Laptop died and has been replaced

[mxer]

Fingers crossed. :)

[Stevo]

You should be able to at least salvage some parts like the RAM, hard drive, wi-fi card, and so on.

But like others have said, you can't go wrong with a refurbished Thinkpad from Lenovo if you're looking for a bargain: https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad- ... lp_pl_dp_2

[KBD]

You should be able to at least salvage some parts like the RAM, hard drive, wi-fi card, and so on.

But like others have said, you can't go wrong with a refurbished Thinkpad from Lenovo if you're looking for a bargain: https://www.amazon.com/Lenovo-ThinkPad- ... lp_pl_dp_2

I have a T410 like that--great machine. Probably worth Amazon's price, but only if in absolute Mint condition. A newer T420 or T430 can be found on Ebay in that price range in very good condition.

[sunrat]

The best chance to save any electronics that get wet is to not turn them on until you are sure they are absolutely dry. I've even heard of people washing them with distilled water to clean impurities especially if the wet invader was coffee or sugary drink or anything but water.
The main damage will be caused by shorting the traces on the circuit board so if these are dry before switching on you may recover it. It's why people put phones etc. in rice to absorb water, and maybe wait for a few days to be sure.
Of course if the electronics are turned on when the spill happens there is much less chance of recovery.

[JayM]

That's the one thing I dislike about laptops (OK, touchpads too. I hate them buggars.) With a desktop PC if you spill on the keyboard you just unplug it, rinse it under the tap, dry it as best you can then let it air dry for a few days, plugging in a spare in the meantime and carrying on. At worst case you buy another keyboard. With a laptop a spill means a trip to a repair $hop or to your junk and parts bin.

@j2mcgreg, if you end up having to get a replacement what I think I would do instead of buying a brand-new laptop is get a used or refurbished Lenovo Thinkpad or similar business-class one, then put the cost difference into maxing out its RAM and getting a 2TB HDD for it. That would give you a much more durable, Linux-friendly machine that performs (almost) as well as the latest and greatest, plus lots of storage.

[KBD]

Small electronics you can stick in a plastic bag with rice to soak up the moisture for a few days. Would need a lot of rice and several weeks with a laptop I'd imagine.

[cyrilus31]

Small electronics you can stick in a plastic bag with rice to soak up the moisture for a few days. Would need a lot of rice and several weeks with a laptop I'd imagine.

In that kind of situation a hairdryer is your best friend. As sunrat explained I saved a laptop with distilled water and drying thoroughly.

[j2mcgreg]

I got the laptop back and I had to reinstall MX 18.2 and when I went to indicate the "EFi as Trusted" and choose grubx64.efi it asks fo a "Descriptor". I tried just giving it a random name and that failed so I think what it's requesting is the full path. paraphrasing from the Debian wiki (https://wiki.debian.org/UEFI#efibootmgr ... boot_entry) it is something like this:

Code: Select all

\EFI\MX18.2\grubx64.efi

Is this correct? or does it need more as in:

Code: Select all

/dev/sda  \EfI\Mx18.2\grubx64.efi

[sunrat]

I'm guessing the shop may have turned Secure Boot back on. MX doesn't have signed kernel or bootloader so you'd have to go into UEFI setup and disable it.

[j2mcgreg]

I saw timkb4cq's post in this thread:

viewtopic.php?f=92&t=49867

and then read the linked articles and I think that I have it figured out. Once I'm certain that everything is working as it should, I'll post a step-by-step guide so that other unsuspecting purchasers of this wonderful laptop don't have to dance in the minefield too.