Water damage on HDX18....repairable?

Hey Guys

I have an issue on my 8 month old HP HDX18 laptop....my 3 yr old son was watching a video and accidently spilled 1/4 glass of water on the laptop.

The lappie shut off and wouldn't turn back on. I quickly disconnected it from the wall and removed the battery. Then I opened up the case up, took apart the mem, HDD and left it outside in my backyard today to dry up and then put everything together and booted up. Laptop boots up usual now BUT the wireless/volume are disabled. Some of the arrow keys are also not functioning normal either. While its obvious its not a total h/w failure, I have some doubts on the mobo/keyboard.

I do have the HP warranty but I'm pretty sure it doesn't cover water damage.

I'm still paying off this laptop so any ideas to get it working again? I'm wondering if I need a new mobo/keyboard, etc? Also how hard is to replace the mobo on the lappie? I'm very well familiar with desktops but have replaced a mobo on a lappie ever before.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

Does the sound no longer work, or only the touch controls are non-functional? If it's just the touch controls you're only going to need to replace that panel. The wifi card is a separate part as well.

The keyboard is probably toast too, but my guess is that the mobo is fine. I don't know the HDX18 - is the wireless a switch or is it controlled via the touch buttons? If it's controlled by the touch buttons try enabling the wireless in HP Wireless Assistant and see if it works.

A motherboard replacement in a HP laptop basically means you have to take the whole thing apart, minus the display, which can stay in one piece. Fortunately you will find service manuals on the HP website.

 

^ Thanks. I'll look into the service manuals...right now, it's the touch controls that are not working so I'm thinking that plus the keyboard might be all that's needed.

 

Why did you put it outside to dry? Next time place it in a sealed plastic bag full of rice for several days. Incidentally, it could still be wet inside. It can take several days to completely dry out. Anyway, you are correct in the assumption that it won't be covered under warranty, only Asus cover damage from spills.

BTW, I learned my lesson about liquids around computer with my old Dell. I knocked over a full glass of Gatorade into it. And like you quickly pulled the power. After three days, it started and worked intermittently for another two months, but eventually it did die. Unfortunately, it was old and and not worth fixing and that was that. It took many months for me to save to get a new one and now I'm anal about anyone with a liquid coming near my computer.