Laptop heat pipe copper turned black. Is this bad?

[Ashraf Abir]

I live near a river and people here say that copper turns black because of the air. My laptop died recently after 5 years of use and when i opened it, i saw the pipes turned black. Is this bad? Does it effect the cooling power of my laptop? Because i was planning to buy another laptop with 800$. But if this is an serious issue then i would not spend that much money for something that will have broken heat pipes in 2 years. Please help me out. Is this bad for the cooling system? I can't monitor the heat as my laptop is dead. As far as i know it only over heated because of dust. So am I risking my money if i get an expensive (for me at least) laptop? Help please. You can see the photos, almost all of it is black like burnt. Only a little area underneath still has the original color. 

[Ashraf Abir]

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6FP66p86zYlZHhxTUg1Nl9jNjA/view?usp=drivesdk

 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B6FP66p86zYlaEQ0aFRfMW93MEk/view?usp=drivesdk

[iamdarkyoshi]

Thats very weird and I've never seen it before. Looks like an HP 2000 heatsink with an AMD CPU.

 

Do you live in a humid area, like next to a beach?

[FAQBytes]

As far as I'm aware, that isn't normal. However, it shouldn't affect cooling performance.

 

Does anyone smoke in the household?

[Ashraf Abir]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

Thats very weird and I've never seen it before. Looks like an HP 2000 heatsink.

 

Do you live in a humid area, like next to a beach?

Yes....near a river. In bangladesh. Its in Asia. And the river is toxic in a way. And it is from HP laptop.

[bgibbz]

It might just be some kind of insulating paint, as I have seen heat pipes painted black before. 

[Ashraf Abir]

1 minute ago, FAQBytes said:

As far as I'm aware, that isn't normal. However, it shouldn't affect cooling performance.

 

Does anyone smoke in the household?

No smokers. But i live near a river that is infamous for toxic waste dumping. Maybe high rate of Sulphur.

[Ryujin2003]

From where I grew up, I'd say yes it "can" be normal. I grew up with sulfur in our well water. This caused pretty much all metal to corrode, and yes, the bottoms of our copper pots would turn black. It's part of corrosion/oxidation depending on the chemical make up of your river.

[FAQBytes]

Just now, Ashraf Abir said:

Yes....near a river. In bangladesh. Its in Asia. And the river is toxic in a way. And it is from HP laptop.

It may just be the copper oxidizing into cupric oxide in that instance.

Black oxide for copper, sometimes known by the trade name Ebonol C, converts the copper surface to cupric oxide. For the process to work the surface has to have at least 65% copper; for copper surfaces that have less than 90% copper it must first be pretreated with an activating treatment. The finished coating is chemically stable and very adherent. It is stable up to 400 °F (204 °C); above this temperature the coating degrades due to oxidation of the base copper. To increase corrosion resistance, the surface may be oiled, lacquered, or waxed. It is also used as a pre-treatment for painting or enamelling. The surface finish is usually satin, but it can be turned glossy by coating in a clear high-gloss enamel.^[10]

On a microscopic scale dendrites form on the surface finish, which trap light and increase absorptivity. Because of this property the coating is used in aerospace, microscopy and other optical applications to minimise light reflection.^[10]

In printed circuit boards, the use of black oxide provides better adhesion for the fiberglass laminate layers.^[11] The PCB is dipped in a bath containing hydroxide, hypochlorite, and cuprate, which becomes depleted in all three components. This indicates that the black copper oxide comes partially from the cuprate and partially from the PCB copper circuitry. Under microscopic examination, there is no copper(I) oxide layer.

An applicable U.S. military specification is MIL-F-495E.^[12]

Still should not affect cooling performance to any significant degree.

 

[Ashraf Abir]

1 minute ago, bgibbz said:

It might just be some kind of insulating paint, as I have seen heat pipes painted black before. 

This isn't paint. It was copper color. I have seen it. You can see the image in the comments. It still has a bit of original color left.

[iamdarkyoshi]

1 minute ago, Ashraf Abir said:

Yes....near a river. In bangladesh. Its in Asia. And the river is toxic in a way. And it is from HP laptop.

That MIGHT have caused the weird color but I doubt that it was the cause of the failure. If you spend a fair bit on a laptop and it ends up doing this, get it replaced under warranty.

[Ashraf Abir]

1 minute ago, Ryujin2003 said:

From where I grew up, I'd say yes it "can" be normal. I grew up with sulfur in our well water. This caused pretty much all metal to corrode, and yes, the bottoms of our copper pots would turn black. It's part of corrosion/oxidation depending on the chemical make up of your river.

Is this bad? For the laptop?

[bgibbz]

Just now, Ashraf Abir said:

Is this bad? For the laptop?

Doubt it. It would just be the surface layer, which wouldn't effect the thermal properties to any significant degree. 

[Ryujin2003]

Just now, Ashraf Abir said:

Is this bad? For the laptop?

Not on the heatpipes. The outside is only affected, the internals should still be fine. It should still transfer heat to the fins. That's the part you don't want to corrode, as that part would most definitely affect cooling performance.

 

However, if the heatpipes corroded, its very likely that other circuits on the MB could have corroded as well, causing issues.

[Ashraf Abir]

Just now, bgibbz said:

Doubt it. It would just be the surface layer, which wouldn't effect the thermal properties to any significant degree. 

Thank you. I am really worried. I saved up some money and was planning to buy a new laptop. But this thing got me worried. Dont wanna waste all that money

[iamdarkyoshi]

2 minutes ago, Ashraf Abir said:

Thank you. I am really worried. I saved up some money and was planning to buy a new laptop. But this thing got me worried. Dont wanna waste all that money

Try scrubbing the whole motherboard in rubbing alcohol and using a jet of air like a hairdryer to dry it, see if it comes back to life.

[FAQBytes]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

Try scrubbing the whole motherboard in rubbing alcohol and using a jet of air like a hairdryer to dry it, see if it comes back to life.

If doing this, be sure to have it grounded.

[iamdarkyoshi]

Just now, FAQBytes said:

If doing this, be sure to have it grounded.

Sounds like the local humidity would have static electricity under control.

 

I've gotten roach infested laptops working just by washing them like a dish in the sink

[FAQBytes]

Just now, iamdarkyoshi said:

Sounds like the local humidity would have static electricity under control.

 

I've gotten roach infested laptops working just by washing them like a dish in the sink

True, but hearing "Blast it with a hair drier" kinda gets the EE in me to cringe. I know people who have killed Quadros by blowing them out without grounding them.