I have a samsung np-r530 laptop using windows 7, which I spilled a cup of tea over. While trying to get it to work again I used samsungs recovery solution 4 to restore it back to the date of purchase. The laptop now works fine with the exception of some keys not typing. The problem I have is that now it says that no audio output device is installed and my cyber link youcam built in camera asks me to plug in a device or make sure a device is turned on.
I don't know whether this is because of the spill or the recovery. Do you have any idea's about what I should do?
Hi, sorry to hear about the cup of tea and your laptop computer, and welcome to the WTT forums.
As you know, tea and electronics don't go well together…… if you had milk or sugar (or lemon) in the tea, then the situation is likely to be even more serious.
The important thing is to get to the "off switch" as soon as possible, (seconds count) get the battery out, remove it, clean it, and dry it out, same with the memory chips and the hard drive and anything else that you can remove easily. Mop up with a clean dry absorbent cloth as you go.
Then its off, as quickly as you can manage, to your your local competent computer technician for a thorough strip down, cleaning and drying (natural air movement only, no heat being externally applied.)
Its important that the machine is cleaned as soon as possible…minutes count! Keep the laptop open and horizontal with the keyboard facing downwards, hopefully this will keep the liquid away from the motherboard, keyboards are easier to repair/replace than the more costly motherboard. But do get a fixed quotation for the work as oftentimes with liquid ingress, the laptop computers are a total loss… the cost of the remedial work needed being the same or sometimes more than a replacement machine. Labour costs on laptops can be quite high as the work is detailed and plastic part become brittle over time.
Laptops often appear Ok for a while after the incident but due to the ingress of the liquid, and corrosion that soon sets in, (unless cleaned properly) begin to suffer from more and more problems as time goes on. It is sometimes possible to sell the damaged machine for "spares or repair only" in order to put towards the cost of a replacement machine.
The machine must not be switched on for 48 hours (in normal drying conditions,) otherwise there is a great risk of causing further irreparable damage.
If you are knowledgable and experienced at stripping down and rebuilding laptop computers then there is no reason why you should not do the work yourself (you will of course need to take all necessary personal safety and ESD (anti static) precautions) However I would recommend you buy the proprietory cleaning equipments/fluids, although at a pinch you could use purified, medical grade distilled water for some of the work.
Only when tall of the above work has been completed to a satisfactory standard and the hardware tested as OK should any software alterations be done.
It might be wise to consider any guarantee, warranty and/or insurance/service/maintenance agreements you may have, to see if they would help you in this situation.
Post back and let us have your comments on if you followed the first aid proceedure mentioned above and how long elapsed before the machine was completely stripped and cleaned, and how long it was allowed to dry before powering up.
Regards
paws
Thanks for your speedy reply,
When it happened I immediately turned it off, took the battery out and stood it up, open like a flat tent. I left it that way overnight and for a full work day, so around 36 hours. After that time I turned it back on and that's when I started having these problems. As my only experience with laptops is breaking them in clumsy accidents i'll have to take it in to be stripped down. I will also call Samsung as I did pay for extra accidental insurance.
Anyway thanks for the advice, it's most appreciated.
Hello paws,
I asked the same question on a few tech sites before I found WTT and none of them explained to me the possible damage erosion might do to my laptop. It seems like the service you provide here is about genuinely helping those with less knowledge than yourself and not about massaging egos… little bit blunt but, my laptop could of suffered in the process of getting a thread solved.
I've taken your advice. Only thing is the closest computer repair shop I could visit during the week is a place i've bought a desktop fan from before. I might be judging a book by it's cover here, but I wouldn't trust those guys with my old spectrum 125k. So I called my friend who I know recently had, blah blah blah done to his blah(at least that's what I heard). He told me that the brother of his brother in law works at pc world on their helpline(again my senses started tingling) and he'd call him to ask if he could do the work. Apparently He's over qualified to work pc world's phone line and really knows his stuff.
Back to the reason I posted. Thanks again for the advice you gave me. It means I can, at some future point, get away from this crippling pc i'm on now. The spec is much better than my laptop, but it's the seating arrangement, not so much a chair as an alternative to water boarding.
Thank you for your expertise. I am truly grateful that you are here to share what you know with people like myself.
