laptop went for a wash

tankieman · #1 (**permalink**) 25-05-2008, 05:35 PM

hi there my laptop was put in the bath by my kids and now the screen isnt working but the laptop boots up but with no screen i dont know what i am doing tryed to use my pc monitor but to no avail is there anyway i can connect my pc to laptop and take everything off it as i have nearly 80gb of pics i need for work many thanks dan

Dan Penny · #2 (**permalink**) 25-05-2008, 10:19 PM

I would suggest you remove the hard disk from the laptop and with an adapter, connect it to another working (tower type) PC and extract your data. (Pending data is indeed retrievable.)

I would not attempt to use the laptop itself until you have it diagnosed by a qualified service center.

2.5" (laptop) hard disk to standard 40 pin IDE interface cable adapter;

jephree · #3 (**permalink**) 26-05-2008, 12:50 AM

I would also suggest just leaving it alone for a couple weeks.

Water itself won't necessarily damage the electronics.

They do need to dry out.

One could use a warm, not hot, hair dryer a bit, or, set it in the sun for a bit every now and then, not continuously.

Again after a week or two you might find all is well again.

Even if you extract the hard drive you need to verify that is has been dried out.

Dan Penny · #4 (**permalink**) 26-05-2008, 01:27 AM

Quote:

Even if you extract the hard drive you need to verify that is has been dried out.

Yes, this is a given. Hard drives are (by design) gasket sealed against dust, which would also include moisture to a certain extent, so the only(?) concern would/should be the logic board and connections being dry. Which (according to the post) "seems" to be working. "...the laptop boots up but with no screen..." hence the suggestion.

Another concern might be soap residues (from its "bath") on connections.

tankieman · #5 (**permalink**) 26-05-2008, 12:58 PM

it happend in dec so should be dry by now as it boots up but the screen is smashed and dont work i know i can use it on my pc monitor but i have tryed loads of times but to no avail

Digerati · #6 (**permalink**) 28-05-2008, 04:43 PM

A couple of observations. If the battery was in the laptop when it took a bath, all kinds of a damage may have occurred that no amount of drying out can fix. Even if it survived the dunking, if the computer was powered up with excess moisture still inside, permanent damage may have occurred. If you feel that HD is still booting up, then I agree you should pull the drive, connect it to another computer, and copy off any critical data you want to save.

Also, hard drives are not hermetically sealed - that is, they are NOT air tight. Rather they have a membrane seal that allows for air pressure equalization required by changes in atmospheric, altitude and thermal conditions while blocking contamination from dust and dirt. Moisture (in the form of humidity) IS transferred through the membrane and so hard drives are not water tight. In fact, every hard drive has a "breather hole" for that purpose and most have a sticker warning the user not to cover the hole. HDs operated in a very high humidity environment can corrode the heads and platters. Underwater is pretty high humidity!

If this had happened yesterday, I would say to put the HD in a very warm and dry place, such as on top of an always-on appliance, with the breather hole facing up, for a couple weeks. That's assuming the dirt and soap scum from the bath water did not clog up the breather hole membrane. However, since this happened months ago, corrosion may already have started to do its thing.

Let's be thankful the kids did not pull in a device that plugs into the wall for power and count our blessings on that!

tankieman · #7 (**permalink**) 28-05-2008, 06:20 PM

to the best of my knowledge it was turned on when it went in so i take it i wont be able to recover anything on it

Digerati · #8 (**permalink**) 28-05-2008, 06:32 PM

I think it is worth a try putting that HD into another computer as a slave drive, or connecting it up with a drive enclosure.