I've an Acer 1682 laptop for about seven years. Has worked fine in that time. Today, it decided not to power up. The battery is essentially defunct - holds charge for a max of 20 mins, if that. Hence I've always ran it off the mains.

It was working fine this morning and after shutting it down for about three hours, it won't power back up. If I plug in the mains, there should be a green light on the front to indicate that it is receiving mains power. The AC adapter has a green light to indicate it is receiving power from the mains.

The problem seems to lie between the adaptor and the laptop. Any way of testing which is the problem? I'm loathe to spend any more money at this stage (especially since I've just splurged on a £400 camera and a £300 bluetooth unit for the car), so a new laptop is out of the question at the moment.

Data isn't a problem as I have a netbook and can access files using a USB laptop IDE caddy.

Any ideas to investigate the cause?

Try pulling the battery & the power brick then holding down the power button for 20 seconds.
Then pop the power back in and have a go

I ended up trying to prise the base off. In doing so, I found traces of water. After interrogating family members, my sister admitted to knocking a glass off the bedside counter. The laptop was on it's side, upright, between the bed and the bedside table. She said there was no water the glass but it tastes of orange squash to me.

Anyway, I couldn't successfully remove the base (and the walkthrough manual is on the hard drive somewhere) so I tried to put it back together. I have a screw that won't go into its designated spot and a tiny spring type thing left over.

The computer powers up but won't pass the POST screen, so freezes. Just freezes. I think I really need to get the case off and dry out everything. The indicators on the front. The screen has also stopped working.

Mobo failure?

If you've tried to turn it on with water in there then there's a fair chance something has shorted. It doesn't hurt to try drying it out, but I wouldn't hold much hope at this point.

You have to confirm it was only water as squash will leave a sticky residue that may do further damage.

Anyway to dry it out open up as many covers as possible and remove easy components such as battery, HDD, RAM and WiFi (antennae wires do unclip from the PCB).

Wipe and dry any droplets that you can see.

Pop the laptop and components into a pillowcase.

Put the pillowcase into a carrier bag containing as much rice as you can find.

Seal up the bag well with tape and then put it somewhere warm. The airing cupboard or somewhere with direct sunlight should be good.

Wait a couple of days and then reassemble.


Good luck.

Will isopropyl alcohol work to clear stuff without causing damage? I use the stuff to clean LCD/TFT screens, clean keyboards and even removing polish when detailing the car.

I have to head out in a bit but will get things prepped for removing everything, including finding and printing out the walkthrough instructions for disassembly. If I can disassemble it today, it should hopefully be dry by Friday and be ready for reassembly.

It sucks that I'm spending my remaining annual leave doing other things than enjoying myself.

IPA is fantastic for cleaning and drying. Use as much as you can, splash it around.

It's taken me two hours but I've stripped the laptop down.

Unfortunately I couldn't find the IPA so will have to track it down tomorrow. Couldn't spot any other wet spots but lots of fluff to clear out!

Might as well give it a D&C whilst you're down there.

After last night's strip down, I had a thorough examination today. No traces of moisture. I have some detailing swabs and along with some IPA, I gave the thing a thorough clean. Managed to clean one area which turned the swab orange! Meant that's were the squash had been spilled.

But despite cleaning every surface, removing mounds of fluff etc, still a no-go.

It won't pass POST and there's no screen display. Think it's FUBARed.

I've been after a new laptop for a while, but this has come at a bad time. I've just spanked cash out on a new camera, bluetooth for the car and a whole hose of other things. New laptop means eating into cash deposit.

As it was an accident is it covered by insurance?

How much is your sister going to contribute? If she has no cash perhaps you could trade a couple of black eyes.

I agree with the black eyes. She's in all probability not going to contribute.

I don't know whether contents insurance would cover it. It's my dad's and the laptop is mine, not his. I'm half leaning towards a new lappy anyway. The wireless connection doesn't work, so I've been using a pcmcia card. The dvd drive is held in place with duct tape and it's fascia has broken off. The screen brightness has reduced a fair whack, especially when compared to my netbook. The battery is essentially useless.

I reckon it'd be too much hassle to buy the parts secondhand and replace them.

I really wish it had happened two months down the line. I'd have bought a new gaming from the likes of asus. Time for a new thread.