Dell is claiming that I spilled something into my laptop and that's
why the motherboard shorted (and thus my system is not under
warranty). However, I didn't spill anything and there's no obvious
sign that I did.

Does anyone know of any web sites that feature digital pictures of
circut boards that show different sort of damage (including spills),
so, I can point out to the reps that spill residue _doesn't_ look like
my board?

I tried googling, but, I'm not coming up with anything (it could be
just obscure enough that I'm not using the correct search terms)...

Thank you in advance,

Gwen

Hi Gwen,

I'm sorry to hear about your problem. I went through exactly the same problem with HP about 18 months ago. I had to do a lot of
complaining before they gave me a supervisor to talk to. I ended up getting the work done because I had taken it in to CompUSA
to have it repaired (it was them who set the machine to HP. The CompUSA tech let HP know that when they diagnosed the machine
that it did power up and that if there was liquid damage that it occurred once the machine got to their shop. All together, it
took more than 5 weeks before I had a working machine again. Fortunately, I had my Compaq laptop and all I had to do was restore
my backup to the Compaq and I was up and running.

My suggestion to you is to be persistent and demand that you speak with a supervisor (note that you should speak to customer
support not technical support).

Ciao . . . C.Joseph

That which a man buys to cheaply . . .
He esteems to lightly

Gwen Morse wrote:

Gwen Morse wrote:
Spills are generally visible from the residue on the mainboard. If it
was a sugared spill, the sugar often leaves carbonized/caramelized
deposits on the solder joints where shorting occurs. Many times the
only problem is that the main fuse on the AC adapter has shorted. This
is easily checked with a VOM by measuring the resistance across the
fuse. These fuses are often a labeled on the board and might have a
label on the fuse "8A, 50C" or similar. The fuse can be rectangular in
shape, 6mm X 6mm X 12mm (0.25in X 0.25 in X 0.5 in), grey in color. If
the fuse is open (no resistance), a picofuse of the correct amperage can
be soldered across the ends. This is a $2 fix if there is no other
damage. The main fuse is very quick acting in order to protect the
other components on the board.

You would have to open the case and carefully inspect the board for
spill residue. Spills often cascade off the edges of the keyboard, so
look around the margins of the mainboard.

Q

"C.Joseph Drayton" <kalek1@mindspring.com> wrote in message news:<40c523bb$1_6@news.athenanews.com>...>
I will do that. Thank you for the suggestion. It's been more than 6
weeks, already. Luckily, I have two desktops (one at work and one at
home) that I can use. But, my Inspiron was sort of my computer "life"
so it's really hard to be without it.

The staff in the Out of Warranty dep't (which is the dep't claiming
it's a spill) insists that there is no supervisory chain of command
for me to go through. I will try Customer Support, instead.

I found one picture of a motherboard with spill damage (plain water
according to the poster):
http://www.complexnumber.net/pictures/Motherboard.jpg

That's NASTY looking .

Here's my motherboard:
http://www.hatrack.net/dell/DSCN1099.JPG

Here's another one with the drive taken out:
http://www.hatrack.net/dell/DSCN1069.JPG

The second one looks like a white/milky residue, but, that's 'shine'
from the flash on the camera. The first one shows that it looks more
like heat flash. But, in both cases there's no crusty stuff on the
green board.

The entirety of the claim is that this corrosion on the rail is spill
damage. No one cares to explain how a spill can defy gravity and
'only' travel along a rail (with holes in it) and not drip down
anywhere else.

Gwen