Odd Cf-29E problem..... RAM related I guess...

So, during my knife making in the garage the other day, I got japanese waterstone mud on my rubber keyboard, so I decided to wash it off and give the screen a wash too. So, like any Toughbook lover would do, I washed it:



And just as I finished, the low battery flag popped up, then shortly after it shut down. I plugged it in, tried to wake it up, dead. Pulled out the batteries, set if on it's side to drain, nice large puddle of water formed on the table. Since then i haven't been able to get it to boot, even into BIOS, batteries out, HD out, etc.

Figuring I killed it, the motherboard anyways, so I went to the extreme (not in a bad way) of buying another CF-29E from eBay (half the price I paid earlier, first was $400, my new one bought the other night was $200)....

So, seeing as how I had a dead Toughbook, looked at ways to fix it, new motherboard? Had to find the problem first, so dug around here......... saw to remove all removable items, I did...... except the RAM. Just pulled it out 10mins ago......... my Toughbook boots and loads up Windows no problem!!!!! Turn it off and reinstall the RAM, it doesn't. Pull it out again, back to normal.

So, I guess it's safe to say I learned two things, 1/ A Toughbook can get soaked with water internally and will still boot and run; 2/ RAM doesn't like getting wet.......

Time for another stick of RAM, eh?

 

You never, ever, under any circumstances, use water damaged componemts in a rebuild.

 

Yes I would say so . Most likely someone had it apart before you and did not do a very good job putting it back together.

 

Maybe, doubt it though, unsure how the water got in or where, I battened the hatches beforehand.

And I can't use this RAM anyways, and can't find the 256 stick that came with it anywhere, today is a holiday (for us tough) and the store isn't open, so have to wait til tomorrow. At least I have a couple Dell laptops to tide me over...

 

I had a similar situation on an 18 after I "washed" it. Mine would not boot
either, it did nothing. I removed the keyboard and presto it works again.
The clicky keyboards don't like water as it gets in between the membranes and
causes a short.

 

Found my old stick of 256Mb and am now typing on my 29. Only thing with it now is every 10-20 seconds or so the screen darkens for a quarter of a second then goes back to normal. Kinda annoying......

Mine has the annoying rubber keyboard, so water didn't get in between the keys, but did somewhere else. Impressive I only lost the RAM, says a lot about Toughbooks!

 

Did you try "baking" the keyboard in the oven?

Usually, just the heat from the oven light will suffice if you leave it in long enough for the heat to build up; otherwise, set the Temp to something like 125º/140º and leave it for a while to "boil" out the moisture.

Here's a related article:

Are Computer Keyboards Dishwasher Safe?

 

I like the bag of rice trick myself. It works great on cel phones, radio's and it works on laptops. Put the laptop or the parts that needs drying into a bag with rice and seal it for a week. The rice will suck all the moisture out of it. This really does work great

 

That bloody rice saved my iPhone after i drowned it in beer. I've grown to respect rice greatly since that accident.

 

Great tips thanks! I just got it nice and warm with a hair dryer that
did the job. Will keep the bag-o-rice in mind the next time someone
gives me a cell-phone that landed in the toilet. I only accept them
if they swam in "clear water" though

 

How about rolling the keyboard out of the way, opening the top and re-seating the the cables a couple times. A little bit of water may have gotten around the gasket and dripped in there on the cables. Another thing is moisture drifting around inside the lid. It wouldn't hurt to open the lid and let it air out.

Jeff

 

It dried over a couple days before I was able to get it going again, screen doesn't seem to flicker much now, but did find it didn't respond to trying to open Exploder often, rebooted and it wasn't too bad.......... just seem to find odd little issues at times, unsure if it's because of low RAM (the 256Mb stick in there). Anyways, picking up a 1Gb today, see how that works.

 

those odd little issues are because of the water damage. its normal for a water damaged computer to behave strangely.