What Would You Do? / New T440s Spill Damage

Hi,

I spent many days researching my new laptop with the help of this forum. Many thanks! I purchased a new T440s I5-4200,
4G and 128T flash drive with Win7 for $918.00 before tax from the Outlet store in March. Everything was great until afull cup of coffee was spilled onto the keyboard. Without thinking I picked up the laptop and flipped it over to get the coffee out.

Wrong move and long story short I dried out the laptop (found it too difficult to remove the back cover) but it would not power on. Sent it to Lenovo for repair and they want $750.00 to replace the system board and keyboard. That is a lot of money considering what I paid for it. Could I get it repaired somewhere else for less? What would some of you do? I'm almost thinking of looking for another laptop. I only wanted one that was reliable and light ( not more than 4 lbs) with a good keyboard and able to connect to a monitor. I use it for stock trading and researching. Just one trading platform.

Thanks for your thoughts and suggestions.

Glo

 

Sorry to hear about your misfortune, but this may be one of those times when there's no good answers. The T440s is so new there's probably not a lot of sources for parts, other than Lenovo and you've seen how expensive they are. eBay is worth a look for a planar and keyboard if you're willing to do it yourself. The undamaged parts have value and could be sold to help offset the cost of the new machine.

 

Get yourself a big bottle of Isopropanol, remove the system board from the unit and soak it in an Isopropanol bath. Clean the chassis while the board is removed. Then let it dry a few days and put everything back together. If it still doesn't work, you're screwed.

 

I'd actually second this... I've had this revive at least a handful of liquid-damaged motherboards, but obviously it doesn't work everytime.

 

I'd third this as well. It's at least worth a try. Though iirc you should use something that is mostly Isopropanol (say, 90% or better), as the filler is usually water (so something like 50% wouldn't be so great iirc).

 

Couldn't hurt if you are tech savvy, to check to see if any SMD fuses on the board are blown.

 

If you have homeowner's (ETA: or renter's) insurance, it may cover part of the cost, as will some credit cards within 30 days (my wife did something similar to a brand new macbook, but she'd purchased it with American Express, and they paid to fix it since it was within 30 days. Also, it cost $750 as well, which makes me wonder if that's the standard "you ed up" rate)

 

I would explore some insurance options (as stated above). I had renter's insurance this past year, and I had spilled a whole coffee thermos that my wife had prepped for me- she didn't make sure the lid was level when she put the lid on. Story speaks for itself from there.. all over my new T440p :cry:
In the end, I ended up having them cover 90% (yeah.. like they couldn't have covered the last 10%) but 90% reimbursed I cannot complain!

 

I would go the isopropyl bath route. Make absolutely sure you get 91% isopropyl (99% is even better), 71% will not cut it. I've revived a few water damaged phones this route.

 

Yeah get some isopropyl (pharmacy or hardware store), denatured alcohol (hardware store), or methanol (auto parts or hardware store) and give it a rinse. Do not use acetone as it can melt components. You could also try distilled water if you can't find those (it's available at almost every grocery store).