OT cleaning laptop components- sugary liquid contamination

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Wed, Dec 21, 2011 at 09:24:29AM -0500, Russell Reiter wrote:
> I've been given a supposedly broken laptop by a neighbour. Someone in
> the building was throwing it out and it was rescued by the
> superintendent of the building. They apparently took it around to
> stores in the neighbourhood and were told it would be impossible or
> too expensive to fix. When I first got it, when the power button was
> pressed it would shut off after five seconds with no POST beeps and
> what I perceived to be excessive heat buildup around the area of the
> power supply. The laptop is a hp pavilion dv1000. 1.6 bus and 512 ram.
> 
> I monkeyed around with it a bit. ie. turning it on every time it shut
> off and was eventually able to get the battery charged and then it
> would stay on but with a black screen and two short POST beeps, which
> in some computers indicates a normal boot. I attached an external
> monitor, got the apparently normal post but still a black screen. I
> kept repeating the boot process while placing the laptop screen at
> different angles, in case the video cable to the inverter had been
> pinched after dropping the laptop or some sort of similar impact.
> Assuming normal boot and a display problem I pressed the enter button
> to continue to boot windows and the laptop would churn for a few
> seconds and then shut off.
> 
> Finally I was able to get a flash of text on the attached monitor
> which was the windows "boot in safe or normal" prompt. As soon as I
> stopped applying pressure to the top of the laptop display that text
> would disappear. Again by moving the laptop display during boot while
> I applied pressure to the top of the display, and after many attempts
> to find an orientation where the display worked, I was able to find an
> place where the laptop display kept the message on the attached
> monitor. I was then able to watch the windows boot process as it
> failed to access the windows system directories, which appeared to be
> corrupted and then it would shut down.
> 
> I reinstalled from the original disks which had been kept with the
> computer in the box it was thrown out in and with the external monitor
> attached I was able to reinstall windows. I resized the disk volume
> with gparted and installed Debian. After getting this far I assumed
> the backlight inverter or its connection was failing and I started to
> remove the display. In order to do that you have to remove the
> keyboard. I removed the screws indicated by the service manual I had
> downloaded, but the keyboard was stuck fast. It was so stuck that when
> I was trying to remove it, I would look in the area between the part
> of the keyboard I was able to lift and the part that would not
> separate and it appeared to be held down with double sided tape. That
> was not so.
> 
> When I was finaly able to disengage the keyboard, I noticed a caramel
> coloured residue on the plate the keyboard rests on. It looks like a
> soft drink had been spilled and had soaked the paper label on the back
> of the keyboard. I guess the glue dissolved and then re-hardened
> essentially gluing the keyboard in place. I also took the faceplate
> off the display to access the inverter and cable and noticed the same
> caramel residue on the lower left corner of the display case.
> 
> Before I search out an new inverter or cable, I was wondering if
> anyone has any suggestions on how to clean the soft drink residue from
> the components. At this point I am unsure whether the video problem is
> in fact the inverter or cable or some sort of loading imbalance in the
> related power supply or video components. The power supply, external
> monitor attachment and the video port are all clustered in the area
> where the liquid was apparently spilled.
> 
> Right now as I type, if I pull the display forward the picture
> disappears and then appears again in the new forward location. If I
> push the display backwards the picture stays normal. This might be the
> inverter or the cable. To help with the perceived heating problem I
> keep the laptop elevated off the table to allow air to circulate
> around the power supply. I really think that a good cleaning might
> bring it back to normal service. I could try soap and water and dry
> the components in rice or gel packs, but I'm afraid that there would
> be some residue from the soap or minerals in the water.
> 
> Any cleaning solutions are appreciated.

My wife once spilled soy sauce in a laptop.

Step o was of course to emmidiately turn it off and remove the battery
and leave it that way until cleaned.  You don't want to fry it by trying
to turn it one with stuff in it shorting things out.  So stop doing that. :)

To clean the bits that got soy sauce in them, I disassembled everything,
removed every keycap from the keyboard, the various plastic layers
and such from the keyboard and a few bits of the electronics below,
and soaked everything in warm water (tap water hot, not boiled) for a
few minutes until the soy sauce all disolved.  Then I left everything
to dry for a couple of days and reassembled.  Worked fine after that.

The sugar/salt will cause short circuits (although not great ones)
which likely explains why it keeps turning off and gets hot.

-- 
Len Sorensen
 
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