[Ham-Computers] Help with HP laptop

[Herb Gerhardt]

If it was mine, I would open it up and visually inspect the innards.  Then I
would wash the areas where the liquid had spilled and dried with distilled
water.  I would make sure there was no visible dried stuff anywhere.  Once
cleaned, I would thoroughly dry all the components.  You can use many things
to dry it with, form a food dehydrator to a hair drier......

Once cleaned and completely dry, I would reassemble all the pieces and try
to power it up.  I would expect it to power up again.....

Have had a similar thing happen to one of my hand held ham radios and it
worked just fine after washing it, cleaning it and drying it.  Might not
work but what do you have to lose.

>From my experience with modern low voltage electronics, shorting things out
with a liquid or other substance, generally does not burn out any
components.  Instead as the liquid dries, it bridges the traces on the
printed circuit boards creating shorts till the substance is
cleaned/removed.

If that does not work, I would install the hard drive into another laptop
that uses the same hard drive and then try to write the contents to an
external hard drive.  My laptop has two separate hard drives in it and that
would be the ideal way of trying to retrieve the data.  Maybe you can find
someone in your area with a dual hard drive laptop that uses the same hard
drives or if your friend has not bought a replacement yet, maybe he can buy
one with dual hard drives or at least a hard drive expansion slot.

Good luck,


Herb, KB7UVC
NW APRS Group, West Sound Coordinator
Our WEB Site:  http://www.nwaprs.info 


> -----Original Message-----
> From: ham-computers-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:ham-computers-
> bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Jonathan Thawley, KC8CPW
> Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2010 6:32 PM
> To: Computers (or other) used for amateur radio, communications, or
> experimenting
> Subject: Re: [Ham-Computers] Help with HP laptop
> 
> First yo u need to determine if the hard drive is ide or sata and then
just have them
> buy a 2.5 notebook/laptop hard drive enclosure and it should hook up to
their new
> computer with no problems via USB. Assuming the hard drive wasn't fried.
> 
> Jonathan
> 
> 
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Brian K. Gaskamp" <ka5bkg at sbcglobal.net>
> Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 20:16:15
> To: <ham-computers at mailman.qth.net>
> Subject: [Ham-Computers] Help with HP laptop
> 
> Hello to all the group. I need some info on how to do this.
> 
> A friend of mine brought me their laptop which is a HP G60.
> Their 1 yr old son accidently spilled some liquid onto the keyboard and it
> fried the motherboard.
> I tried to power the laptop up with no luck.
> 
> What I need to know is if I pull the HD out of the laptop is there anyway
to
> get whatever info is on the HD say only a external HD and save it to
upload
> to their new computer.
> 
> I'm sure thats not possible but figured I would ask here.
> 
> Or if anybody know a trick on how to jump start the laptop with jumper
> cables that would even better, but pretty sure once the liquid hit the
> insides of the laptop, that was the end of its life.
> 
> Suggestions...Comments....
> 
> Thanks,
> Brian
> 
> KA5BKG
> 
> ______________________________________________________________
> Ham-Computers mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/ham-computers
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Ham-Computers at mailman.qth.net
> 
> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
> 
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> ______________________________________________________________
> Ham-Computers mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/ham-computers
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Ham-Computers at mailman.qth.net
> 
> List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
> ** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
> 
> 
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html