[SOLVED] Need help, I feel the technicians are lying to me...

May 18, 2021
4
0
10
Hello everybody, sorry to skip my presentation but I switched my account to another username.
Day 0: Spilled a glass of water near the laptop, half of it got over the keyboard. The pc continued working a few seconds, until it turned off.
We plugged the cord, (couldn't remove battery due to screws) and left it open face down 90º open so all the liquids would evaporate / leak off. Waited 2 hours.

Tried to turn it on, no cooling sound, no video signal, only "power on" led turned on, when pressing power again to shut it down, cooler started working and inmediately pc goes off again.

We took it running to the local service center, they told me they would open it up and let it dry overnight.

Three days later, upon no further notice, called them, they said they will contact me next week.

2 weeks later, they said tartar was present on the board, so they would need to make a quimical "bath"(dunk) to get rid of it, and see if the pc works, apparenty without it there were not signs of life at all.

Here, me and my wife think that if tartar is really a thing and appeared, probably it's because they left the pc unattended for many days.

Last call, they said pc was apparently working, but it's impossible to tell since it doesn't give video signal. This make me furious, since how it's possible they can't tell if it's working or not, they say external monitors don't work, also internal display is not working, and they "even tried" other pc's screens with no success, to the point they don't know if the display is not working due to board failure, or due to incompatibility with such displays.

What do you think? I think I need to recover it asap, then try to fix it myself or take it another place. It's a litte of water, not acid. My worst fear, is that by now, they have stolen the original pc components, or made some permanent damage in order to charge me for unnecessary work.
 
Solution
Water isn't the problem, it is the electricity flowing through the board. Connecting one 12V or 5V wire to something designed to run at 1.2 volts, usually not good for electronics and water makes a pretty good conductor.

2 hours was probably not long enough to wait, and with the battery still in it. Hopefully this encourages you to get a set of precision screwdrivers to have on hand.

Corrosion = tartar
Chemical = quimical

Even a few days is certainly long enough to get corrosion from water exposure, especially tap water or the like. Lots of minerals and salts dissolved in water, and it would have picked up any dust on the system. Only chemical bath I can think of would be isopropyl alcohol, they would probably just spray the board...

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Water isn't the problem, it is the electricity flowing through the board. Connecting one 12V or 5V wire to something designed to run at 1.2 volts, usually not good for electronics and water makes a pretty good conductor.

2 hours was probably not long enough to wait, and with the battery still in it. Hopefully this encourages you to get a set of precision screwdrivers to have on hand.

Corrosion = tartar
Chemical = quimical

Even a few days is certainly long enough to get corrosion from water exposure, especially tap water or the like. Lots of minerals and salts dissolved in water, and it would have picked up any dust on the system. Only chemical bath I can think of would be isopropyl alcohol, they would probably just spray the board down with contact cleaner and let it dry again. I can't imagine an actual bath or dunking.

Computers make boot sounds and many other things to indicate a working condition. Might even be hearing the audio from Windows when it gets to the login screen. Could also get noise by pressing lots of keys at the same time.

I'm not sure if they mean to say that they tried replacing the screen, that would fall under a pretty serious repair they should have consulted with you about before doing it. Did you contract them to repair the device, or only disassemble and let it dry?

If you didn't authorize a screen replacement that would be on them. If you asked them to get it working it again, kind of on you, and any steps they would have taken could be charged to you.

Getting it back depends on the terms of your contract. If you refuse to pay them, it might become theirs after some default time. You would have to take that up with the owners.
 
Solution
It got water on it and isn't working. It's rarely, if ever, worth it to fix it. Just sell it for "Parts Only" on eBay and replace it.

You should be thinking about how much this computer is worth to you. Because if it is over a year old. It probably isn't worth much, besides a Mac. If you just need the data. Pull the drive and use an external adapter to retrieve it.

Even a few days is certainly long enough to get corrosion from water exposure, especially tap water or the like. Lots of minerals and salts dissolved in water, and it would have picked up any dust on the system. Only chemical bath I can think of would be isopropyl alcohol, they would probably just spray the board down with contact cleaner and let it dry again. I can't imagine an actual bath or dunking.

Might be using an ultrasonic cleaner. In which case it is dunked.
 
May 18, 2021
4
0
10
Water isn't the problem, it is the electricity flowing through the board. Connecting one 12V or 5V wire to something designed to run at 1.2 volts, usually not good for electronics and water makes a pretty good conductor.

2 hours was probably not long enough to wait, and with the battery still in it. Hopefully this encourages you to get a set of precision screwdrivers to have on hand.

Corrosion = tartar
Chemical = quimical

Even a few days is certainly long enough to get corrosion from water exposure, especially tap water or the like. Lots of minerals and salts dissolved in water, and it would have picked up any dust on the system. Only chemical bath I can think of would be isopropyl alcohol, they would probably just spray the board down with contact cleaner and let it dry again. I can't imagine an actual bath or dunking.

Computers make boot sounds and many other things to indicate a working condition. Might even be hearing the audio from Windows when it gets to the login screen. Could also get noise by pressing lots of keys at the same time.

I'm not sure if they mean to say that they tried replacing the screen, that would fall under a pretty serious repair they should have consulted with you about before doing it. Did you contract them to repair the device, or only disassemble and let it dry?

If you didn't authorize a screen replacement that would be on them. If you asked them to get it working it again, kind of on you, and any steps they would have taken could be charged to you.

Getting it back depends on the terms of your contract. If you refuse to pay them, it might become theirs after some default time. You would have to take that up with the owners.

Thanks for your extense reply, I asked them to repair it no matter what, they told me at first they will only let it dry, then they called me to ask "permission" on the chemical bath, I said yes, but regarding the screen is something new we didn't consent.

I will try to get it back, even paying for whatever they want to charge me, so I can take it to another place.

What really bugs me on this, are the unnecessary wasted days (on my criteria) and the chances of paybacks from them.
 
May 18, 2021
4
0
10
It got water on it and isn't working. It's rarely, if ever, worth it to fix it. Just sell it for "Parts Only" on eBay and replace it.

You should be thinking about how much this computer is worth to you. Because if it is over a year old. It probably isn't worth much, besides a Mac. If you just need the data. Pull the drive and use an external adapter to retrieve it.



Might be using an ultrasonic cleaner. In which case it is dunked.


Pc is tremendously valuable for me due to many reasons. Its a Dell gaming laptop which costs 6 months of my full salary (I live in Argentina), so getting a new one is not a choice, also is my wife's pc which is used for work and study.

Selling it "Parts Only" is not a good deal here, since people don't want to pay what components really cost.
 

Eximo

Titan
Ambassador
Might be using an ultrasonic cleaner. In which case it is dunked.

Perhaps. I would have expected ultrasonic cleaning then. Even for that, you typically use isopropyl alcohol as the "chemical"

No matter what basically gave them all the permission they would need to effect repairs, not sure you have much choice on that one.

Just ask for all original parts back, and pay the labor rate if they'll do that.

After that, not really sure what you should do with it. Fairly hard to diagnose laptops without specialized equipment and if something major is fried, not really cost effective to get new parts and start swapping components, which requires very good skill with surface mount soldering.

Best advice might be to buy your own parts only laptop of the same model and start swapping parts that way, but a dead motherboard is a dead motherboard, so might not be that useful. If it was just the screen, it is a way to get replacement screens before they become old enough for someone to offer replacement parts.
 
May 18, 2021
4
0
10
Perhaps. I would have expected ultrasonic cleaning then. Even for that, you typically use isopropyl alcohol as the "chemical"

No matter what basically gave them all the permission they would need to effect repairs, not sure you have much choice on that one.

Just ask for all original parts back, and pay the labor rate if they'll do that.

After that, not really sure what you should do with it. Fairly hard to diagnose laptops without specialized equipment and if something major is fried, not really cost effective to get new parts and start swapping components, which requires very good skill with surface mount soldering.

Best advice might be to buy your own parts only laptop of the same model and start swapping parts that way, but a dead motherboard is a dead motherboard, so might not be that useful. If it was just the screen, it is a way to get replacement screens before they become old enough for someone to offer replacement parts.


Thanks again on the kind analysis.
Last question, it is possible to get a total system failure / permanent board damage thanks to a half glass of water partially blocked by the keyboard? u said it in therms of voltages there is nothing to do, but I find it quite unexplainable.