Water Damaged Laptop and broken switch?

A friend of mine spilt a pint of water over his girlfriend's laptop. I took it to pieces and left it on his floor (on cardboard) for about a week drying out. Put it back together, it turned on and everything worked fine. Then in typical sods law as soon as I got home he gave me a call saying it wouldn't turn on. I took another look at it yesterday, taking the power button thing off (the plastic bit above the keyboard) and checking the cables were attached properly. It turned on the first time, then didn't turn on again.

Its a HP Pavillion DV6000 (I hate HP laptops anyway, not least for the fact that they have the famous Nvidia GPU fault but also because they're so fiddly!), and the power button connects to the motherboard with the fiddliest tiniest ribbon cable ever seen. Is it likely that this ribbon cable could have been damaged by me plugging it in and out? I was thinking that what could have happened is, as the water was spilt on the laptop while it was open (and broke several keys on the keyboard) maybe it got into the power switch and broke that. Its a component made by Hannstar I think is easily replaceable. Is there anyway on a laptop I can make it boot? Like by shorting two pins as you can do on a PC?

Thanks for your help,
Dan Gent

The flexi cables are incredibly fragile so it possible that it's broken. Normally you can see if you hold it to the light and put a light bend in it - you might see a crack in the track.

It's unlikely that the switch is damaged, there's nothing much in them. If you can find exactly which pins in the ribbon cable the power switch connects to then you should be able to short them and get it to start.

thats really good advice thanks burble. So its much more likely the flexi cables than the switch then? These HP laptops seems a nightmare compared to other ones. Where the flexi cables attach at the motherboard, theres no clip to release them, so you have to pull them out and force them in, not nice! they did end up at various angles by the time i was done with them......

To "short" the pins, could I just put a very small flathead screwdriver on the motherboard side of the connection and try all the different combinations of pins? or do i need a little electric switch (you know like the kind you get on electric lighters) and connect the two wires from that to different pins? On a pc you just put a screwdriver in between two pins but not sure if the switch on a laptop actually provides some sort of current?

flexi cable is the official name for the cable then? I didnt know that. Is it likely these kind of cables will be in other laptops or am I best just ordering some more? What keywords would I use to search for them on ebay? I think they have part numbers on them so I'll have a look at them when I get home.

I'll try what you said about holding the cables up to the light to see if they're cracked, and I'll try straigtening them out to see if that works.

Much much much thanks Burble!

Dan Gent

The flexi cable would be my first thought. If there isn't a part number on it you could try looking for a generic part rather than the manufacturer specific part. Check how many tracks are in the cable, the width and length then have a look on eBay.

Putting a screwdriver into the connector on the motherboard could be a bit risky. I'd be inclined to get a small piece of wire, strip the insulation off at both ends then put those bare ends into the connector on the motherboard.

If you can't find a replacement and you can see where the cable is broken you could try and solder a piece of wire into the cable to replace the broken track. It'll be a pig of a job and you'll need a very fine soldering iron tip but it's an option.

Thanks again burble! Yours is the best advice I've got off any forum I've posted this problem on! Hexus is the best.

I'll look for new cables and do what you said and then get back to you.

Dan Gent

Hi Burble,

By a stroke of luck, when searching for the replacement flexi cable, I found that some Acer Aspires use the same cable (albeit much shorter). I connected this to the motherboard and switch and first time it worked! then I held the power button down for 10 seconds and it turned off.

Then it didnt work again! more messing around many minutes later and it worked again, then i turned the laptop off by holding it down. Then it didnt work again.
This makes me think that its either a faulty power button and/or cable in which case I could get the pair off ebay

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/HP-DV6000-DV65...item2303836ebd
£25

Or that maybe its something more complex. Its strange that it works once (and then continues to work as I can hold it down to power it off) but then doesn't work again. Could there be something tripping inside or some sort of thermal switch that stops it turning on again until its cooled or something?

Much thanks anyway!
Dan Gent

It could be the switch then. I doubt that thermal cutout is getting in the way.