Urine in Thinkpad T61

Hi all, my Thinkpad t61 got peed on by my 1 year-old nephew and luckily it still works but only sometimes. The urine went inside through the back of the laptop where the battery is located. Right after the incident, it would not turn on and I thought the motherboard was fried but after drying the inside and not using it for a month, the laptop now works but only if I take the battery out and leave it alone for a long time and then use the battery to turn it on. It would not turn on if it is plugged into the AC. However, once it is turned on I can use the AC to power the laptop, but by plugging the AC in, the laptop would sometime freeze on a rare occasion and would work again if I unplug the AC. Also once the laptop is turned off, most of the time it would not turn on again until I take out the battery, unplug the AC, leave it alone for awhile and then use the battery to turn it on again.

My question is, what could be wrong with this laptop? Maybe there's still something from the urine that's causing it not to turn on? I'm thinking of disassembling the laptop and clean all the components with alcohol. However, before I do that I want to know what you guys think. Helpful inputs are appreciated. Sorry for the long post...

 

The circuit board controlling the power input probably fried. You probably don't have anymore warrantee left so I guess you should take it to a laptop repair shop.

 

First off, I hate to say it, but urine would probably get me to give up even one of my beloved Thinkpads. Eeew.

Secondly, if you really are up for poking around in the pee-laptop, I'd check around for any remaining liquid, and more importantly, any signs of scorching or the like. It could be that something's burned out just enough that it won't function unless its at a certain temp. My old 560x runs like this - it'll only run if its warm enough that a trace somewhere, that I can't narrow down, actually makes contact. If its chilly, it won't boot period. To be honest, your issue sounds like it will lead to a board replacement in the end, at which point I'd salvage what I know does work (HDD, and if tested, memory) and trawl eBay for a cheap replacement unit.

 

You should have removed the battery and turned off the notebook immediately, opened it up and cleaned it off. Liquid and electronics unfortunately do not mix.

You are probably better off replacing at least the motherboard or look for another unit..

 

I would hand the ThinkPad to mommy and daddy and say, "Here's juniors new notebook, that will be $700."

What a shame to have a toddler ruin a machine like that.

 

Given the locations of where the urine have gone, the liquid could have fried multiple parts. Motherboard is the most likely part that took damage.

You could try and dissemble the laptop and clean it out, but i am not sure what much good that will do.

 

Things are always more complicated where family's involved.

 

Wow, that's a new one.