[SOLVED] Water damage Blue screen errors and finding damaged components

[uns_exual]

My younger sister got some water on her laptop and I'm trying to figure out if I can fix it or if it has to be sent in. I am not sure of the amount of water that got on it but I know that it was in its fabric case and the water absorbed through to the laptop. As of now it's out on my desk opened up just to see if there is any other moisture that can be dried up. Before that I switched out the SSD as the IT at her school told her that it was fried. It boots, the keyboard is a bit off (Fn key is always on). After a few minutes, it shows a blue screen error.

What would be my best bet? Wait a few days and see if it'll boot up with no issues? Or should I just send it in for repairs?

 

[GoofyOne]

I know what everyone is going to say ... what make / model laptop ... what has it got in it? What sort of SSD? Which operating system?

How long ago was the water damage done to it ... might need to let it dry out for a while. If it is booting at all, that is sort of a good sign. How is it booting up? Does it have a HDD also?

I would wait for a cpl days let it air dry, maybe open up the case to help with the drying process. The repair shop will probably charge you for looking at it, then tell you you need a new one. So you will end up spending more.


{GoofyOne's 2c worth .. which may or may not be actually worth 2c}

 

[uns_exual]

Yea sorry, I should have included that information earlier. Thanks for replying. It's an Acer Swift 3 running Windows 10. It uses an m.2 SSD and I used one of my old ones from my PC build. I believe it only has the SSD as the boot drive. The damage was about 4 days ago.

 

[GoofyOne]

Owch, so it's a recent model. Is it still under warranty? If it is still within the warranty period, then maybe put the SSD back in and send it back for repairs. Perhaps don't mention the water damage, although if they do find it was water damaged they will charge you for repairs. (Unless the person repairing it is feeling generous).

Did you try the SSD from it in another machine, can you read anything on it? You may be able to rescue documents and files on it at least. I don't know whether you would have one, or possibly could borrow one, but there are external enclosures for M.2 SSD that plug into USB port. They sort of look like a large flash drive.

Just for example: External Enclosure for NVMe

There are enclosures that suit both NVMe, and SATA type M.2 SSD.



{GoofyOne's 2c worth .... wondering when manufacturers will start making water/coffee proof laptops}

 

[GoofyOne]

Birthday gift idea for your sister: Water resistant cover

I am thinking the BSOD you got may have just been because you were using a SSD from a different machine to boot it up, that has different drivers etc.


{GoofyOne}

 

[uns_exual]

I haven't tested out the SSD on another machine (I was planning to use the SSD from my laptop which are the same model). Should I swap the SSDs to see if it is just the different drivers causing the issues?

 

[GoofyOne]

That's kind of tricky. If the water damage mucked up the SSD socket/interface chips on her laptop, your SSD may not fare too well. Although you did say it booted up from that other SSD you had.

SSD's are pretty sturdy ... my thoughts are that her SSD may actually be ok, after drying out. Is the SSD you originally booted her machine with a 'spare' you don't really use or need?
If you don't really need it, you could try putting that one in hers, and doing a fresh install of Windows 10 on it. That will load all the correct drivers etc. Then run it like that for a while and test it out a bit, see what happens.

I guess, just make sure you have backups before you try things.


{GoofyOne's 2c worth}

 

[uns_exual]

Would you be able to help me identify what drivers would cause the error? The laptops use AMD processors with Radeon graphics. My spare SSD was cloned so it has Nvidia drivers, as well as a bunch of other softwares (NZXT Cam, ICUE, Aorus engine). Would any of those cause issues on the laptops?

 

[GoofyOne]

G'dday,

Well for starters you said your spare SSD has Nvidia driver, so that in itself might cause funny issues. AMD isn't Nvidia. As for the rest, I am unsure. Motherboards come with a 'chipset', and a SSD from a different machine may have drivers for a different 'chipset' (support chips on the motherboard).

ie: my motherboard has a X570 chipset, other chipsets might be B450, H510, Z590 ... etc.

The usual way to make sure it's set up correctly is to start with a clean (wiped) SSD and install Windows 10 from a installation flash drive, then it will install the correct drivers during the installation. But that will destroy whatever is already on your spare SSD.

You could also download a Linux distribution and put it on a bootable flash drive, then try booting up your sister's machine from that. That would give some idea if things are working correctly. Linux Mint is a decent choice, if you want to try that.

Have you had any luck reading files from your sister's SSD?



{GoofyOne}

 

[GoofyOne]

I think I may need to explain better what I was talking about, when I said install Windows 10.

You don't need any money, don't go paying for anything:
To do this you will need: 1 USB drive 8GB or bigger (flash drive / USB key whichever you call it)
Go to the Microsoft website: Microsoft Download
Scroll down to where it says: 'Create Windows 10 installation media'
Then click the download button
Read the instructions underneath titled:

• Using the tool to create installation media (USB flash drive, DVD, or ISO file) to install Windows 10 on a different PC (click to show more or less information)

You can then use this to install/repair Windows 10
You don't have to activate it, you are just using it to test whether your sister's laptop is working

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You may also be able to do something similar. As you have a similar laptop, another way to create a drive for testing, is to clone the SSD from your laptop to the spare SSD if it has large enough capacity to accept the cloned operating system and data.

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{GoofyOne's 2c worth ... }