Technology What do you think is wrong with my laptop?

[Bacchus]

I have a Dell Inspiron 600m thats about 3.5 years old. Long story in a short way: Water damage from a leak. I am on the laptop now. It works fine when it powers on. However, when it is shutdown for long periods of time I cannot get it to start up immediately. I must push the power button several times (it seems like an arbitrary number). Eventually it will turn on and work great (like now). I'm sending it to Dell over winter break to be fixed (have an extended/accident warranty) since I couldn't send it over the semester (needed a laptop for a lot of things). Any ideas whats wrong or what they'll be fixing.

When I power on the LEDs will light up and then it will shut off after a sec or so. Then after the arbitrary number of times it works.

Just curious if anyone has any ideas?

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[187502]

Sounds like a short due to trapped moisture. Once all the moisture is removed from the system (which will probably require professional remediation at this point, so it's a good thing you sent it to Dell) it should work, unless the short has done physical damage to the system, which is possible.

 

[Bacchus]

This was back in August, lol. I'm pretty sure its dried out by now. I guess I forgot that. I'm just happy that I can send it to them.

 

[187502]

This was back in August, lol. I'm pretty sure its dried out by now. I guess I forgot that. I'm just happy that I can send it to them.

Actually, you'd be surprised at how long moisture can persist in very thin spaces with virtually no airflow or exposure to the external environment especially if the laptops home environment has relatively high humidity (such as living near one of the ocean coasts). I've seen liquids persist in small spaces inside of a laptop for 8+ months, and this is just for water.