As the retired Director of Information Management for NASA’s Space Shuttle program’s prime contractor, I do know a little bit about computers. A few weeks ago, I was sitting in my recliner with my laptop on my lap. When I reached for my fresh cup of coffee and took a sip, I heard the unmistakable “snick” sound of my coffee cup’s ceramic handle separating from the cup. Time didn’t slow down at all as the 8 ounces of 192° liquid splashed into my lap. My lips did not delete the explicative that came forth from them.
20 minutes later I’d sopped up the mess, changed clothes, and was sitting at the kitchen table begging my laptop to boot normally. It wasn’t abiding. It would start then quit. Never even getting to the “Starting Windows” screen.
Using my wife’s laptop, I fired up a YouTube video on how to disassemble my Dell XPS, and with only a small Phillips screwdriver soon had the major components spread about the table in front of me. They were still wet. After a lot of wiping with lint-free microfiber rags dipped in denatured alcohol, those components were clean and dry.
The keyboard module was not designed to be disassembled. So, although I thought there might be some of Newman’s Special Blend still inside, I couldn’t get to it.
What I should have done is …
stopped right there and done the wet cell phone trick of putting it in a bag of rice for 48 hours.
Instead, I put it back together. My big problem came when I was trying to re-attach the 2nd ribbon (the small one that supplies the power for the backlighting) from the keyboard to the motherboard. I “fat-fingered” and broke the lock-down tab on the ribbon cable connector on the motherboard. And that ended the possibility of me being able to fix it myself. If my eyes and fingers had been 20 years younger, I might have considered trying to replace the connector on the motherboard – but there’s no way today…
I got it back together (without connecting the backlight power) and was able to boot to the login screen where the password field was immediately filled with “j’s” without my fingers even touching the keyboard.
Long story shortened – I used an external keyboard and was able to run a complete backup. While that was running, I researched replacement laptops. To get anything close to the i5 power and capacity of my XPS I’d have to spend close to $1,000, so I took it to Best Buy and handed it to the Geek Squad.
The minimum charge was $35 to send it off (no they don’t fix ‘em in-house at my Best Buy) to their repair facility and get it evaluated. During check-in when I described the issue, their system calculated it should cost no more than $131.07 (including the $35). Even the Geek had no idea how that figure was derived.
Keep in mind that If the rice thing had worked, and I hadn’t broken the connector, my cost would have been $0. And I could have replaced the keyboard myself for $44.95 (+S&H from Dell) – fat-fingering aside.
But since I had to have someone else fix it, and since it would cost at least $1,000 to replace it, I figured that even if the estimate was off by half that it would be cheaper to fix than replace. So off it went to the Geek Guys.
By the time I got home I’d received an email with a “click-here” that took me to GeekSquad.com and a page showing the status of my repair. Cool!
The Geek Squad “system” needs some work with their coordination of the store, the repair facility, and the website. The lack thereof did not bolster my confidence level relative to their technical capabilities.
Eventually, the technician doing the repair called me to say that they’d replaced the keyboard module and that it was working correctly… EXCEPT that the backlight feature wasn’t working because the connector on the motherboard was broken – AND – did I really need the backlight feature or could I do without it?
Hello!?! – I remained calm (this dude was operating on my baby – so don’t piss him off…). I said that yes, I needed the backlight, and that that detail was written on the repair order, including the fact that the connector was broken. I did NOT tell him that if I didn’t care about the backlight that I’d replaced the $45 keyboard myself. I really wanted to, but I kept my mouth shut. He said the cost would be a total of $150 to which I said, “Go for it!”.
A week later, my XPS is back in my lap and working just fine. The receipt says they charged $80 for the keyboard, $70 for labor, and $0 for the motherboard. (they replaced the whole motherboard rather than just one little connector – but didn’t charge anything for it?).
Lessons Learned
- Don’t pass anything over your laptop that might cause damage if it falls, breaks, spills, or otherwise comes in contact with it.
- If your electronic device gets wet – shut it off and pull the battery immediately. Wipe what you can and use the bag of rice method to try to dry it out.
- Keep your ACTIVATION KEYS where you can find them – whenever a (usually major) component is replaced the software might need to be reactivated. (Mine did; both the Windows OS and the MS Office)
- Keep your backups current. If my XPS had been really fried and replaced, without backups I’d have been screwed.
- Remember Murphy’s Law – if a catastrophe can happen, it will…sometime – and when it’s least convenient.
