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Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

X200/X201/X220 (including equivalent tablet models) and X300/X301 Series
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bonoz
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Location: Washington, DC

Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#1 Post by bonoz » Mon Apr 18, 2016 9:54 am

Hi guys,

I accidentally spilled some drops of water on my X220 tablet. It now won't even turn on. The battery icon does light up when you charge and the finger print reader also lights up.

Do you think I need to get a new motherboard? processor? or more?

I have data on a micro SATA hard drive and a solid state hard drive.

I'm tempted to just buy a used x220 tablet and just plug in the hard drives?

Please advise. How should I proceed? I have experience working on laptops so I can do fixes myself.

Thank you

RealBlackStuff
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Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#2 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Apr 18, 2016 10:50 am

Welcome to the forum.
If you haven't done so yet, take the whole machine apart and let it dry for at least 24 hours.
But if you didn't do so right away, it may be too late already.
Check everywhere if there is any corrosion.
It's easy enough to replace parts (mobo and/or keyboard) and would definitely be cheaper than buying a replacement.
Wait until you try your dried-out machine again before you decide.
BTW, CPU is soldered onto the mobo.
Used machines on eBay vary around ~$150-200 but you never really know about any issues they may have.
You can also try our Marketforum (there's an X230T there for sale).
Lovely day for a Guinness! (The Real Black Stuff)
Lenovo: X240, X250, T440p, T480, M900 Tiny.

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bonoz
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Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:34 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#3 Post by bonoz » Mon Apr 18, 2016 12:55 pm

RealBlackStuff wrote:Welcome to the forum.
If you haven't done so yet, take the whole machine apart and let it dry for at least 24 hours.
But if you didn't do so right away, it may be too late already.
Check everywhere if there is any corrosion.
It's easy enough to replace parts (mobo and/or keyboard) and would definitely be cheaper than buying a replacement.
Wait until you try your dried-out machine again before you decide.
BTW, CPU is soldered onto the mobo.
Used machines on eBay vary around ~$150-200 but you never really know about any issues they may have.
You can also try our Marketforum (there's an X230T there for sale).
I just feel like it's gone. The machine was powered on when the spill happened, and then it shut of. Then I stupidly didn't realize that all this could have happened due to the spill so I turned it back on. Thanks so much. Should I just get a new motherboard?

Thanks

nitrocaster
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Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#4 Post by nitrocaster » Mon Apr 18, 2016 1:03 pm

bonoz wrote:Should I just get a new motherboard?
You could try take it to repair shop - I'm sure it would cost less than a new MB.
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

bonoz
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:34 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#5 Post by bonoz » Mon Apr 18, 2016 1:25 pm

nitrocaster wrote:
bonoz wrote:Should I just get a new motherboard?
You could try take it to repair shop - I'm sure it would cost less than a new MB.
I can get a new motherboard for $120... I doubt a repair shop would be that cheap?

RealBlackStuff
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Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#6 Post by RealBlackStuff » Mon Apr 18, 2016 1:37 pm

What is the 7-char. TYPE on the label on the bottom of the laptop?
There are umpteen different mobos with different CPUs, on eBay there are some for about $70
If the wifi/hd/mSATA/RAM are not damaged you can transfer them.
One critical item might be the keyboard.
If you have other machines like T410/T510/T420/T520/W510/W520, their keyboards are an exact replacement.

brchan
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Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#7 Post by brchan » Mon Apr 18, 2016 2:12 pm

There aren't many repair shops that do component level repair. They would most likely just buy a new motherboard and install it. I can't imagine any repair shop doing this for just $120.

If the motherboard is the culprit, I would buy a new or used one and install it myself. You learn a lot in the process and save a lot of $$.
Current Thinkpads: W530 (functional classic keyboard mod), X301, T61, T60, T43, A31p, T23, 600X, 770
Other: mk5 Toughbook cf-19, mk1 Toughbook cf-53

jaspen-meyer
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Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#8 Post by jaspen-meyer » Tue Apr 19, 2016 12:55 am

I see machines on ebay for under $200.
Buying a machine is reasonable, of course it depends how you value your time.

Your data is unaffected by the motherboard dying.

The service manual for your machine is here:
http://www.thinkpads.com/support/hmm/hm ... 175_04.pdf
T420 i7 3612QM seabios; T420 i7 3630QM; T400 Q9100 seabios; T61 P9600; T60 libreboot; x62; x60s libreboot, led; x24 xiphmont led

nitrocaster
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Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#9 Post by nitrocaster » Wed Apr 20, 2016 5:52 am

If you have soldering skills, you could try fix it yourself. I expect that to be easy enough.
Want to buy X220/X230 FHD mod kit? Read this before sending me a PM!
T60 | X230 i7-3520M FHD Win10

bonoz
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Sep 15, 2011 5:34 pm
Location: Washington, DC

Re: Help! Water Damage! X220 Tablet

#10 Post by bonoz » Thu Apr 21, 2016 7:49 am

UPDATE! Fixed it. Rice worked for me. The only thing that doesn't work is the power button on the keyboard. The screen has a power button so I was able to use that. Thanks so much for the help everyone!

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