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Can a laptop survive 6 hours of rain?

tsmckenney

tsmckenney

Mick
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
Messages
2,954
Location
Phoenix
My wife's laptop, her work laptop. I've already come clean, but she is understandably pissed. I left it out on standby, obviously that light was off this morning. I'm guessing it's fried. An IT friend at the office told me the hard drive is 'most likely' alright, as long as it wasn't the part that failed.

For now, it is off and in an upright position so it can dry for a couple days before we try it. She's on maternity leave for another couple months. Sinking feeling.......

Any 'words of encouragement' out there? Anyone ever had a laptop exposed to moisture as such?
 
Words of encouragement? Comp USA has some great deals. I got my laptop for less that $600. ;)

No really TS, we all make mistakes. We'd hardly be human if we didn't. Good luck with it.

mac
 
I'd take it apart, but if you feel you aren't ready to do that, I'd take it to a PC shop and have them do it. That's the best way for it to dry.

Was everything she needed on a back-up of some form? Might have to pull the hard drive to get it off, if not.
 
KayakinBoy said:
I'd take it apart, but if you feel you aren't ready to do that, I'd take it to a PC shop and have them do it. That's the best way for it to dry.

Was everything she needed on a back-up of some form? Might have to pull the hard drive to get it off, if not.
Click to expand...

I might do that when I get home (if she'll let me near it). I don't know what all she had backed up. It was her work laptop, so I would guess most of her documents were. Were not out any money, nor do we have to worry about any type of warranties. I just hope the hard drive is cool.
 
tsmckenney said:
My wife's laptop, her work laptop. I've already come clean, but she is understandably pissed.....Any 'words of encouragement' out there?
Click to expand...

Sleeping on the couch isn't so bad if you fluff the cushions before calling it a night. :whistling:
 
I've done that to my IBM laptop and it survived. Who whoulda thunk it...rain in Tucson.
 
MilesMingusMonk said:
tsmckenney said:
My wife's laptop, her work laptop. I've already come clean, but she is understandably pissed.....Any 'words of encouragement' out there?
Click to expand...

Sleeping on the couch isn't so bad if you fluff the cushion before calling it a night. :whistling:
Click to expand...

Its probably toast. Being on standby still has power to the laptop, which is bad. But 6 hours of rain regardless, is probably the end of it anyways. I'm not sure Dell will even cover it unless they have a package that covers negligence, which would be extremely pricey I'm sure.

I know that I had a dell tech come out and took one look at the connectors (tarnished) and said it was water damage and refused to do warranty work on it. This was years ago when I was a desktop tech, but I'm sure it hasn't changed.

Sorry bout that. Good news is, as your IT friend said, the hard drive may be ok, as long as water didn't pool inside the laptop. Even if it did pool inside, its likely that the drive could be duped by an IT guy so the data wouldn't be a total loss.

I know that the data on my laptop is FAR FAR more valuable than the laptop itself. Probably a thousand times more valuable or more.
 
Turk10mm said:
long as water didn't pool inside the laptop. Even if it did pool inside, its likely that the drive could be duped by an IT guy so the data wouldn't be a total loss.

I know that the data on my laptop is FAR FAR more valuable than the laptop itself. Probably a thousand times more valuable or more.
Click to expand...


I think the water mainly sheeted off the top. When I tipped it to it's side, nothing even dripped out. And believe me, I'm not trying to kid myself here. I understand that it's 95% likely to be fried. Again, just as long as that hard drive is cool.

Oh yeah, forgot to add, the data thing is the entire bit. She had a lot of pictures of our boys on there. Her hobby is editing photography, putting together collages and that. Then there's all the work data. F.ck..., know what I mean.

Good news is, she just called and apologized for going off on me. Sh.t, I didn't expect that. Feel like I can breathe again.
 
If it's her work laptop, have her just play dumb and open a ticket, saying it's not working.
 
bfreebern said:
If it's her work laptop, have her just play dumb and open a ticket, saying it's not working.
Click to expand...

the only real hope is to open the laptop up, remove the keyboard and lcd from the case, place a fan over the machine and let it completely airdry for a few days. I mean it needs to be BONE ass dry before trying to power it on.

If she tells her IT that it got wet, this is what they'll do.. if she doesn't, they'll just power it up and hose whatever chance is left.
 
I would try taking the battery out and putting the computer in a refrigerator and let it sit for a few days.
It dries things out nicely.
This is what I have been told to do with wet cell phones.
Good luck!

-Rob
 
BTW, my screen was up, so the keyboard and all the innards were drenched. All I did with mine is I took apart what I could and dried off all the surfaces that I could get to. Then I let it sit for for the weekend to completely dry out and then turned it on. No problems since, but I did make a full backup right after and have been backing up all my files at least once a month, just in case it decides to take a dump one day.
 
Strayvector said:
BTW, my screen was up, so the keyboard and all the innards were drenched. All I did with mine is I took apart what I could and dried off all the surfaces that I could get to. Then I let it sit for for the weekend to completely dry out and then turned it on. No problems since, but I did make a full backup right after and have been backing up all my files at least once a month, just in case it decides to take a dump one day.
Click to expand...

Was your laptop off, or on standby?
 
tsmckenney said:
Strayvector said:
BTW, my screen was up, so the keyboard and all the innards were drenched. All I did with mine is I took apart what I could and dried off all the surfaces that I could get to. Then I let it sit for for the weekend to completely dry out and then turned it on. No problems since, but I did make a full backup right after and have been backing up all my files at least once a month, just in case it decides to take a dump one day.
Click to expand...

Was your laptop off, or on standby?
Click to expand...

On standby.
 
DONT take it apart unless you are very electrically inclined. Time for a new computer man all the small componants have microscopic rust and even internal parts. I built them for a couple of years its toast. Even if you do manage to get it going again for awhile its still done. Takeing it apart only does one thing void any warranties completely.
 
Noted.

Thanks for all the input guys. For the time being, my has taken the battery off and stood it in front of a fan. We'll give it until Monday, and then see what happens.

Thanks again all!
 
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