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    Systems dead or erratic - moisture?

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by BobLapman, Aug 9, 2011.

  1. BobLapman

    BobLapman Notebook Enthusiast

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    I have (3) Toshiba L355D's. One I use everyday and is working fine. Two have odd issues and I'm starting to think it's a humidity problem. Both worked OK when stored a month or two ago.

    I got one to boot... after pulling the memory and battery and disk and re-installing. After shutting it off for a couple hours I had to pull the A/C & battery to get it to reboot.

    The other seems dead. No power lights from A/C or battery. Nothing happens when you hit the power switch. Tried pulling memory in and out, cleaning contacts, changing battery to fully charged battery, using known good A/C supply, booting with and without a disk drive. It shows no lights at all, even just "A/C connected". The only reaction I can get from it is that the wireless led lights up for a second when power (A/C or battery) is connnected. That's normal for this model. Other than that, it's dead.

    I'm 100% sure that there was no massive EMR pulse that went through my house. The only thing these two share is that they've both gone through a lot of high humidity in the last couple months here (typical Summer).

    Thoughts on this? Ever heard of it before? I have one sealed in a bag with rice right now to try to pull the moisture out. The one that booted (funky keyboard) I have running, hoping the heat will dry it out. I could use a recommendation for a program that would make it churn a little and generate some heat all night long.

    Thanks,
     
    BobLapman, Aug 9, 2011
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  2. Krane

    Krane Notebook Prophet

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    If all it is humidity then drying them out should work. The rice and a day or two sounds right. Just don't rush it by doing something silly like putting it in the sun or some other artificial heat source.
     
    Krane, Aug 10, 2011
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  3. BobLapman

    BobLapman Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well, I guess that rules out the oven idea :)
     
    BobLapman, Aug 10, 2011
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  4. BobLapman

    BobLapman Notebook Enthusiast

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    Well... son of a b*tch!

    One has been in a bag with rice for two days, the one that was dead to the world, not even power lights. Guess what... took it out... it booted up! I'll have to take the other errant one through the same procedure.

    Apparently I was on the money with the humidity idea. I guess future storage of all systems will be in a bag full of rice :)
     
    BobLapman, Aug 12, 2011
    #4