E6400 Water Damage

Hi,

I've managed to spill half a glass of water onto my E6400. I unplugged it and straight away and waited 24 hours.

The laptop now doesn't boot: the BIOS runs and the hard drive gets accessed and then it powers down.

Is it going to be obvious to the engineer that all of this was caused by water?

 

If it is plain water then it may not leave much trace (or cause damage).

Perhaps it is still not properly dried out. I suggest you remove (i) the keyboard and (ii) the base and leave the computer to dry for longer. See the E6400 Service Manual on the Dell website if you don't know how to remove those parts.

John

 

24 hours is not long enough to dry out. I would open it up as much as possible in a bone dry space and let it dry completely before applying power.

GK

 

I'd recommend gutting the computer and seeing if there are any obvious signs of damage. After drying, if it still doesn't work, try booting off of a CD to see if your HDD is messed up or if its something else.

 

Unfortunately normal water contains salts which have probably been deposited inside.
http://www.grynx.com/projects/wine-in-laptop/

 

Well after 48 h and a more serious disassembly, things seem to be working ok. Fingers crossed.

Thanks for the suggestions, taking the keyboard out was key: there was a splash of water there.

 

That's cool! If it's dry enough to work, it should be ok. It should dry up really well with its own heat.

GK