OJ damage

[lellz]

Hey, over a year ago sister spilt only a tiny bit of orange juice on laptop, stopped working after that, we didn't do anything to it, now we pulled it out, and was about to throw it out, but i wanna see if there is anything i can try and do now, nothing to lose, so even if i have to take it apart and drown it in water or distilled water or some alcohol mix, and wait a week to dry, i don't care, any suggestions for ideal solution

acer travelmate 3220

 

[johnners2981]

thought this was about OJ Simpson.

Might of damaged the mobo on it so take the cpu, ram, hard drive and screen and sell them if you wish

 

[lellz]

no i wanna fix or nothing, hardware fairly outdated anyway, just wondering if you had a liquid choice,
i'm gonna dunk it in something if no-one has an answer anyway

 

[Rizlla]

no i wanna fix or nothing, hardware fairly outdated anyway, just wondering if you had a liquid choice,
i'm gonna dunk it in something if no-one has an answer anyway

Dunk it in some nice strong alcohol and see what happens. Make sure to let it dry properly if you want to give it a chance.

 

[Chainzsaw]

The laptop may have possibly been fried by that OJ spilling on it.

Sometimes, if you had turned it off right away....and let it dry for at least a day or two, it should still work.

The best would be just to take it apart and clean it, and yes alcohol is good to use, jus don't use TONS of it, use like a Q TIP or something. It may not actually work, but what can go wrong?

 

[lellz]

well it wasn't much that got on there, and it was off anyway, but never turned back on since, after some searching i may get some isopropyl/metho, and mix it with distilled water and then wash the parts with that, let it dry for a week, maybe run a blowdryer over it, and see what happens...sounds good?

 

[mavroxur]

That silly O.J. is at it again? I thought he would've learned the first few times.

 

[Rizlla]

well it wasn't much that got on there, and it was off anyway, but never turned back on since, after some searching i may get some isopropyl/metho, and mix it with distilled water and then wash the parts with that, let it dry for a week, maybe run a blowdryer over it, and see what happens...sounds good?

Just don't use the blow dryer!

 

[lellz]

ok, no blow dryer, i'll peg it to the clothes line for a week , but yeah ok will leave it in my room on a towel for a week or so, fingers crossed, i'll be my little gaming laptop for when i'm on the move, no loss if i trash it, i have too much spare time and get bored

 

[warezme]

use WD-40, it will dissolve the juice and is non conductive, then wipe off. If it still won't boot after, its toast, toss it and move on. The only removable parts you can resell are battery and charger, memory modules, hard drive and possibly the screen to someone who broke one and needs your exact model.

 

[lellz]

i can't get the main board by itself, i can't find disassembly guides for me, i get all components and keyboard out but can't get any further

 

[Rizlla]

The first time I took a laptop apart I did one thing. I loosened every screw I could find.

 

[thesnappyfingers]

I just googled your laptop, and this guide popped up, it is a pdf file and photos. Hope it helps.

http/tim.id.au/laptops/acer/travelmate%202400%203210%203220%203230.pdf

Chapter 3 has flow charts and the pretty pictures.

 

[lellz]

Thanks Alot it's gonna help, so the plan is, take out the motherboard, spray it down with WD-40(great idea), then wash it off with some water/distilled water, and then leave to dry for few days and then reassemble and hopefully turn on i'll let you know how it goes, also how can i test if the power cable is working, pretty sure adapter works but what if cable or power socket is faulty, can i check that somehow?

thanks guys for all your help

 

[mavroxur]

Thanks Alot it's gonna help, so the plan is, take out the motherboard, spray it down with WD-40(great idea), then wash it off with some water/distilled water, and then leave to dry for few days and then reassemble and hopefully turn on i'll let you know how it goes, also how can i test if the power cable is working, pretty sure adapter works but what if cable or power socket is faulty, can i check that somehow?

thanks guys for all your help

Good luck washing off WD-40 (which is an oil, and actually stands for "water displacement") with water.

 

[lellz]

haha oh lol, yeah wipe, it's been a long night,, but how do you get rid of excess, within components...plus i got a varient of WD-40, little lighter, same use though

 

[megamanx00]

Likely you shorted out the motherboard. Anyway search the internet for a service manual or motherboard replacement instructions to show you how to take apart your particular laptop. Every laptop is a little different as far as the best way to take it apart.

Once you've taken the thing apart and taken the motherboard out and make sure to take out the BIOS battery. Give it a few seconds for any electricity to discharge. Blow it over with compressed air to get the dirt out and then clean it with cotton balls and Rubbing alcohol. Make sure that you don't leave any cotton fibers on the board especially over or in any ports. After you've gotten the crud off of it let it air dry and make sure to dry it completely. Put it back into the base and connect only the BIOS battery, 1 stick of RAM, the heatsink and fan assembly, power input if separate from the motherboard, and power button. Don't use the laptop battery, use the power adapter to test it out first and use an external monitor.

After you got some of it back together you can try turning it on and do use a surge protector. Make sure there is nothing flammable close to it in case of sparks ^_^. If you push the power button and nothing happens make sure you put the RAM and other connectors in properly. If the fan spins but nothing else happens, the external monitor gets an input but remains blank, and/or it keeps beeping at you then you probably need a new motherboard. If absolutely nothing happens it may need a battery (this happens on some Toshibas) so put in the battery and let it charge for a few minutes before trying to turn it on. If it still doesn't work you need a new motherboard. If it does manage to POST with an external monitor then turn it off and try it with the laptop screen. If the laptop screen does not come on then either the cable to the screen, the screen inverter board, or the screen itself needs to be replaced. If it can POST just fine to the screen the slap the whole thing back together and you should have a working laptop

 

[megamanx00]

If you need a new motherboard for the laptop you can probably get on on eBay especially if it has an nVidia chipset due to the whole 8400 fiasco. Screens for a specific laptop are a bit harder to find though.

 

[lellz]

i didn't want to rub it with anything, cause you can't see anything, it was literally a few drops on the keyboard over a year ago, dunno how it even got into the mobo, all i could think of was maybe that it hit the power input on mobo, so thats why i wanted to submerge it, to get over everything, also i have nothing to lose, i'd rather not take a few days of repairing. also i can't get the bios battery out, it's soldered, can i do it with battery in?

 

[megamanx00]

Doing it with the battery in will probably fry something. The BIOS battery powers the clock and also a small part of memory holding the set values of the BIOS (boot order, time, timings, things like that). If you fry those circuits, it ain't gonna POST. There should be a way to remove the battery for replacement.