. A loose piece of metal inside a circuit board is akin to a person swimming along with sharks.

Goodluck!

 

more like a shark loose in a swimming pool filled with people

 

Well, I can go as far as removing all the doors on the bottom, there are two of them, one for the HDD, the other for the chipset (GFX card, Sound card, networking card, etc..), the battery, and if necessary, the entire bottom lid that will uncover the rest of insides of the laptop.

If I don't find the needle at that point, I will send to a shop then...

 

Hahaha. you are right. I said it the other way around.

You can consult the manual of your laptop on how to disassemble it. Just be careful and pay attentention as to which part will void your laptop's warranty if taken apart.

If you're not too comfortable doing it just take to a very reputable technician or shop. Just don't forget to backup all your important data (or remove the most sensitive ones) before sending it in.

 

My Laptop is already out of warranty, except for the Motherboard which was replaced 1/2 an year ago. So the mb is probably what I should be most careful for...

 

you'll have it done in no time, seriously its that easy

 

if there is an opening it can get out of, try taking the HDD out and using a small magnet to drag it along to the opening.but i don't know if anything else could be damaged by the magnet.

 

er.. the ram, magnetic connections on the mb.... lol
no only joking -he's offline right now so he's probably doing it

 

Actually, just take the harddrive out. Then open up as many panels as you can, and then shake the laptop pretty vigorously. That way you will be able to get the needle out.
Using a magnet is not that great of an idea, because you would need a very strong magnet to pull a small needle through a computer. There is other things in the way, which will weaken the magnetic field.
The best way, is to take the entire system apart.
I had the same problem in my Voodoo when I was reassembling it.
Unfortunately I was installing my hommeade harddrive caddy, when a screw accidentally fell into the system, and rolled somewhere. I shook the system, but it did not come out. Well I disassembled everything and then found that the screw was lodged between the graphics module, the speaker and the media card reader. After removing it, everything went together much easier.
I now use magnetically charged screwdrrivers, so that the likeliness of loosing a screw is less, when installing them.

K-TRON

 

Before opening up your laptop remember to:

1. Unplug everything (power cord, USB devices, etc)
2. Remove battery
3. Discharge laptop by holding down power button for 30 secs
4. Remove any possible static electricity by touching a piece of metal

 

Hold up. How did it get inside of your computer? What opening did it go through? If you just dropped it in the keyboard, it is probably just stuck under a few keys rather that "inside" your laptop. Could you also please tell us what laptop you have?

 

THe pin fell through the chipset area at the bottom of the computer, not the kaeyboard.

The laptop is COMPAQ PRESARIO V6210US.

 

lol I think u need to revise your system specs :0

 

That is the HDD i will go with until it fails too, so zip it...

 

er... I don't think you get what I mean your hd is a sata device not scsi (big difference), so I feel justified in saying 'zip it' aswell!

 

Well that is what device manager said it was...The needle is probably affecting my laptop already.

 

windows is probably incorrectly identifying SATA devices, installing sata drivers for your hd should work, although to be honest it doesn't really matter what your system identifies your hds as, as long as it works!

 

Actually, on certain notebook/bios/hardware combinations, Windows will report SATA as SCSI. It's nothing to worry about.

 

A strong magnet is the last thing you want it to be near computer components, especially HDD, rom chips, etc.

 

Usually when i pull something apart, i get alot of screws lying around after ive put it back together

 

stewie, I was saying that its a bad idea to use a magnet. Reread, I mentioned that shaking it/taking the system apart would be a better idea.

K-TRON

 

I dont get it, Just take apart the laptop...not that hard. Takes 30mins to 1.5 hours depending on the model. Just sit down, throw on a movie and start unscrewing screws....

 

Sorry man, I read it too fast.

 

oh, yeah))) a couple of days ago i fixed my friends' camera. It works perfectly, but i have about 4 screws left.

 

A needle.... that could definetly destroy some hardware if it hits 2 points on the mobo and causes a short at best you may have a non working computer until it moves and unshorts, at worst it may never start again, or even bridge the battery and cause a fire.

Yeah the chance of that is slim, but if you directly connect the two terminals of a laptop battery it can very possibly "explode" and possible burst into flames, Dell had that happen

 

I opened the lappy and couldn't find the needle, and am 100% certain that it is still in the laptop.

Regarding Above sketch
This is a cross section of the laptop at the time the needle was dropped, and its position. The lapotop was upside down when the needle is dropped, that's why it is upside down here. (Tne laptop was not opened as far as it is in the image.)

As you can see, the motherboard is in an upwards direction from the needle, so gravity would have prevented the needle from getting stuck.

The chances of the needle being motionlessly stuck in a hole in the iron sheet are pretty high (95%) while (2%) it is in the mb and (3%) that it might be underneath one of the keys I am pressing now (the keyboard)

So yeah, the needle is most likely harmlessly stuck somewhere where it won't cause trouble.

 

Hi.

It might be stuck to the magnet on one of the speakers, you never know.

regards

john.

 

If I had tried that, I would have:
1. Damaged the washer...
2. Been shot by my mum for the damages.
3. Not been able to turn on the lappy until it was completely dry (a week, two maybe)

 

good luck w/ that.... i personally only let thumbtacks into my laptop,,, and only to poke holes in the CPU SOCKET...

seriously,,, i'd search about $400 worth of time away looking inside that notebook if it were mine.... you may get lucky and walk into the room barefoot one night and realize the needle in your foot never made it into your laptop,, but if it were me,, i'd KNOW for sure it wasn't in my laptop.

good luck,
bigO

 

I forgot, yeah there are magnets in the speaker...and the speaker is in a reasonable location, increasing the chances of this happening. Plus this technically means that it is stuck harmlessly if it is true.

But the complex thing is...the magnets in laptop speakers aren't that strong and they are covered with a lot of stuff that doesn't let all of the magnet's power out and thus the needle might have missed it.

But it does explain why I never even hear the needle move anymore.

 

Technically, I always walk barefoot in my room. And I heard and saw the needle make its way inside the laptop, it might have fallen out of the fan, or one of the other fanless breather holes on the bottom, they are perfect size to let a needle through.

 

you'd be surprised to see how little isolation is there on the back of your speakers.

 

I found the needle!!! xD

The fan is making a weird buzzing sound, which lets me assume it's the needle.

A second guess is that the needle is stuck in the HDD area and is amplifying vibrations.

All I have to do now is open the laptop again, and find this needle.

 

Congrats!
Now if you're lucky a HDD magnet has attracted it and will keep it attached indefinitely. hehe

 

I got it out... It was right next to the fan. It was magnetized tho, so it might really have been stuck to a speaker magnet...

Now I can go back to sewing again .

 

That's good to hear.

A question though, for those who may also experience this...

Suppose the same thing happens but it falls in a visible,but slightly hard to reach spot.

Will it be safe to use an ordinary magnet to fish it out? (paperclip, needle, staple wire)

 

I would imagine it would be safe but I don't know if I would risk it. I wouldn't do it if it was near the hard drive. Most importantly, I would be sure to turn off the laptop and remove the battery/AC before attempting anything.

 

haha nice! After so many months, finally got it out.

 

haha, good for you man! But who uses needles for sowing anymore?

 

Should be safe even for the harddrive, since there are even stronger lil magnets already in it. So the one used to catch a paperclip would be insignificant compared to those.