cf-29 immersed in water..

Before you start pointing and laughing at me I was not the one who gave it a bath. I just wanted to know if there is anything I can do to see if I can salvage the motherboard, like if it popped a fuse or something. It will not power on at all but it is very clean.

So fresh and so clean clean

Dan

 

It probably would've been ok if the battery was removed immediately after it was dunked and the unit had sufficient time to dry off completely.

ok THATS IT. Toughbooks aren't waterproof?! I'm going with Dell.

 

Well I think the person who did this didn't realize it had water in it until they saw the moisture behind the touchscreen. I'm sure they tried to turn it on a few times and did some damage but I was not present when this happened so I'm completely in the dark so that's why I was asking for ideas on where to start looking.

The innards are completely dry as I took it all apart and let it sit for a few days. Don't really wanna put it together and it not work when there was stuff I could have checked whilst it was still in pieces

Dan

 

How long has it been out of the water? One way to help it dry out is if you have an A/C system, get that going as it will dry the air which will help evaporate water out of the smaller spaces where surface tension will hold water in tiny spaces that it can't be shaken out of.

Also remove everything that's removable, such as the battery, HD caddy, etc. and give as much airflow into the casing as possible by having all port covers and access panels open (find a way to hold them open if need be using something simple line bits of toothpick). Also if you can take the cover off the LCD housing to give it more airflow so it can all dry out.

THe longer the water is in there the more corrosion damage risk there is. Even the purest water causes corrosion simply because of all the various metals and other compounds found inside highly integrated electronic devices.

I would not recommend using a lot of heat to dry the machine out, but a little bit can help accelerate the evaporation of trapped moisture.

Craig.

 

Actually, I have heard of Baking the MB in some cases could help. Not sure if this was for drying purposes, or for "reflowing" solder joints. I think TB may have brought it up so maybe he can clarify. Also, Mnem could give you some pearls on what to look for in terms of water damage and such before buttoning it all back together. I would, at the very least, ohm out all that you can before trying it live.

 

I agree.... Maybe not about the baking though *unless* you could guarantee the temps at 175 degrees or below.... (LCD NOT included!) This would surely drive out moisture from all the crannys, caps, etc.

Yes... Ohm out everything and check ALL fuses while you have the mobo out. It is very easy to do as you can flip it all around at that point. I also believe that there are a few fuses below the dual card slot assembly but that comes off with 4 screws and then unsnaps.

Worth a try...

 

I checked every fuse I could find, although I didn't think there was anything under the card slot. I will have to try that out.

Tell me more about this oven trick. Do I just remove all I can from the mobo and put it in the oven on a silicon cooking sheet. I know my oven is fairly accurate we have a thermometer in it. I'm not past trying this even if just to reflow all the solder connections.

 

My recommended method: Take the motherboard and rinse with 90%+ isopropyl alcohol. 98% if you can find it. By rinse, I mean immerse, swish it around by hand.

Afterwards, using a can of duster spray, spray under/over all components, driving out any residual water. Lay on an anti-static mat (not a cotton towel) or static bag to dry overnight.

Remember, one of the biggest dangers you risk with any cleaning process is ESD.

Using an oven sounds extremely risky, unless you have an extremely precise oven. Also, I do not believe that a kitchen oven will achieve any kind of solder reflow. You run the risk of damaging all the components on the motherboard as opposed to, say, a few...

 

I've done that already and got nothing. the way I see it is that if someone on here says that the oven method works even 45% of the time that's fine by me since the dang board already doesn't work. what's the harm in doing more damage to something that already doesn't work?

 

If it was immersed in water and there was a battery installed, the damage would have occured in the first microsecond of water hitting the motherboard. No amount of drying or cleaning would bring it back to life at this point. Would be best to toss it out and replace it.

 

I wasn't there when it happened so I'm just giving it a shot before I toss it out. I don't like to give up so easily, it's just not in my nature

 

I think Tough is right.... But if you want to try the oven method... Use LOW heat... You are DRYING not BAKING... You don't want to reflow anything... That's not what happened. Either something got wet and shorted and you'll never fix it (Short of finding the shorted piece and replacing if you can) or something got wet and needs to be dried out... Hence the baking.

But most likely... You're fried...

 

Yeah I didn't even bother baking it I'm just gonna keep it around for spare fuses since they all checked out good