# There goes the laptop...



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

Needed somewhere to rant!

On Monday my friend spilled water on my laptop keyboard. (I know that souds like a terrible excuse for my own mistake but it was definitely not me; I have no problem admitting when I destroy my own electronics!) She then proceeded to look stunned for thirty seconds while I shouted at her to get paper towels. Ugh.

I cleaned it but made the mistake of still playing around on my computer and it seems that when I kept moving it around and leaving it on, some water fried a circuit in my motherboard. The green charger light still comes on (Macbook Air) but the display is nada. Definitely a short.

I have an appointment for it tomorrow to see what needs to be fixed. It was a small amount of water, but I admit it was my fault for leaving it on even though I knew better, but I'm still upset with her since she barely made an effort to help me clean it. I have school stuff on this hard drive and I don't want to risk taking it apart right now myself. The darned thing just needs to boot up properly already. :S

It's a 50/50 fault here... I forgive her and recognise my own mistakes but ugh, come on. That laptop is my child and it's not even a year old yet... Still a toddler. LOL. I got into a car accident today too. Talk about a bad week :S




Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Is she going to take any financial responsibility? I ask because I spilt maybe half a glass of milk on my laptop cleaned it up immediately thought I did what I was supposed to to keep my circuit safe and no go. $250 to fix it -- memory and such not affected.


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

She apologised profusely to me over the phone and asked me if there was anything she could do. I told her to calm down for the time being so I could troubleshoot what happened. I'm 99.9% sure my motherboard's damaged so I will most likely be asking her if she can pay me, like, half of the money, maybe. If it's the whole motherboard (most likely not!) I'll just let her of the hook because that gets crazy expensive but I think helping me out to pay for whatever got damage would be nice. She feels really bad and I'm sure it won't be a problem.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

Also might I add it wasn't even that much water at all. not even 1/4 of the glass. Of course I know it doesn't really matter how much damage was done considering how as soon as water touches a circuit in the MB while the laptop is on it's 9/10 times completely toast and you'll need that whole circuit replaced. I have spilt way more on my laptop beore and it has been fine -- the fault here is that i continued to mess with it. It was working fine a few hours after the spill but I assume when I picked it up etc some leftover water moved & got into a little spot and shorted something. Just bad luck and me being stupid even though i knew better. Also her fault for not helping me clean and drinking water near my laptop in the firdt place... It sucks but it will be OK. Just impatient I miss my laptop!

To be honest i am a big tech junkie and i have taken enough classes on this stuff to pop open my laptop at home and know what i am looking at... I could even invite my other techy friends over for smores and a nice "let's fix my motherboard party" right now but I just have too many valuables on this laptop right now to risk messing around. Bah.

(sorry abou all the spelling and grammar problems... too lazy tofix any right now as i am on my phone.)


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

Since it is less than a year old, it is better just to take it in. You messing with it voids the warranty. 

I will say expect to be frustrated. I work in the customer service division of ITS at my school and can not get them to trust a word I say when I tell them what is wrong and what I need. They always try to run $80 tests when the problem is apparent. Make sure you don't just flaunt your knowledge to them but be firm in what you are willing to pay.


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

It's already going tomorrow so I won't be messing with it. Unfortunately... Spilling anythin on it already is considered user damage and voids warranty. I can lie of course... but if they find water damage inside i cant think of any way that happens without a spill. Not sure if its worth bluffing and im sure they know lots of people lie. Ill be paying a lot regardless but it's worth it.

Usually first steps in a computer that wont boot is testing the processors an the Video cards etc and then the keboard connectors... Then they will look at the motherboard (might do that forst actualy since thats usually where the problem is when computers "suddenly stop working" lol...) and there is the problem yadda yadda... Ill probably mention that i think thrre is a shortage but ill leave it to them really. I am willin to pay whatever it takes.


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

Just because there is damage to the mobo does not mean you will lose all your data. I'm not entirely sure about macs because I hate them but in pcs you can swap the hard drive into another system and access all the files. Knowing macs though it might be impossible because they like to make things more difficult so average users can't fix their own computers. 

I'm going to bet that they will want to replace your full motherboard. Knowing a lot of tech people and working on computers myself I can also tell you they will charge you an arm and a leg to fix the motherboard while they will only charge you an arm and half a leg to replace the motherboard. 

As far as the light coming on but not the display can you hear the hard drive spinning at all (you won't be able to if you have a solid state drive)? IF you CAN hear the hard drive then this is good news as your data is likely still fine. Have you tried plugging the laptop into a monitor or your tv? It'd be great if it was just the screen but I doubt it. 


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

No, it's not just the screen, something clearly shorted out. It's not a spinning drive so I can't hear it.

I had to handle something else today so I got my mom to go take it to Apple. They opened it and found spill. My mom knows nothing about computers and she just decided to buy a WHOLE NEW LAPTOP which actually cost more than getting the old one fixed. She's now angry at herself for not realising how much money she is losing.

I will take out my old hard drive and use a SATA USB adapter so I don't void warranty on the new one. 

I do not think my hard drive is damaged since it worked fine after the spill and a few hours after and if it is I will be upset for a really long time since I had so much and was an idiot for not backing it up. And I will probably take it somewhere to get it fixed.But I can't do anything about it if it is. Just hoping for best


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

I went to the store to buy a new SATA USB and asked a guy if they could pop out my hard drive on the old
laptop for me while he was at it. He didn't have the right materials but my laptop randomly started working. Out of nowhere. My keyboard is defo broken but I bought a new one with a USB and I managed to log in and reboot it and my hard drive is safe. I cannot believe my eyes right now. As soon as I get home I am backing all this up on a flash drive and migrating it over to the new comp my mom bought because this one is so screwed up and then we decided we'll get the old one fixed so my mom can have it. I am so happy right now...


Sent from Petguide.com Free App


----------



## zurfaces (Jan 16, 2013)

That's great! Maybe the liquid dried out or something anyways I'm happy for you lol


----------



## Xerneas (Aug 6, 2013)

That's what I'm thinking.

Migrating decided to be a butt and I didn't feel like troubleshooting so I had to just physically copy everything I needed onto the flash drive and put it on the new one, but it worked. (Typing this from new laptop right now!)

Later today I'll wipe my old hard drive and my mom will take it in to get everything fixed and have a brand new laptop for herself. Excellent! I'm glad this got sorted out.

Upon closer look, looks like it was my battery that was damaged. It has no battery currently installed in it (running on AC power). Ha.. Oh well, it doesn't really matter anymore since it's fixed, but interesting.


----------

