[plug] Fluid damage to Laptop

[Daniel Pearson (Flashware Solutions)]

I second that, the last time I flew back to Perth from Sydney I had a few drinks
(like all other culprits, it was red!) and had spilled it over my machine -
didn't seem to do any damage. That was 2 months ago, has been running fine since..

Cheers
-- 
Daniel Pearson 
Flashware Solutions ABN 58 438 456 919
Mob: 0438 118 897  |  Email: daniel at flashware.net

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Quoting Shannon Carver <shannon.carver at gmail.com>:

> I can't really add anything to the conversation, I just thought I'd say that
> this weekend gone must have been a bad one for laptops or something.  My
> girlfriend knocked over a glass of red wine on Saturday night, proceeding to
> spill red wine all over my old Compaq Armada on Saturday night.
> 
> I was annoyed at first, then remembered just how much of a beating I've
> given it over the years and laughed.
> 
> Cleaned it out Sunday morning, and it works fine, might have been lucky this
> time, there was dried sticky red wine all over the CPU heatsink, didn't
> touch anything too important though, I don't think!
> 
> 
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: plug-bounces at plug.org.au [mailto:plug-bounces at plug.org.au] On Behalf
> > Of Jonathan Young
> > Sent: Monday, 11 September 2006 8:52 AM
> > To: plug at plug.org.au; plug at plug.org.au
> > Subject: [plug] Fluid damage to Laptop
> > 
> > 
> > Hi All
> > 
> > This week I am looking at a laptop which has been potentially damaged by
> > fluid ingression.  In other words, a glass of red wine was spilt next to
> > it and a fair amount managed to land on the keyboard, the upward facing
> > left speaker and the remainder washed around the based of the laptop
> > where it sat on the desk before anyone could react.  It is a Toshiba
> > laptop and won't be cheap to replace.
> > 
> > On the plus side, the laptop was immediately unplugged, switched off
> > (power button held down for 10 seconds), the battery and hard drive
> > removed (all data is safe and sound) and nothing went "pop - bang" at
> > the time.  In fact, it continued to play the music/video it was
> > processing during the ordeal and the screen showed everything normal
> > until it was forced to turn off.
> > 
> > On the down side, wine literally poured back out of it (mainly from the
> > speaker) and it was nearly a full 300ml that went "missing" and then
> > came back out.
> > 
> > On the plus side, after it was manually cleaned as much as possible, it
> > was tipped upside down with paper towel between the screen and keyboard
> > and has been that way (on a slight angle) for 24 hours ++.  Not a drop
> > has appeared on the paper towel during that time.  The design of the
> > base of the laptop also meant that four rubber feet kept it raised off
> > the table by around 2mm - just enough to keep the wine off the base.
> > For example, none of the stickers or labels are even remotely stained.
> > The CD-RW drive which is immediately behind the speaker was spotless
> > which implies a separate cavity for the speaker cone inside the chasis.
> > 
> > So......
> > 
> > Is it worth pulling it apart to see what the insides look like and/or to
> > do further cleaning?
> > 
> > How long should it be left to dry before being powered back up for a test
> > run?
> > 
> > If it boots, what tests can be done before putting the hard drive back in
> > to ensure it won't short out and damage the drive for instance?
> > 
> > If it boots, what will it take before it can be trusted again - can it be
> > left switched on when no-one is home?
> > 
> > If it appears to have survived, what can some evaporated wine crystals or
> > residue do to the insides of a laptop that might cause it to die
> > prematurely in the coming months?
> > 
> > And lastly, what do pluggers think of people eating and drinking around
> > their computers, especially laptops where the risk is more than just a
> > $10 replacement keyboard?
> > 
> > All suggestions, personal experiences and especially technical facts
> > would be appreciated.  I'd really like to save this one, though the
> > temptation is to hit the button now and see what happens...!
> > 
> > 
> > Jonathan Young
> > Director of PC-PHIX
> > jonathan at pcphix.com
> > 
> > Phone: 0410 455 674
> > Web:  www.pcphix.com
> > _______________________________________________
> > PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> > http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> > Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au
> 
> _______________________________________________
> PLUG discussion list: plug at plug.org.au
> http://www.plug.org.au/mailman/listinfo/plug
> Committee e-mail: committee at plug.linux.org.au
>