Computer Disaster

[TrevorW]

Never let your wife or kids touch the laptop

Hey I got to use it maybe twice a week and I'm still paying the thing off and what does the missus do

Spills water on it then unbeknown to me tries and turn the thing on

No screen display, $70 later a supposed technician says he can't find where the fault is (he doesn't have the test equipment tell me why he bothered in the first place) but said the memory and HD are Ok

So my technician BIL opened it up and has a look but can't see anything immediate then states he'll confer with the IT people at the Uni he works for.

If it wasn't for the fact I need it for PHD guiding etc and are still paying it off I'd buy a new one as you can pick them up for around $600 these days.

If I do get a new one guess whos not touching it

[sheeny (Al)]

Uh oh...

Sorry to hear about the lappy... I'm nearly finished rebuilding mine after it caught a virus...

Al.

[nightsky]

G'Day,
Don't you just love these so called "technician" the only thing there good at,is working out how much you have to pay.
Cheers
Arthur

[leon]

Ouch.. but I suppose accidents do happen.

Leon

[leinad (Dan)]

Yeeouch Trev. Do you have a spare monitor? Not sure what model it is but you may be able to plug in an external monitor(if it has VGA plug on rear /side) and press the Fn Hotkeys when it boots, so you can get to see the screen. How did the guy know the HDD and memory was Ok , or was that just technician instinct ?

sometimes sharing is daring..

Do you have warranty?

[Ian Robinson]

My wife sticks to the desktop , she's got a limited account on it , so she can stuff up anything important.

My son when he was a living at home has an admin account on the lappy and the desktop until he installed a couple of those stupid computer games and suddenly I discovered all manner of nastys , so I fixed him , I uninstalled the games , and changed his account to a limited account and informed him that he had better find better things to do.... like school work.

Spilling water on the computer .... not good. Wont have been healthy for it , accidential damage claim on your home contents insurance would be in order.

[g__day (Matthew)]

You might be able to revive things (if they aren't shorted) by cleaning gear in distilled water (not de-mineralised) pure distilled water then thoroughly drying things for at least 3-4 days. This sometimes works on desktop gear - never heard of someone trying it on a laptop - ouch!

[TrevorW]

Now all fixed thanks too insurance

Cheers

[acropolite (Phil)]

Good to hear that your insurance covered the damage.

With any spill or immersion of electronics, it's imperative that ALL sources of power are removed immediately, this includes batteries including the cmos backup battery. The reason for this is that even slighy conductivity in the liquid will start electrolysis and tracks etc not only corrode away rapidly but solder migrates and can form deposits that short circuit components. I've seen telephone handsets that have had coffee spilt inside and the small amount of current that's available has etched PCB tracks completely through before the coffee dries out.