Water got in laptop, not turning on. Also turns off charger that is plugged into it

[utilityaddress0]

Some water got into my Dell Lattitude E6430 laptop, while I fell asleep and left it on. I woke up and saw that it was off, it didn't come on when i pressed the power button. I then noticed the charger had no light even when it was not plugged into the laptop. The light came on after a while in the laptop charger but as soon as I plugged it in the charger light turn off immediately. None of the indicator lights in the laptop came on during all this. I left it in an AC room for 3 days to dry out without the bottom case on and without the memory, cd-drive and hard drive. After re-assembly, I then tried the charger again and also a different charger but it was the same result. Can anyone advise me on what to do to get it working?

 

[derek3ton]

You probably killed it. I'd say take it apart as much as you can and try to dry it out as much as possible, but it probably will be pointless. Water don't play well with electronics. I'm not even going to ask if it's still under warranty because that would definitely void that part.

 

[utilityaddress0]

Thanks for the speedy response derek3ton. I'll take up your suggestion and strip it down even further and leave it in a warm environment this time. Do you or anyone else know why it makes the charger do that

 

[derek3ton]

It could have shorted it out. How did the water get on it? Next to a window?

 

[utilityaddress0]

Cup spilled on bed, laptop was on bed. Seemed like it got through the speaker vents (speakers are at front) and the creases at the end of the hand-rest below the keyboard.

 

[hang-the-9]

Only thing you can do is replace the motherboard, your system is about right at the point where replacing it and fixing it are just about equal costs. I'd find a used laptop of the same model and swap out your hard drive into it, assuming the drive is still good.

 

[DSzymborski]

Unfortunately, if you've dried it out and it's not still working, it's almost certainly toast. The survival of a laptop that has liquid on it and in it (while water itself isn't conductive, the stuff in with the water is) is highly dependent on getting the laptop powered-off very, very quickly. And I don't mean calmly shutting down windows, but yanking the battery and/or the plug in as few seconds as possible.

Given that you didn't/weren't able to shut off the power after spilling water on your laptop and it shut off on its own accord, it's very likely it needs a requiem mass more than a repair. For a laptop this old, replacing the motherboard will most likely be as expensive as a newer, better, laptop.

It's still worth seeing if you can salvage the hard drive with a small, inexpensive, enclosure. I have a number of small laptop hard drives converted into external hard drives, long after their parents gave up the ghost.

 

[utilityaddress0]

Thanks for the useful information. It's still left open to possibly dry out any water that's in it and not visible.

I see the same model motherboard selling for about 90 dollars, if its only the motherboard that's damaged, should I buy it?