Dell Laptop Inspiron & water damage - CNET Laptop troubleshooting Forums

Answer Best answer as chosen by user Lwj328

We can test the power supply.

by R. Proffitt - 5/6/12 10:55 AM

In Reply to: Dell Laptop Inspiron & water damage by Lwj328

I use a Volt meter. Many are about 19 Volts on the output pins so that's an easy check.

The only good news is that I rarely have to tell them the files are lost. We pull the hard drive into some USB case so they can get their files back.
Bob

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Answer Best answer as chosen by user Lwj328

Inspect the innards

by Willy - 5/6/12 11:20 AM

In Reply to: Dell Laptop Inspiron & water damage by Lwj328

Since this is a laptop, remove the battery and inspect it for any contaminants or stains, etc.. and clean off if found. Closely check the battery compartment as well for same. Even, if you dried it off, that is only the surface and liquid contents can still reside and "powering-ON" shouldn't be done until much later. if possible set the laptop by a minor sunny window to best allow it to dry. IF coffee had sugar, all the more to inspect and clean as best as possible. Robert, explained a good way to help retrieve data using an ext. USB case just to have that if nothing seems to work.

Last resort is to tear down the laptop and closely inspect the innards and take it from there. Some are easier than others and it all depends but Dell usually has a maint. manual(.PDF) file in order to review how to tear down. Worse, you may confirm it's already too late, repair costs maybe too much where a new or used working laptop should be considered. I leave that to you.

tada -----Willy