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Water Spilled Condition: Laptop turning off while unplugged

1004 Views 3 Replies 2 Participants Last post by  Saturable
I have a Lenovo T450s, age: 7 months. It has two 3-cell batteries, one integrated, one removable. The day before yesterday, my mom spilled a glass of water accidentally on the laptop. And my instant reactions were:
  1. Unplugging the power cable
  2. Pressing the power button for 10 seconds
  3. Keeping the laptop in a controlled environment (30°C) so the evaporation happens fast
  4. Keeping it in a windy environment (to move off the water vapors & faster evaporation)
  5. Taking this to service center 12 hours later only to drywash the machine, but didn't provide them removable battery or power cable (so that they cant turn the laptop on even if they've wanted to. I didn't want anyone to turn on my soaked laptop and burn all the circuits which had been shorted because of water-connectivity (i dont think this term exist))

After that, when I've turned on my laptop, I had to input my clock data (date, time etc) in BIOS settings. (This information may be of some values to the experts)

Now the Laptop is running quiet fine, except for 4 of my keys (F12, windows, Print Screen and Right Arrow) are not working. I doubt this credit goes only to the fine gentlemen in service center, because my trackpoint, extra mouse-buttons are not working too. But that's not the problem I expecting solution from this forum. The major problem is the battery.

When I remove my power cable, the laptop turns off instantly. I've read over a hundred forum in thousands of sites and the maximum post have got a response like "What do you mean by instantly?" or "Your battery is damaged, son, go buy another one."

I'd be seriously offended if anyone points a finger to my batteries, accuse both of them to be damaged and tell me to buy one/two. Because, this laptop was bought in Minneapolis, US by my brother February this year and sent over to me (to Bangladesh) later that month. The laptop including its batteries are very new, T450s is not some old model (I'm considering manufacture to sell delay too) and this only leaves the option water spilling incident.

And I want to repeat, yes,
  • I DID unplug my power cable and removable battery instantly after the spill.
  • I don't know about the integrated one (Battery 1), but my removable 3-cell battery (Battery 2) is as good as new, that I can assure you. Because, It was dry when I pulled it out from my laptop ( a moment after the spill)

So, this is a unique problem, but I hope nobody accuse my batteries, as I'm sure as hell one of my 3-cell battery is in a pretty much good-working-condition. It wasn't even soaked in that incident. I think of some possibilities now.

  1. Some kind of system glitch. Because after reassembling the laptop in service center, I had to input the date and time before startup. (pressed F1 to go to BIOS settings)
  2. Some kind of contact interrupt. Battery connection may not be satisfactory.
  3. The battery is gone (inner one). And the secondary battery (removable) can not provide power if the primary one is faulty (Showing 100% charge and providing dog's sheet (don't misjudge the spelling). So the 2nd battery may get the signal battery no 1 is working. Wait for it to be drained off, then go to action. But its already drained off and thus though having 2nd battery intact, my laptop is turning off instantly when the power cable is taken off.
Instantly means
Instantly means both acts happened in the fraction of second.
1. I pull my power cord,
2. The laptop turns itself off
Both happens simultaneously.
Turns off means
Turns off doesn't mean black screen. I didn't mention any screen going black. Mentioning screen going back refers to a display situation, not a battery situation. I'm accurately saying "the power goes off, laptop turns off. Shuts down."
3 could-have-been-happened mentioned above
Those are my hypothesis only. I think they might be some possibilities. Of course I'm waiting for an expert for helping me.

Thank you.

My Specs:
Tech Support Guy System Info Utility version 1.0.0.2
OS Version: Microsoft Windows 10 Home, 64 bit
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5300U CPU @ 2.30GHz, Intel64 Family 6 Model 61 Stepping 4
Processor Count: 4
RAM: 12167 Mb
Graphics Card: Intel(R) HD Graphics 5500, 1024 Mb
Hard Drives: C: Total - 240951 MB, Free - 113765 MB; R: Total - 234709 MB, Free - 12057 MB;
Motherboard: LENOVO, 20BXCTO1WW
Antivirus: Windows Defender, Disabled
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It's quite possible that whoever you took your laptop to didn't reassemble it properly. However, for your concern about setting up your date settings, it's more than likely the technician unplugged your CMOS battery for whatever reason; perhaps it was in the way. When that gets unplugged, your BIOS loses all date and time information, and this is the reason you needed to reset it.

It's also possible that the mouse and touchpad were not reconnected either. However, let's not forget that water and electronics do not mix.
I understand you strongly believe the batteries are not at fault. Perhaps you are correct, but to be honest narrowing any one culprit after a water spill is next to impossible.

It's likely that any number of components on your motherboard have shorted out even if you unplugged it immediately. I do find it be quite strange, however, how your laptop will run fine while plugged in. Of course, this would generally indicate an issue with your battery. Either the battery itself or the communication between the battery and motherboard is somehow interrupted. Your external battery, like you say, could be insufficient to power the system on its own. I'm going to assume that this battery of yours is third party.

I hope others will pitch in soon, as I have run out of ideas. I have not seen a case like this before.
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Thank you for highlighting those, Saturable.
I know maybe one of the batteries is damaged here, but not both. Because the secondary battery (3cell) was dry from the first time its been spilled. The water didn't reach there & before the spill spread, I've taken it (2nd battery) out from my laptop. So, that battery was intact & I was expecting it to support even if the 1st one is completely damaged :(
Could you identify the model of your external battery? If it outputs the same amount of power as your internal battery, then in theory it should power your laptop. However, if the damaged battery is still inserted, it may not work. Have you tried connecting only the external battery with the internal one removed?
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