Studio 1555 No Boot Screen/POST - odds of motherboard vs. processor problem?

Kgazlap,

The system is far more resilient than you might think.  Before I bought anything, I would completely disassemble the unit and clean all circuit boards with 80% isopropyl alcohol.  I just revived a Latitude E5500 this past Saturday that had a complete cup of black coffee spilled on the keyboard while in use.  Fortunately, the nurse was quick thinking and immediately stood the laptop like an opened book on its right side where the DVD drive door is. That minimized the amount of coffee that made contact with the motherboard.

The worst case I've revived was a Toshiba Satellite that was considered dead for 6 months after a cup of coffee with cream and sugar was spilled on it.  Toshiba's factory service center declared it "non-repairable".  The chips on the motherboard looked like a science fair crystal growth project.  I first dissolved the crud with distilled water, then cleaned the motherboard with a toothbrush and 80% isopropyl alcohol.  I used a lighted magnifying glass and a sharpened plastic toothpick to find and remove the crud between the pins of various surface-mounted ICs.  I am proud to say that the unit has been working flawlessly for over a year.  Initially the audio was a little low, but the CMOS "healed" itself and now audio is normal.

My largest revival project was a complete office network that was running when the office was fire-bombed by an arsonist.  Needless to say, there was a whole lot of carbon and water residue.  Over $60,000 worth of equipment was smoke and water damaged.  Unfortunately, the client had just moved into the new office and the insurance agent did not put a binder on the building contents during the move.  The equipment was insured at the old location, but not at the new location.  That's why the revival project was the cost-effective solution to restoring the system.  Four years later, I was called back to revive a TI Silent 700 Equifax terminal which had not been revived since it was no longer being used.  The client discovered that it was leased and we had to put it in working order before it could be turned in.  When powered up, the terminal was able to print out the last 10 credit reports stored in its bubble memory.

Note: The isopropyl alcohol does two things.  First, it is non-conductive.  Second, it helps displace any moisture absorbed by ceramic chip components.

All of this is to let you know that all is not necessarily lost when water comes into contact with electronic components.

Good luck on your revival project.

Tony 

Tony,

thank you for the reply, impressive on what you have been able to recover.

I have some technical skills and also have a close friend who is an electrics repairman (a vanishing breed), and he did clean parts of the motherboard with alcohol and problem persists.  He said he saw some calcification where the power connected, thought that might be it, but cleaning did not resolve.

I will see about trying a thorough alcohol treatment, to displace water as you say.  I wish I could be optimistic but concerned about time going by, will have to see about new motherboard soon.

-Kevin (kgazlap)

Kevin,

Amen on repairmen being a vanishing breed.  I'm picking up an Xbox today.  Disk read error.  My son-in-law's Xbox has the Red Ring of Death.  Hope I can take the two and make one good one.  My daughter has been unemployed for over a year, so their funds are  tight.  My granddaughter says, "PaPa can fix anything.  He can even fix a broken cigarette with Scotch tape."    My wife's HP laptop was salvaged from a trash dumpster.  The power connector was broken.  Whoever repaired it was very good with a soldering iron, but the quick fix didn't hold.  I disassembled it.  Removed and replaced the $8.56 power connector.  That was two years ago and it's still working.  Of course, not all revival projects go so well.  I recently replaced the motherboard in a Dell Inspiron.  The owner had wiggled and wiggled the power connector until it shorted out and burned a hole in the motherboard.

I hope you and your friend can get your system up and running.  Sounds like you both are up to the task.

Let us know how you fare.

Tony