Acer eMachines netbook em250 spill damage 2

[nj785]

Suggestions needed on where to look 1st. My daughters Acer eMachines em250 Netbook had a large drink spill all over the keyboard. Netbook is now DOA, no power, no sign of life. I removed battery, cleaned up sticky keys. I'm ready to start disassembling, but Where to look 1st? What is the most likley part / parts to check? Power supply, motherboard...It's a small device. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot any of the parts? I have an ohm meter and some knowledge of testing. What would most likely have blown? I wasn't there when the disaster occurred, so I don't know if there was smoke or immediate shutdown, only found out days later.
Any (and I mean ANY) suggestions are Greatly Appreciated.
Much Thanks

 

[kjv1611]

1. Is it under warranty?
2. Does the warranty cover for spills?

If not, I hate to say it, but you're probably outa luck. The good news is it's a netbook, so cheaper to replace than a "normal" laptop. Bad news is it's likely harder to test, harder to get to things, etc..

But if you did get it open, and looked at it, I'd look at the motherboard first... also with that, I'd look for any evidence of a burn somewhere. Imagine if that liquid went into where the processor sits on the mobo, and caused a short there..

All in all, if you want to do this for fun, go for it; otherwise, I hardly think it's worth your time.

 

[G0AOZ]

Disassembly is the first stage.

Has it been allowed to dry out thoroughly, or is it still wet right inside? Get it completely and absolutely dry before applying power.

Did the keyboard take all the liquid or has it seeped right into the machine? Laptops will generally start up ok without the keyboard and mouse/touchpad being connected. Or you could try an external (USB) keyboard and mouse.

Was it running at the time of the spillage, or did it get switched on soon afterwards to 'see if it still worked'?

Even if it was switched off at the time of the accident, chances are if it's dead now it'll more likely be a motherboard failure, which is probably the most expensive bit to replace.

External PSU output can be checked with a voltmeter.

Remove the hard disk drive and attach to another machine in order to extract any wanted data etc. Unless the drive has been submerged in liquid or the drive electronics (pcb) still was still wet when powered up, it'll probably be ok.

Even if it hasn't been powered up, the CMOS battery voltage may have done for that part of the circuit, should the spillage have reached that far.

Good luck.

ROGER - G0AOZ.

 

[nj785]

Thank You for the eye opening investigatory questions and for the truly professional advice. I believe the netbook was on when the spill occurred. I think I'll oper her up just to take a look. It's been over a week since the spill and I don't see any moisture on the seams, etc. I've basically written it off as a loss, so now I'll "experiment on it" like in the good old days with an old desktop that finally got replaced. Maybe I'll even learn something.

Well, THANK YOU for your input, I truly appreciate it.