Wet Laptop Recovery AGAIN Dell XPS 13

[Razarza]

To be fair they did this one without dell knowing.

But the XPS 13 is about 1/3 the price of the Blade. I don't really think LMG would like to risk it with something that expensive.

[Str_Mape]

The Blade is safely here with me.

For now...

[awesomes8wc3]

You need to do with with all laptops you get.

[TheFlyingTraut]

New benchmarking standard? Go for broke, why not?

[patrick3027]

Do you think taking it apart actually helps?

It didn't seem that wet inside, letting the laptop drip out for a day or two might have done the trick.

[ranjitech]

what about speaker and mic?????

[skroychowdhury]

My Dell studio 1558 survived well a one accidental rain soak. And it was a US LTE enabled model.

[pk-man]

When I left my XPS 12 out in the rain, I was devastated - but its fantastic recovery provided a new, slightly unorthodox benchmark for new Dell notebooks like the XPS 13...

 

 

Why is nick typing as he were Linus??

[TobyKSweetman]

...Businesses must love you.

[Rohizzle]

wow I was expecting this again! Amazing manufacturing by Dell! 

[Ohlyver]

probably any piece of hardware youd leave out in the rain in a state of sleep or simply shut off would start like nothing happened if you take the time  to rice-dry it  before

[JAKEBAB]

Wow! I don't think ive ever disliked a video of yours Linus but this, this is just plain stupid. 

 

I like this format though, reminds me of the old unboxing days.

[Adzismad2]

Wow! I don't think ive ever disliked a video of yours Linus but this, this is just plain stupid. 

 

Its a laptop that they didn't pay for out of their own pockets, whats not to like 

[JAKEBAB]

Its a laptop that they didn't pay for out of their own pockets, whats not to like 

Exactly my point and even if he did pay for it, it's still beyond stupid. It's like when people purposely break consoles or phones, there are alot of disadvantaged kids in the world that can only dream of something like this yet you have people that get given stuff and still don't treat it with respect.

[Geralt]

Linus Sebastian

The only man that leaves his laptop in the rain and manages to fix it afterwards. Lol

[AxelRantila]

You guys are just getting better and better. This probably mean you have something crazy planned for Channel Superfun in the future

[FunkStar]

Well I must say, lucky you!

 

Got my XPS 13 first week of feb and 2 weeks later the thing would not boot.
Opened it up disconnected the battery and got it booting again, 1 week later same problem. Disconnecting the battery this time didn't have any effect.

Power led lighted up for a second and then that was it.

 

Must say support was great. Called on monday and next business day we had a Getronics guy repair (replace) the motherboard & powerjack.

All is fine now.
 

[Syntaxvgm]

@LinussTech

I used to repair laptops for a living pretty much

 

A couple of quick tips for the future if you do this again and want to increase your chances of success (I know you can't help yourself, you will)

 

-Pull every bit of plastic from the board-you know those black and clear squares of crap, usually there's one below the memory slots for example. They tend to hold water under them, especially if the laptop has gotten hot enough to loosen them over time. Oddly enough, I didn't do this once and saw  memory related bluescreens down the road later, and I found out that heat was causing that plastic to give and water was trapped there. 

 

-Remove the battery and test it separately, it may need repaired or replaced. remember, some laptops wont boot without the battery. Check documentation if it even covers this (traditionally, I've found dell's to be pretty good, but for laptops that have non-removable batteries, it's more common and less documented)

 

-Remove and replace the CMOS battery. 

 

-There are quick drying solutions I have used to literally dip the board in  the past. In a server case though, I'd just recommend spraying it with 99.8% isopropyl alcohol. not that 91% pussy shit you get at the pharmacy, 99.8%. The "I looked away form the open bottle and it evaporated" shit. You can also use Dielectric electronic contact cleaner. I have a custom solution I used to make, but I forget it's written down somewhere. 

-Part of the reason you saw success is how long you left it. In the future, aside from the screen maybe, take everything completely out of the housing and separate it. The fan in the cabinet is ok, but if the air is humid or you have the option readily available, I recommend using desiccant packets in a closed container, yah know, something you would feel safe storing food in that seals decently. I recommend leaving it for a week, not joking. Like 3 days is the bare minimum. 

 

-Before drying, if you find corrosion in spots, take a new toothbrush and dip it in that 99.8% isopropyl alcohol you already have and scrub spots that look bad and everything that's a chip with some kind of close together pins. In particularly bad cases, you can scrub the connectors of ribbon cables, but be very careful and you might want to use a different, less abrasive scrubbing tool. Do this before leaving it to dry. 

 

-In a few cases I've used soap and distilled water. I know some people are already angrily typing at me for this, but this is in the "this should never work again in a million years" category with very aggressive corrosion. Distilled water is not conductive until it adsorbs stuff, and while the soap solution is probably slightly conductive, sometimes that corrosion is so bad, something more aggressive than the alcohol is needed. After, you need to scrub those same areas with the alcohol just in case. 

 

-Remove the memory and test it elsewhere after treating it. Remember anything with water damage could potentially short out and cause damage to the host device. This is not very likely except for in cases of extreme corrosion where it may be possible, but be careful what laptop you use to test it.

 

-remove the hard drive (if any) before testing it. Solid state drives should be tested elsewhere first after checking for corrosion on the connections, but they are less likely to be penetrated with water. If you do think it has been, take it apart and use the above techniques to clean it. With a mechanical drive, test it and cry if you need to, because I've seen even steam from a nearby hot shower kill it. If you want to increase the chances of this not happening, put it in a food container with the desiccant packets I mentioned before for a week with the rest of the stuff before spinning it up. It might actually survive some direct water given it was not on at the time of exposure. 
 

- I wouldn't use heat to speed the process. I don't know why really, but I've been told by others that it can makes things worse while it's still wet and it's worked for me taking this advice. Better safe the sorry. 

 

This isn't everything but just a few tips for you and anyone else reading. I love watching people fix shit that shouldn't work, and I look forward to you soaking the next dell xps you get, if Dell will even talk to you

[theodoro]

You know Dell... Accidents happen...

[jman3350]

Dell probably would have sent over an invoice LOL

 

I mean if it didn't work, the video probably would have helped pay for the invoice. 

 

But on the brightside, more advertising for Dell!

[wolfsbane3083]

I wish my dell studio had this build quality back in the day. Only had it for just over a year and the screen set on fire

[Ghost]

I wonder what laptop wouldn't survive being left out in the rain and then being dried for 3 days. I do love my XPS 13, but I find it difficult to imagine it is more waterproof then any Lenovo Thinkpad, which actually has holes under the keyboard for water to drip out of. Linus needs to break an ultrabook doing this, to show that Dell laptops are actually special.

 

Razer's turn next please.

[Ena]

This video is great, you should make a series about testing "waterproofability" of devices

[Syntaxvgm]

I wonder what laptop wouldn't survive being left out in the rain and then being dried for 3 days. I do love my XPS 13, but I find it difficult to imagine it is more waterproof then any Lenovo Thinkpad, which actually has holes under the keyboard for water to drip out of. Linus needs to break an ultrabook doing this, to show that Dell laptops are actually special.

 

Razer's turn next please.

I honestly believe since most laptops are not designed to take spill damage, let alone rain damage, most board have almost equal opportunity of survival once exposed and corroded. I think it's based on if it's attempted to be turned on before drying and doing stuff like I listed above. 

Makes me want to be paid to soak 20 different laptops in equal water exposure and see what happens after they are fixed the exact same way

[Xvital]

I don't think i would be able to resist not running the laptop to check when its all wet. 

and it have been a long time not seeing the orange screwdriver (i don't remember its name), do you still have it?

 

Also, what's the best screwdriver set for opening a laptop? because i think there are many types of screws in a laptop especially on an the old one