[[email protected]]

Last thursday I accidentally spilt water on my laptop. Being slightly phobic when it comes to taking computers apart, I took it to the toshiba repair center. They said they;d open it up and take a look at it.. which they did on friday and they say I'll have to replace the keyboard and the system board.. estimate a total cost of $500(including labor).
I guess this is just a desperate plea but is it possible that I am being had or is spilling water on a laptop indeed *this* fatal ???

thanks a million in advance
Seema

 

[WarC]

Yes, water can indeed cause that much damage to electronics.

The parts themselves aren't technically that expensive to replace, but taking into consideration parts, labor, and shipping for new parts, it isn't that outrageous.

At this point, you'll have to ask yourself it really is worth spending $500 on...If it is a powerful enough machine, it would indeed cost alot less than buying a new one, but if its a few years old than maybe it would be better to invest in a newer one...If your budget allows, of course.

Laptops are friggin' expensive, man. <--- Teenager-on-a-serious-budget-insight.

 

[[email protected]]

Well, its two years old and about 1.3MHz... not too powerful but good enough for me. It works perfectly well (or did before all this happened) and buying a new one will cost me at least twice as much (at a bare minimum).
Everyone here seems to think building my own will be fun but with 5 courses this semester I think the project will be too much for me to handle. Guess given my budget constraint, I'm better off just spending on getting it fixed.

-- College student on serious budget constraint whine *weak grin*

 

[griffinspc]

Did you have the machine on at the time of the spill and if not has it been powered up since the splill?

 

[[email protected]]

I did have the machine on when the water got spilt. It powered off immediately and refuses on switch on ever since.

 

[griffinspc]

Well I was hoping. If you had not had power to the board you could have used a hair dryer to remove all resident traces of water (moisture) before applying power (it works sometimes believe it or not) but it sounds as though you completed a circuit for at best a short at worst new parts and labor, sorry.

 

[[email protected]]

Yep, I think so . One last question, does an estimate of 500USD (for new keyboard and system board) + labor sound reasonable?

 

[griffinspc]

Well, seems high to me but I'm not a laptop man. Ask what the labor is by hour. Also ask if the hour rate they quote is something like $125.00 for the first hour with a minimum of 2 hours and then $65.00 per for any more hours.

Also ask them to quote you the exact price of the parts. That shouldn't be hard if they already know what they're replacing. Then you'll know how much they're sticking you for labor.

PS: Take the quote to other shops.

 

[dustyjay]

As yet I havent heard of or seen anywhere you can buy the required parts to build from scratch a laptop computer. That of course doesnt mean that there isnt any, I just haven't heard of them. That would be a fun way to spend some time and money though!

 

[brite750]

I took the build your thing to mean a desktop, I think you would have to have one of those honey i shrunk the tech rays to build a laptop.

 

[JSanguancheu]

Actually, $500 sounds about right for what needs to be replaced if you include the labor.

I once had a user who broke the LCD on his IBM T22 2 years ago. Cost the company $1200 to replace. jeez.. Kept it far away from his kids after that one.

The system board contains the cpu, sound, and video chips so I'd imagine it must be a few hundred at least.

 

[[email protected]]

Thanks everyone. I asked for a breakup of cost of parts + labor. The parts cost $89 for the keyboard and about 350 for the system board. They are charging me 125 dollars for labor (I already paid 60 dollars for the diagnosis which they are applying to labor charges during actual repair). Overall I think from the messages I recd in response that they seem to be reasonable overall. Guess I just have to grin and pay up then...

Thanks for all your help.
Seema

 

[LionsMike]

MOST IMPORTANTLY DID YOU LEARN.....

NO FOOD OR DRINK AROUND THE COMPUTER

It was never proven (or admitted to), but the suposedly reliable rumor was that the Three Mile Island incident was caused by a cup of coke in a keyboard

SUGAR IS CARBON CARBON CONDUCTS ELECTRICITY.

 

[JohnWill]

FWIW, I have to disagree that plain water automatically destroyed the keyboard and MB. In point of fact, most PCB manufacturing nowadays uses a water wash, think about that...

SInce you aren't equipped to do the diagnosis and repair yourself, you're probably stuck. OTOH, I'd insist on having the old parts returned with the laptop, just to make sure they've done something.

I've had people spill coffee and coke on keyboards, and when I've gotten to them right away, I was able to rescue them without incident. I just repaired a Compaq laptop that had coffee spilled on the keyboard, I was standing in the room when it happened. I immediately popped the case open, removed the keyboard, and gave it a water bath. I throughly dried it out, and it's working just fine.

 

[hounddoglgs]

If you have homeowner's or renter's insurance, check to see if it covers accidental damage to a PC (usually a rider added to the policy). I could toss my laptop off my balcony, and get a new one free from my ins. co. (as long as they can't prove I did it on purpose)- Highly recommend this type of ins. for laptops necause they tend to get bumped, jostled, dropped, etc. and parts for them are expensive (compact technology, proprietary only parts). Dell wanted $700 to replace just the mobo on my 2 y/o laptop, so $500 sounds pretty good to me.

 

[Rollin_Again]

Since we're on the subject, does anyone here know how to get Cocaine out of the keyboard?




Rollin_Again

 

[JohnWill]

Sniff it?