|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
M_a_r_c wrote:
> 46e5b254$1@news.povray.org...
>> I heard that you can stick a cell-phone, or an Ipod
>> that has gotten wet into a bag of dry uncooked rice
>> overnight to get the last of the water out. The rice
>> absorbs the water I guess. You might try some
>> variation on that.
> One of these variations can be Silica gel dryer (the stuff you find in
> little bags in electronic devices package)
Good ideas both - we've got silica in the desiccators in the lab, I'll
borrow some of that and give it a go. Apparently it can take weeks to
properly dry laptops after spillages...
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
John VanSickle wrote:
> Bill Pragnell wrote:
>
>> I will reassemble it this evening and fire it up to see what's what.
>> In the meantime, does anyone have any additional advice?
>
> If you persist in drinking around your laptop, get an external keyboard
> so that you can keep the CPU farther away from the beer.
Yes, or one of those silicone overlays. Isn't 20-20 hindsight a
wonderful thing! :)
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
Well, I put it back together and booted it up last night. I think it
needs some more drying time :(
I think the HD and motherboard and everything actually within the case
is fine. However, the screen has been badly affected - it has big glare
artifacts across more than a quarter of its area, although all the
pixels seem to be firing OK so maybe the moisture is in a different
layer or something. The keyboard has 7-8 non-functional keys and I have
a suspicion it's sending the wrong characters, because I can no longer
log in - it complains about the password, even though all those keys
appear to work.
Anyway, it's back in bits in the airing cupboard now. I think it'll take
some time to be sure of long-term damage...
(kicks self)
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
> However, the screen has been badly affected - it has big glare artifacts
> across more than a quarter of its area, although all the pixels seem to be
> firing OK so maybe the moisture is in a different layer or something.
Yes, it's pretty unlikely that any moisture got inside the actual LC, or
even under the polarisers, they are all laminated together with
moisture-proof seals around the outside.
What probably happened is the beer got between the rear polariser and the
backlight, there is usually a 100-500 micron air-gap that could easily fill
with liquid. Any contamination in this area will show up very obviously on
the screen.
Cleaning it out will be hard, if you're lucky you could remove the actual
display panel from the backlight without too much effort (sometimes they are
stuck down with almost super-glue like adhesives!). But then the backlight
will consist of several very thin optical films, which the liquid could have
got between too. In theory you could take the backlight apart and clean
each film thoroughly, but I don't rate your chances of being able to get
back to a perfect looking screen (this sort of assembly is normally done in
clean rooms).
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
scott wrote:
>> However, the screen has been badly affected - it has big glare
>> artifacts across more than a quarter of its area, although all the
>> pixels seem to be firing OK so maybe the moisture is in a different
>> layer or something.
>
> Yes, it's pretty unlikely that any moisture got inside the actual LC, or
> even under the polarisers, they are all laminated together with
> moisture-proof seals around the outside.
That's a relief.
> What probably happened is the beer got between the rear polariser and
> the backlight, there is usually a 100-500 micron air-gap that could
> easily fill with liquid. Any contamination in this area will show up
> very obviously on the screen.
Well, I'm hoping that my overkill sloshing of ethanol is the main
culprit here, and that most of it will evaporate eventually. I've taken
the trim off the screen which will help, I guess - there are some small
vents around the edge of the actual screen panel. I'm reluctant to take
it apart further without good reason because I have zero experience with
LCDs!
> Cleaning it out will be hard, if you're lucky you could remove the
> actual display panel from the backlight without too much effort
> (sometimes they are stuck down with almost super-glue like adhesives!).
It doesn't look human-dismantle-able, I couldn't see any more screws
than those that hold it to the plastic case.
> But then the backlight will consist of several very thin optical films,
> which the liquid could have got between too. In theory you could take
> the backlight apart and clean each film thoroughly, but I don't rate
> your chances of being able to get back to a perfect looking screen (this
> sort of assembly is normally done in clean rooms).
Are they very delicate? I don't have access to a clean room but we have
any amount of rubber gloves, sterile dooberys and anti-static wossnames
in our lab at work.
The real problem is if the films are held together by decent adhesive I
might break something just taking it apart. This will be a worst-case
last-ditch option I think!
Thanks for the info
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>> What probably happened is the beer got between the rear polariser and the
>> backlight, there is usually a 100-500 micron air-gap that could easily
>> fill with liquid. Any contamination in this area will show up very
>> obviously on the screen.
> Well, I'm hoping that my overkill sloshing of ethanol is the main culprit
> here, and that most of it will evaporate eventually.
It may be a residue of ethanol on the rear polariser, you could try and put
a few drops on the front of the screen and see if you can see anything once
it has dried off. Polarisers are funny things and react weirdly sometimes
to certain chemicals.
Turn on the screen anyway, it will generate a load of heat which will help
dry out any left-over moisture.
>> Cleaning it out will be hard, if you're lucky you could remove the actual
>> display panel from the backlight without too much effort (sometimes they
>> are stuck down with almost super-glue like adhesives!).
> It doesn't look human-dismantle-able, I couldn't see any more screws than
> those that hold it to the plastic case.
Yeh, they are not really designed to be taken apart once assembled. A lot
of the components are stuck down and "snapped in" rather than screwed. If
you don't know the details about the exact model you could easily end up
breaking something.
> Are they very delicate?
The panel will be made from two sheets of glass stuck together around the
edge, each sheet of glass is probably between 0.3 and 0.7 mm. The only real
weak point is around the edge where there is no polariser attached to
strengthen the glass - it is really easy to chip or snap off a corner or
edge of the glass here, especially as this is usually where it is stuck down
to the backlight. Once you do that it's the end, because there are
electrical connections and circuits all around the edge of the glass.
> The real problem is if the films are held together by decent adhesive I
> might break something just taking it apart. This will be a worst-case
> last-ditch option I think!
The films aren't usually held together by anything, they just sit in there
and are constrained from moving by all the other components. Once you get
the panel itself off, the films should just lift out one by one (maybe they
have a small dab of adhesive in one corner to help keep them in position).
The hardest bit is the glue around the outside of the panel that holds it to
the backlight. Maybe you have some chemical that can dissolve this
adhesive, or just go around the outside carefully with a knife (if
accessible). Don't put any force on the edge of the glass though, it's the
weakest point and will chip easily.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>>> What probably happened is the beer got between the rear polariser and
>>> the backlight, there is usually a 100-500 micron air-gap that could
>>> easily fill with liquid. Any contamination in this area will show up
>>> very obviously on the screen.
>> Well, I'm hoping that my overkill sloshing of ethanol is the main
>> culprit here, and that most of it will evaporate eventually.
>
> It may be a residue of ethanol on the rear polariser, you could try and
> put a few drops on the front of the screen and see if you can see
> anything once it has dried off. Polarisers are funny things and react
> weirdly sometimes to certain chemicals.
>
> Turn on the screen anyway, it will generate a load of heat which will
> help dry out any left-over moisture.
>
My laptop's screen died after I was caught under heavy rain, carrying it
in a not-so-waterproof bag...
I never knew exactly what happened, but apparently some water got caught
in the screen, causing the sort of effect Bill is seeing, I think. At
first it was working OK but large drops of liquid could be seen, I
believe they were behind the pixels and just in front of the backlight.
I thought turning it on would help it dry, and apparently it was an
error... One day after that the screen would not show anything. Perhaps
some metallic connector got corroded by the water, I don't know.
The screen can still be turned on (it was a year ago), but now shows
only squarish clusters of weakly colored pixels. Something hard to
describe... Anyhow my laptop has became a desktop :-( And traces of the
water can still be seen.
The interesting thing is that it had one broken pixel that permanently
appeared red. This is now the only pixel with a definite color ;-)
I don't know exactly how you can solve the problem, but in my experience
turning it on to make it dry did not help...
--
Vincent
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
> I thought turning it on would help it dry, and apparently it was an
> error...
You need to make sure all water (or anything water-based, eg beer) is gone
before turning it on. As soon as you get water in anything electronic rip
the battery out immediately, otherwise the tracks on the circuit boards (and
the glass if you have an LCD) will start to corrode very quickly.
Only after you have got rid of all the water should you attempt to put the
battery back in and turn it on. Using ethanol (as Bill did) is a good way
to get rid of all the water, my suggestion was to turn it on to encourage
any remaining ethanol to evaporate.
Sorry if that wasn't clear... I take no responsibility for anyone damaging
anything :-)
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
>> I thought turning it on would help it dry, and apparently it was an
>> error...
>
> You need to make sure all water (or anything water-based, eg beer) is
> gone before turning it on. As soon as you get water in anything
> electronic rip the battery out immediately, otherwise the tracks on the
> circuit boards (and the glass if you have an LCD) will start to corrode
> very quickly.
>
> Only after you have got rid of all the water should you attempt to put
> the battery back in and turn it on. Using ethanol (as Bill did) is a
> good way to get rid of all the water, my suggestion was to turn it on to
> encourage any remaining ethanol to evaporate.
>
> Sorry if that wasn't clear... I take no responsibility for anyone
> damaging anything :-)
>
>
Well in my case the damage is done and I will only blame myself :-) In
fact I'm surprised that the screen is the only thing that died in that
laptop...
I guess what confused me in your previous post was the term "moisture"
which I associate with water.
That raises another question: how can one be sure that no water is left,
before turning the screen on? And if liquid can be seen still, how can
you tell it's ethanol?
--
Vincent
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
> That raises another question: how can one be sure that no water is left,
> before turning the screen on? And if liquid can be seen still, how can you
> tell it's ethanol?
Good point, I assume that Bill has it covered though:
"Well, I'm hoping that my overkill sloshing of ethanol is the main
culprit here,"
I had a look through a few documents here and my suspicion is that the
ethanol might have done some permanent damage to the polarisers. Here we
have to test the polarisers for lots of different things (petrol, diesel,
sweat, face-cream, cleaning fluids, coffee etc), and one of the tests for
cleaner fluid (some mixture with ethanol in it) often fails and leaves
permanent marks on the polariser...
FWIW we use IPA (isopropyl alcohol) for cleaning the polarisers... might be
worth a shot if you can get to the inside.
Post a reply to this message
|
|
| |
| |
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|