help with a laptop

C-man

my wife has an old mac G4 I book and she had a vase full of flowers and water blow over and spill all over it
while it was closed.

Now it does not even light when plugged in, maybe the power source?

We took it to a sort of apple store and they would not even try to plug it in, saying it was too old and buy a new one.

here is a pic pic what the plug looks like, is there any hope?

coffeehorse

Let me google that for you... ...seriously though, put it in a warm place, pull as many panels off as possible and wait until dry. Then try again. Having said that, by plugging it in, assuming it's still wet in places, you'd expect a short circuit across at least a few points. If you've blown capacitors or burnt out resistors (or both), or worse blown the CPU or another surface-mount component/SMD then without a solder/desolder station, multimeter and some pretty fancy hand tools you're talking an exercise in frustration. If you want to spend 3-4 hours on someone else's workbench tracking down the problem, that's fine, but most people will quote 2-4 hours labour, plus parts for this, and as there is no guarantee that the parts will be available or that it's an economical fix, I understand why most places wouldn't touch this. If you take it into the apple store, explain that it has a defect of technically unknown reason and ask for a service quote, you may have more luck. It's guaranteed to be out of warranty though.

Lacehim

First off I would test the adapter to make sure it's putting out power. Post up the model no etc and google to see if there is a guide to stripping it.  As you said on the phone it's an older laptop, but if it's a small fix, it might be worth fixing.  Otherwise, off to ebay sold for parts if your lucky.  Otherwise sitting in landfill for future generations to worry about.

C-man

the water damage happened months ago apparently there is a reset button somewhere? but where? http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1431 I just want to be sure it is not something easy before I chuck it.

coffeehorse

Do you have a multimeter? The reset button is not going to help you in this case.

RichardM

Have you checked under the keyboard for signs of the liquid damage? The keyboards have lugs at the top left and right that just pop up. It would be worth checking under there. It *may* just be the power adapter, but I'd also try removing the battery before doing any work on it. Also, that laptop has clearly been opened by someone who does not possess a "Black stick", and used a screwdriver to get the bottom off. Is that related? I have one of those power supplies that I could loan if it doesn't work, but I'd be guessing the little board inside that the power supply plugs into is fried.

C-man

I think my wife tried to open it with a knife, making the marks but never got it open No meter, I even took the power supply to electronics place to have them test it but they would not do anything I used this video to open the keyboard, same unit. It looks ok, could use a clean I guess everything is soooo tiny and hard to see even with glasses and a magnifying glass. will clean any contacts with isocol  I guess? I need to test the power supply somehow?

C-man

more pics[img][/img]

C-man

what is the MOB? is that gansta talk?

Lacehim

Probably short for Motherboard, which is what everything in your pc connects to.

C-man

maybe "the mob" can get me a hot new laptop that fell of a truck.

Lacehim

Bring it round to me, I will take a looky.  No guarantees though.  At the miminum I'll get the harddrive out so you can preserve your data.  (If I'm not home leave it at the front door)

RichardM

on 1358931489:

Bring it round to me, I will take a looky.  No guarantees though.  At the miminum I'll get the harddrive out so you can preserve your data.  (If I'm not home leave it at the front door)

You might regret making that offer if you've never pulled an Ibook apart before...

Lacehim

I've got a fairly big hammer RM! I've got a multimeter so I can test the powersupply, and battery at least, and remove the HDD for C-man if he intends to sell it.