How To Repair A Liquid Damaged Laptop

First things first, TURN IT OFF and UNPLUG THE MAINS ADAPTER.

Obvisously, until you open up the laptop there is no way of knowing what kind of damage has been done and it's not always possible to repair a water damaged laptop, especially if it has been powered on after it has dried without it being professionally cleaned first...

The flowchart below details how to professionally clean a motherboard etc.

If the spill has recently occurred then grab a paper towel and dab the motherboard to remove the remaining liquid and then follow the flowchart below.

Required Items/Tools:

1. Isopropyl Alcohol and/or Water
2. Nylon Brush to do the cleaning with (a cheap toothbrush is ideal)
3. If available, a hot air rework station

TOP TIP:  Use liquid Rosin Flux to prevent any further damage to any pins (on integrated circuits like SIO/Chipset) as if the pins are covered in Rosin then oxidisation (i.e. rusting) cannot occur.

Apply liquid Rosin Flux to affected chips/pins and then use hot air to remove the IPA in the liquid flux to just a leave a protective layer of Rosin on the pins.

Crafting A Clock From A Laptop Motherboard - Proof of Concept

After stripping a laptop for parts, all that was left was the non-working motherboard.  Normally this would end up in the WEEE pile ready to go off for recycling, but today I decided to try something out...

Using an old blank CD that I had lying around I (very quickly) hot-glue-gunned 12 function keys from a non-working laptop keyboard to it and then nicked the clock mechanism from another clock and hey-presto!  An upcycled motherboard clock.

The next time I have a non-working laptop I will know what to do - I'll take a bit more care the next time as this one is purely proof-of-concept so was a bit rushed hence the messy glue all over the place...