Liquid Damage on Motherboard

[dgiles79]

I picked up a laptop today that wouldn't power on (no lights or any activity), after running through the standard tests (battery, ram, ac adapter etc), I opened up the laptop, and saw some damage to the motherboard (picture attached)

Obviously it needs a new motherboard, but I was wondering if this looks like liquid damage, or what may have caused it.

Thanks.

 

[Robert]

Looks like some sort of corrosive liquid - such as Coke or similar.

Seen a fair few of them over the years. I would definitely suggest checking other components before suggesting a board replacement - just in case you need to replace anything else as well.

 

[JosephLeo]

Check the battery a second time just as a precaution. It could be a battery acid leak, although like Robert said, it looks like soda or some sugary drink due to the "crusting" effect. Also +1 on checking every other component as well. Screen, battery, memory, processor, hard and disk drive, network card etc. Most important of all is the hard drive of course.

 

[gre4]

Looks like one I had recently w/ a coffee (w/ lots of cream & sugar) spilled into it.

 

[meanderer]

last time I saw one of these it was milk. I tried to bushed them off with a toothbrush and one of the legs on the CMOS flash chip flew off... so no chance of repair.

then another time I saw a smaller damage and it smelled like beer.... put the same toothbrush with some 99% alcohol in it... brushed everything away. Then blew everything out with a duster. The computer booted and ran fine.

Almost any conductive liquid can cause something to look like this.

PS. that brown cruft on the lower right side seems to suggest the liquid to be coffee or coke.

 

[MobileTechie]

Yeah it's worth trying to clean it. Stick it in a bowl of hot soapy water and scrub it, finish of with alcohol and let dry for a few days. Sometimes they come right back to life.

Some people use a dishwasher with no detergent.

 

[14049752]

Some people use a dishwasher with no detergent.

And I would be willing to bet that those boards don't work once the dishwasher is done with them.
Washing a pcb is one thing...washing it with high pressure water jets is another. A household dishwasher has too much pressure and could easily damage the board. PCBs DO get washed when they're made, in something similar to a dishwasher but the pressure is considerably less because there's no need to wash mom's lasagna off anything.

 

[AdamsAPlus]

Yeah it's worth trying to clean it. Stick it in a bowl of hot soapy water and scrub it, finish of with alcohol and let dry for a few days. Sometimes they come right back to life.

Some people use a dishwasher with no detergent.

If you try this method, make sure you short all the caps first. You never know there may be one left that still has some juice in it.

 

[vdub12]

I have had a few liquid spills like that and have always cleaned the board and been fine. I'm not saying its fine every time just every time I have done it.

 

[meanderer]

for the OP's case, the 2 pieces of IC to the right is probably power MOSFET. clean it off and see if it still works.
There are mobo repair shops that can take care of those if they are bad after liquid spill. (if my assumption about power mosfet is right)

 

[PC Ops]

Yep, seen this. Coffee or Coke would be my guess as well. Wash thoroughly, the alcohol and toothbrush will do fine. Also dry thoroughly ofcourse. Chances are it'll run fine. Chances are it doesn't... Check other parts too.

Lot of work without any guarantees though... Do you have ncnp policy? xD

Good luck! Hope it'll work out fine.

If you miss a spot then the corrosion will start doing damage again later and possibly wreck the mb weeks or months later. Been there...

Sent from my Desire HD using Tapatalk

 

[vdub12]

ncnp policy?

????



Filler text ..............................

 

[PC Ops]

Sorry... no cure no pay ...
As a non-native English 'speaker' I'd better stick with the common acronyms instead of making up new ones lol.
On the other hand... wasn't it obvious?

​

 

[meanderer]

we usually call it no fix no pay here, hence nfnp. but I wouldn't make stuff up like that