[Giftmacher]

Right, so I kind of toasted my wife's laptop. I spilt a little wine on it (before I started drinking the stuff, just add insult to injury), and I don't think I yanked the battery out in time. That or the CMOS battery, which resides just under the keyboard, was short-circuited and drained of what little juice it had left. Anyhoo now if forgets the time and date on every boot.

It's a fairly venerable Inspiron (4/5 years), but we can't really afford a replacement at the moment so I'm contemplating repair. I've an idea that the mobo might actually be ok and it's just a flaked out CMOS battery (as the onboard testing suite hasn't spotted anything horrible and the CMOS battery usually has a 5 yr lifespan). So I might try to swap/clean that out myself.

Any hints suggestions on taking laptops apart would be helpful if anyone has em, particularly Inspiron specific stuff as I've never delved inside one before.

Gift.

[dabble]

Hey Gift. Laptops are pretty simply to dismantle and rebuild. I repair them all the time. Start out removing all of the covers from the bottom of the machine. On certain models you may even see the cmos battery , it's usually stuck to the board and then connected with a small connector and a few thin wires that lead to the battery which is sealed in a plastic casing. If not it will be actually mounted on the board in a plastic holder. Be careful when prying the battery out, these holders are quite fragile.

If you can't see the battery with the covers removed you'll have to dismatle the unit. Start by removing the memory, wireless card (After disconnecting the antenna cables) and anything you can through the underside compartments. Remove the screws from the bottom of the machine take out the hard drive and the CDROM. Then pry up the cover that is just above the keyboard on the top side. This has the power button switch on it and should just unclip. next job is to remove the keyboard by removing a few screws at the top and then lifting it. Be careful it has a ribbon connector that attaches to the motherboard that will need to be detached. With the keyboard removed you should see several screws that screw down into the motherboard from the topside. Remove all of these.

Undo the ribbon cable for the LCD and remove the screws that attach the lid and the LCD. Remove the lid being careful to pull through the small wires that were connected to the wireless card. You should now be able to pry up the top plastic of the laptop (Being careful to look out for any ribbon conectors that may attach to the motherboard for the mousepad etc)

After the top is removed there will be a few more screws that hold the motherboard and things like the fan/heatsink/PCMCIA in place, remove all of these and ease the board out (looking at points that may stick like the sound sockets and usb ports)

I'm not sure if you'll have to completely dismantle the whole machine but it might be an idea to do so and make sure everything is dry. That's all I can think of for now, if you get stuck drop another post and I'll do what I can. Good luck.

[Fozzik]

I would respectfully disagree with the previous poster...laptops are a complete pain the ass to take apart and put back together. They are really designed to only be serviced by technicians who have careful instructions and training on how to take them apart. This isn't to say normal people can't do it, it just requires a lot of patience and typically a lot more time than you plan on to do fairly basic repairs.

My advice would be to take your time and don't use too much force on things. You're going to find all kinds of little weirdness that you don't expect...screws hidden under and behind things, clips that need to be popped with a thin screwdriver, things attached to each other for no apparent purpose (like having to remove the CPU heatsink in order to get the front panel off).

Each laptop is different, and you really just have to eyeball things as you go and get a feel for how it goes together. You may not have to remove everything, just the things that get you to where you need to go.

The CMOS battery is just a big watch battery, usually held in place by a metal spring clip that's soldered to the motherboard.

Oh, and next time get an IBM / Lenovo Thinkpad. They have drain holes that direct liquid out the bottom when you spill drinks on them.

[dabble]

I repair 4 or 5 laptops a week. I run a small repair business. We do things like replacing power sockets, motherboards, reflowing on-board GPU's and other components. Maybe I'm just used to doing it, but I'd respectfully disagree with Fozz. Most Modern laptops are fairly simple to dismantle. Putting them back together is a whole new issue though. So, just take your time as Fozz said and follow his helpful tips. Also maybe take a few pictures as you dismantle to help with the rebuild. Like I said, if you get stuck PM me. I'd be more than happy to help out but my instructions above should be good for the inspiron range of a round that age as a rough guide.

Actually, what is the exact model of the Inspiron Gift?

[Fozzik]

So as long as you're someone who takes apart laptops four or five times a week Gift, it should be really easy.


Oh, and did I mention I was an astronaut, a secret agent, and the drummer for AC/DC? That's just my spare time, though. I'm a rocket surgeon by profession.

I kid because I love.

[dabble]

Originally Posted by Fozzik

So as long as you're someone who takes apart laptops four or five times a week Gift, it should be really easy.


Oh, and did I mention I was an astronaut, a secret agent, and the drummer for AC/DC? That's just my spare time, though. I'm a rocket surgeon by profession.

I kid because I love.

Haha.. Ok, Ok Fozz. Just laying out my credentials.

[Giftmacher]

Cheers both of you, I've found the service manual and it does look like it'll be a simple case of removing a hinge cover and lifting the keyboard to get to the CMOS battery. So long as I'm careful and don't break anything fragile in the process it looks doable.

Anyhoo, just waiting for a few new batteries to arrive in the post, I seem to have used my supply up on desktop mobos. (Old'uns retasked as Linux boxes )

I'll let you know how it goes.

Gift.

[Fozzik]

Just as an aside, it is actually possible to clean printed circuit boards using de-ionized water and special detergent. They do it very often in electronics manufacturing, and the batch board washers look very much like a home automatic dishwasher.

As crazy as it sounds, I know some people have done things like take a keyboard apart that had been spilled on and put all the pieces through the dishwasher. It just has to completely dry before it gets put back together.

With something as complex and expensive as a laptop, that's probably not something to try...but if there is still some wine inside the chassis or on the boards or components, rubbing alcohol and some q-tips would probably work well.

[Giftmacher]

Hmm good plan, I work in science so I have deionised water on tap, and a ready supply of molecular biology grade absolute alcohol. I'll have to remember to pick them up tomorrow just in case.

Gift.

[Giftmacher]

Well the change over wasn't too tricky, but I didn't manage to fix the senile time keeping.

The weird thing is the laptop keyboard is a water-tight tray, and so far as I can see no liquid actually made it into the laptop. I might have another closer look when I get a minute, to see if I've missed something less obvious.

Anyway, it wasn't an entirely wasted effort, the CMOS battery itself was starting to leak. If I hadn't changed it when I did I think it would have made quite a mess.

Time to start saving for a replacement I think...

Gift.

[Slide]

Most laptops are easy to take apart, for those of you with a Dell - make sure you are out of warranty on it - then google for the Service Manual for your model, they will have diagrams of every task in step by step fashion. If you can put together a flatpack shelf system you can take apart and put together a laptop. There will be less splinters too.