[m18x] Troubleshooting liquid splash consequences

Hi Everyone,

Before you even start one me.. I know! how the hell did that happen! Well It was new year's eve and I was DJing for the party... Had a glass of champagne, I was talking to someone or doing something else and some of it fell on the keyboard

Needless to say, I pretty much had a lot of luck, since laptop is still working and i'm typing on it right now. Well i has to turn it off as It wouldn't restart for a while, let it dry of the night (12 hours) and I started up again. Actually, i'm using an external keyboard ... as some of the keys don"t work that well.

Here are the problems:
1) some of the keys don't work, some do
2) I regularly get the volume down symbol on OSD until the volume goes mute. Even after hitting the volume up button on the trim, it just goes back down just as soon.
3) if i hit some areas of the keyboard (towards the lower left part of the keyboard) it removes the volume down problem for 10-30 seconds before starting again)
4) without the trim (power on + special buttons near screen) panel connected, the sound down problems remains so it looks like the problem does not come from there
5) when the mute icon (= volume down button pressed for whatever reason) is displayed on screen with OSD, laptop performance gets hit : i cannot type as fast as it takes time for letters to appear on the screen and such other slowdowns

I have narrowed things down to 2 possibilities!
a) keyboard.. don't know the link between the 2 problems
b) motherboard, which would activate the button down volume

I have not tried to start the laptop without the keyboard... maybe I could start from there.

What do you guys think?

Thank you.

 

Volume up/down is controlled by the physical media buttons that are part of the keyboard bezel. It has a cable that hooks into the motherboard. If it were me, I would take out the keyboard and that bezel frame surrounding the keyboard and wash/soak with warm soapy water, and dry with hair dryer and leave out to dry for a night or two just to make sure. You may have sugar build up somewhere on the circuits, or worse corrosion, which would require and alcohol bath of at least 91% isopropyl, or you could buy new parts. If its the motherboard.....that would really suck.

 

Another reason I love vinyl

A tear down is probably in order to clean and dry out the components.

 

this was 30 days ago... computer has been on every night since... so I imagine it is dry by now..

 

As I said in the topic, I have already tried starting the laptop without that media keyboard bezel... cable was disconnected and I powered on, doesn't change a thing... as if there is another source for the volume down "action" from somewhere else...

 

When fluids dry, they tend to leave residue......you might wanna get it off your components if you want them to work properly. If it still does the volume up/down thing with the cable from the media buttons removed, then you may have residue stuck in the cable socket, in which case you would need a q-tip and some isopropyl 91% to try and clean it off. If both washing the components and cleaning the board connectors don't work, you will need a new motherboard.

 

When fluids dry, they tend to leave residue......you might wanna get it off your components if you want them to work properly. If it still does the volume up/down thing with the cable from the media buttons removed, then you may have residue stuck in the cable socket, in which case you would need a q-tip and some isopropyl 91% to try and clean it off. If both washing the components and cleaning the board connectors don't work, you will need a new motherboard, which is ~450$

 

I'm pretty sure this may be what's happening. The Champagne may have left some residue on one of those parts causing the constant pressing. Try taking it apart and cleaning it all.

 

Get the residue off of a motherboard socket?

 

I have narrowed down the keys I need to press to get the problem to stop... il i press either CTRL, Windows or Alt on the bottom left part of the keyboard, the problems stops for 10-15 sec or sometimes a minute or 2.

How do you explain the link between keyboard and Volume down problem?

 

Any of those keys are interrupt/override keys, thats the only reason why they would "stop" momentarily the volume up/down thing. Still would be worth cleaning the components, I don't know why you won't just go ahead and do it. Really, its not that hard and it would give us more information if it still doesn't work.

 

disconnect that damn spilt keyboard, replace it with another one as I believe problem will go away. try w/o keyboard and report

 

I've experienced something similar like this. For my fix I bought a new keyboard and replaced it.
Good luck with getting it fixed.

Cheers.

 

Will try disconnecting keyboard to see if it changes something.
Then I will try cleaning the socket... simple question : hace you seen the size of a Q-tip and the size of the socket slot? well its not really compatible...

 

You don't want to get any cotton fuzz stuck in there either. Use 91% alcohol as suggested with a soft bristled brush or a folded reinforced microfiber tissue (like the disposable eyeglass wipes), just be gentle not to disturb/distort the pins, then blow it dry with compressed air.

 

Will try this WE, thanks for suggestions.