Droped water on the laptop!

Hi,

Yesterday turned a glass of water on my laptop, and the screen froze.
I forced a shut down, restarted and everything seemed to be working fine until two ballons popped up saying:

Found new hardware - PCI DEVICE
Found new hardware - Texas Instruments OHCI Compliant IEEE 1394 Host Controller

After this the screen just freezes and cant do anything.

Any ideas on what is going on here, and what should i do?

Im using windows xp, latest service pack. Laptop is a acer aspire 2000

Thanks,
M

 

Hi, thanks for your reply.

I didnt turn off immediately, i placed it sideways on a chair while i was saving the rest of hardware i had on the desk (External HDD, heaphones, etc) and then to find the frozen screen, turning it off and restarting the laptop

It wasnt a direct spill on the keyboard, i think the most water went in through the side, through the cd drive.

Anyway it just started working again, after a few restarts.

Is it possible the only hardware effected is this host controller? What does it do anyway?
And could i prevent this 'found new hardware' message if i had a spare driver file saved somewhere?

best,
M

 

Greetings, moritz.

IEEE 1394 is a serial data transfer protocol, more commonly referred to as FireWire - it's for handling devices such as cameras, scanners, etc.

You can most likely visit the Acer support site for your model and grab the driver - the possibility exists, of course, that the device was damaged. If so, you can probably get by without it.

 

NOTE to ALL re: PC Spills on Laptop Keyboards
I know the feeling--your heart begins to pound & u feel like Desi, Ethel & Fred when Lucy announces the baby is coming. You wanna run around the room, bumping into walls, screaming "help, Help, HELLLLLLLP! OMG, PLEASE don't let me've fried my 'puter!" Right? (Or another sitcom of your choice. Just revealed my age a bit, eh?)
Rule #1: STAY CALM! (G.D. IT! All is NOT necessarilly lost.
#2: IMMEDIATELY GRAB your keyboard and turn it upside down--I mean COMPLETELY upside down--not on a diagonal, not a tilt, a full 180! (U need get whatever's in there OUT, w/ the help of gravity, asap! And I mean ALL of it out, not only surface liquid, but the liquid that ALMOST reached the elctronics of your laptop. "The keyboard's connected to the...")
#3: THEN turn your computer off AND UNPLUG IT. (Delaying turning over ur keyboard & turning the power off, first, may cost valuable time and every nanosecond counts!)
#4: Now go and get a towel (the walk about will do u good & if nothing else, allow ur hands to stop shaking & give u time to say a few prayers -- PS: Suggest u NOT promise God u'll never visit a porn site again if u KNOW u won't keep it) and put the towel under ur keyboard -- that way, if it's not water but a colored liquid that was spilled (I once spilled a glass of pomegranate blueberry juice on a BRAND, spanking new laptop, fresh out of the box!) u've an idea of how much got in there & when it's stopped draining...
#5: Go to bed. Booting it up when the electronics are still wet may REALLY cause probs: liquid + electronics = BZZZZT! Sure u'll have nightmares of Thor & Thunderbolts (or Bill Gates holding ur head underwater in the toilet bowl saying, "How do YOU like it, eh?" but it's better than frying your puter, right?)
#6: When u wake the next morning, and ur certain everything is dry (if it was water u spilled, cross ur fingers & go ahead & reboot -- chances are, if u moved fast enuff, & flipped over your keyboard QUICKLY, no harm was done) but if you spilled something STICKY, get a bottle of rubbing alcohol & some q-tips and very carefully, pry off each of the keys that are sticking and dip the Q-tip in the alcohol & swab it around the sticky areas on both the naked keyboard AND the underparts of the key. (Be sure u have good lighting.)
NOTE: Just because a key isn't sticking immediately AFTER, doesn't mean it was spared the "juice" or soda. Use the alcohol on the keys u KNOW are sticking as WELL as those in the adjacent area -- saves trouble after.
WARNING! Be SURE you're PC is unplugged, would u pls? U may've THOUGHT u'd unplugged it but in the heat of ur panic, were mistaken. One of ur kids may've seen the plug taken out of the wall & plugged it back in "for Mommy/Daddy" and/or, ur dog may've developed opposable thumbs overnight & done the same--"human's best friend and all."
If u feel comfy doing so, might be a good idea to remove ur battery, too. Batteries, too, are "electrically" charged. (Not going into technical gobbledy-gook, if u notice.)
#7 When all has been "unstuck" and ur keys move freely again--w/ all stickiness gone, it's time to replace ur batteries, plug it back in, say another prayer (reiterating the first, so S/He KNOWS u really meant the first ones) and power up.
More likely than not, if u moved quickly enuff & didn't waste too much time, frozen in panic, all will be well. If not, u've learned NEVER to allow liquids w/in 30' of ur pc! (Better a parched throat than a ruined pc, right?)
Be advised, however. If your pc was under warrantee, liquid spillage has voided it ("undt they haft VAYS of knowink these thinks...") so don't even bother trying to fool the company.
*Using all the above steps I managed to save my laptop from the pommie juice & have now grown used to working, sans drink on my desk... OR I use a bottle with a tightly fitting CAP!
** One more note? (When I read this post, I almost ruined my shorts) The "Sticky keys" function on one's pc is NOT for stickING keys. It simply allows one to use the control, alt, & FN keys individually, and not simultaneously, w/ another key. (Some are "faster on the draw" than others, on a keyboard.

Hope this helps SOMEONE save their PC...

 

We've been dealing with a sticky spill and followed advice to have the computer chemically cleaned professionally. I don't know how things will turn out, but I realized if we replace the motherboard, that will still not guarantee that the rest of the hardware will be working.

Has anyone come up with a waterproof notebook yet?

I saved a camera from drowning once and it came back to live, so I never throw doused electronic equipment away until I'm utterly certain it's dead. The flashdrive that went through the washing machine was fine. I think it might be the combination of electricity and the wet electronics that's the killer.

 

Sure:

For about $5K, you can get a Stealth NW-2000.

If you want to go completely bad ***, there are the MilDef LTD models, such as the Rocky RF9 - if you gotta ask how much it costs, you don't need to be askin'...

:major

 

Just a progress update:

We had the comp chemically cleaned and then had it checked after a sticky drink spill. The whole cost of all repairs will be upwards of 300$, but still cheaper than replacing the motherboard.

will let you know if it ends up working.

 

I want one.....or both.