[TriLUG] [OT] I killed my laptop ...

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Lisa Boyd wrote:

>It was the back left corner. It got on the keyboard, USB ports, and
>the cable that connects the screen. The screen went dark -- fading in
>and out -- then when completely off. I'm trying to take it apart, but
>there are 2 screws that are giving me hell right now!
>
>I'm so afraid that since it got into the screen that it's toast :( I
>feel sooooo frustrated at myself!
>
>Lisa B.
>  
>
Don't feel bad, it could be worse.  My wife is famous for combing Coke 
(her drink of choice) and electronic equiment (my toys of choice).  In 
particular, she once floated her T42 laptop in about 2 inches of Coca 
Cola in her water-proof backpack.  She then proceeded to take it out of 
the laptop, let the coke *drain* from the chasis (yes, as in run out, 
and then slowly drip out).  Once she was convinced all of the Coke she 
could shake from the computer was out, she was determined to assess the 
extent of the damage, so she turned on the laptop to see if it was still 
okay.  If not for that last step, I think I might have been able to 
clean it and save it.  I disassembled it and cleaned it to the nines, 
down to bare boards, plastic and screws, and I couldn't even get it to 
POST any more.  All things told, the university repair shop (under her 
student warranty that covers virtually everything, including running 
over it with your car) replaced virtually the entire guts (motherboard, 
processor, screen, hard drive, modem and sound daughter cards, cd-rw, 
etc).  I think only the case and the RAM survived unscathed.  The case 
is still slightly shiny to this day.

As for your particular case, the flickering you described from the 
screen probably indicated that either the backlight itself shorted out, 
or the high voltage transformer that supplies power to the backlight 
shorted out.  That's probably only the beginning, as you probably also 
have coke down in the main chasis, as you described the USB ports 
getting wet I suspect you've got nice conductive / corrosive coke in and 
around the power connector to the motherboard, and near the CPU socket.  
I wouldn't profess to provide a diagnosis from 3,000 miles away, but the 
general gist of it isn't pretty.  You'll need to take it to an 
appropiately competent local shop to have them completely disassemble 
and clean it, then determine what's bad and replace as neccesary.  Since 
it's a T43 I'm going to assume it's reltively new, and suggest that it's 
probably covered either by a student warranty (if you're lucky enough to 
be a student and have puchased said warranty), or by your renters / home 
owners insurance.  You're very likely to exceed the deductible on your 
insurance (aka this is going to cost more than $250-500 to fix).  Note, 
the manufactuer's warranty does not cover Coke, unfortunately.

If you are indeed a student and have the luxury, I'd suggest the campus 
tech stop / repair shop.  They're probably well versed in this problem.  
If, on the other hand, you're not a student, you could try somewhere 
like Intrex (disclaimer: my former employer) but they're not going to be 
able to order the hard-core replacement parts for your T43.  I don't 
know of any authorized repair centers for IBM notebooks locally, but 
someone on-list probably will, or you can try looking around on ibm.com 
for one.

My condlences for your situation, and hopefully I'll be totally wrong 
and it just needs a wipe down and a reboot,
Aaron S. Joyner