Confessions of a corner cutting episode.... Take nothing for granted !
Just worked on a laptop brought in by one of our Mexican friends who works locally in a restaurant. He's difficult to understand at the best of times but this time I was very busy and just had him leave it for me to look at. Now. I THOUGHT I made out 'soda' in his brief explanation but I wasn't sure. Anyway, later, it all booted fine into windows one in 3 tries with a variety of odd quirks. After opening the case I could barely make out a little shiny residue around 2 of the the keys but nothing major. Trying out the keyboard it acted crazy so I replaced it for new. But no sign of any fluids having gotten onto the motherboard. Now bear in mind it worked fine and he came in to pick it up. Demonstrated fully working, he goes away all smiles. A week later he brings the thing back again saying it won't turn on.
This time I took nothing for granted and seperated the main board completely from the casing, a full disassembly, and lo, there was corrosion ! Not a lot but enough to cause the problem as you'll see. After cleaning it off I tried it again and it lives once more.
Moral of the story and note to self. Stop trying to save 10 mins THINKING you know what the real problem was. Normally, the spills I encounter are more extensive and therefore obvious in where the fluid got into. This time it was wierd the way it happened, no shiny sticky residue on the board, just seemingly random corrosion on some solder joints. Not even a trace on the inside bottom of the casing where it would pool.
Flame away. I learned my lesson.
Just worked on a laptop brought in by one of our Mexican friends who works locally in a restaurant. He's difficult to understand at the best of times but this time I was very busy and just had him leave it for me to look at. Now. I THOUGHT I made out 'soda' in his brief explanation but I wasn't sure. Anyway, later, it all booted fine into windows one in 3 tries with a variety of odd quirks. After opening the case I could barely make out a little shiny residue around 2 of the the keys but nothing major. Trying out the keyboard it acted crazy so I replaced it for new. But no sign of any fluids having gotten onto the motherboard. Now bear in mind it worked fine and he came in to pick it up. Demonstrated fully working, he goes away all smiles. A week later he brings the thing back again saying it won't turn on.
This time I took nothing for granted and seperated the main board completely from the casing, a full disassembly, and lo, there was corrosion ! Not a lot but enough to cause the problem as you'll see. After cleaning it off I tried it again and it lives once more.
Moral of the story and note to self. Stop trying to save 10 mins THINKING you know what the real problem was. Normally, the spills I encounter are more extensive and therefore obvious in where the fluid got into. This time it was wierd the way it happened, no shiny sticky residue on the board, just seemingly random corrosion on some solder joints. Not even a trace on the inside bottom of the casing where it would pool.
Flame away. I learned my lesson.
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