Laptop spill...

[BoyBigBrain]

I knwo this is the PC hardware forums, but here goes. So my friend decided to spill coffee on my laptop. It still works perfectly fine, just the sound is now gargled. I was going to buy a sound card, but I'm not sure if i have any free slots. My motherboard is an Intel Calistoga i945GM/PM, intel says its has one PCI x16 and one PCI x1 slot, but im not sure if they are in use. How can i tell? I'm pretty sure i have integrated sound as the controller is the actual chipset. I saw that you could install sound cards on a laptop after construction, but how would i go about doing that? I have a Dell E1705 (yes, i know) with a Geforce 7900gs inside already, and im assuming that would take one of the slots. I guess i need to know how many PCI card slots it has and how many are in use, and if i can install a sound card on the comp. Any help?

EDIT: I think i may have a bigger problem on my hands. I noticed that when the sound jumped from windows media player, City of Heroes(MMORPG) would also jerk for a second. I'm worried that the coffee actually did some damage as the computer immediately shut down when the coffee hit it and would not turn back on for about two hours. I really hope i dont have to actually return my comp to dell and wait for a month+ to get it fixed. Anyways, any ideas? What would cause both WMA and the game to halt for a split second at the same time, and pretty frequently at that? I'm told i should clean it out in case there is any dried sugar/coffee on the inside, does that mean i should just take off the keyboard and look inside? Or do i have to dismantle the entire thing? Will removing the keyboard void my warranty? What if i were to try to clean it myself? What could i use to dissolve any of the coffee left inside of the computer? Is there any special cloth or liquid used to clean the inside of a computer, like the motherboard and such? If not it looks like i am forking out $200 for geeksquad to fix my computer.

 

[ArizonaGeek]

You are better off letting Dell deal with it. If it is under warranty, typically (and I don't know what you purchased) they do on site repair work. So you wouldn't have to have it gone for a month. To be honest cleaning the inside of your laptop will probably do more to void your warranty than just removing the keyboard to poke around. Which wont void your warranty.

Lesson learned, never turn on a piece of computer equipment if liquid gets spilled on it until said liquid is completely dry. I wouldn't have touched it for at least a few days as soon as coffee hits the circuits it can cause all kinds of problems.

Call Dell see what they have to say before you do anything that might mess it up worse. Good luck!

Cheers
Rob

 

[BoyBigBrain]

Yeah i thought of contacting dell, i actually found out that the warranty they provide with the computer doesn't cover spills.

 

[wahnula]

What I would do (never done it, be warned) is take out the battery, hard drive, CD drive, Keyboard, all RAM all cards all MOVING PARTS etc then spray the whole shebang with deionized water, dry with a hair dryer then air-dry overnight.

When reassembling clean all contacts w/ q-tip & tape head cleaner. This is what I would do but I am a fixit junkie.

If the only issue remains to be sound, get a USB soundcard and headphones.

Tony

 

[wahnula]

I failed to mentioned that I played keyboards IN A BAR (home of sticky drinks and clumsy people) for 25 years and have had many many drinks spilled inside my equipment. The only event I could not repair was when some idiot threw a whipped-cream pie at me for my birthday, it missed me and landed in the middle of our 24-channel Soundcraft board...lost about six channels with that one!

Tony

 

[ArizonaGeek]

Excellent reason to buy the extended accidental damage warranty for ANY laptop. Unlike a desktop, laptops by far suffer more damage by accidents whether they are dropped or knocked off a table or as in your case coffee spilled on it. What you might want to do is call Dell and ask if you can purchase accidental damage coverage. If your laptop is currently under warranty they might let you add it on. I know the Business side of things would do it but not sure on the consumer side. It wont be cheap, probably a couple hundred bucks but better than buying a new laptop.

If you can get the accidental coverage it should cover coffee spills. Of course you could fib (and I'd do it if it were me) and say you left town for a few days and your roommate was using it and now it doesn't work. Leave it at that. Trust me, when it comes to Dell (or any computer place for that matter,) never give more information than they ask.

Cheers
Rob

 

[wahnula]

Of course you could fib (and I'd do it if it were me) and say you left town for a few days

That's insurance fraud. Just so we're all clear on that. Not being judgmental, just stating a fact.

Tony

 

[BoyBigBrain]

Now i am getting memory parity errors. The screen is also showing tiny dots when windows firsts boots and on the user login screen, tiny black dots that are spread out accross the screen. Is this due to the screen or could the dots be caused by something else in the computer? The spots with the miscolors are fine when logged onto the desktop. Sigh i just bought this comp, $1500+ to dell which might as well have been flushed down the toilet.

 

[NoCalAdmin]

the saddest part of this story is that Dell has what is known as complete care. When I opted to purchase it I responded to the on-line sales guys "so you're telling me, if I am a jacka__ and drop my laptop off a bridge a get it out of the water, you'll replace the whole unit": reply. YES. Their complete care replaces the unit, not broken parts. It is well worth the $250 extra....

 

[BoyBigBrain]

Yes, I know. Only problem is is that I bought what I wanted in the laptop, and that left me no extra money. I used my high school graduation money to buy the comp, and I have never had any incidents with computer spills before this. Oh well, techie today do we will see.

 

[gbaughma]

I'm still confused over a laptop with PCI slots in it.....

Am I missing something somewhere?



Just my 2¢

"What the captain doesn't realize is that we've secretly exchanged his dilithium crystals for new Folger's Crystals." -- My Sister
--Greg

http://parallel.tzo.com

 

[BoyBigBrain]

So i just got the computer back from the tech store, they cleaned everything on the inside out and said they ran all burn in tests and all hardware was good to go. Except, the problem is still here. The music skips at the same moment the mouse halts, video halts, just about everything stops for, like before, a split second. This happens every 2 seconds or so. It isn't the biggest problem in the world, but its very, very annoying. Any ideas? Could a fresh install of Windows be helpful? What could be causing the entire comp to halt? Could it be the CPU dying? Any help is appreciated.