Lenovo Ideapad 330 Liquid Damage Repair
Today my ICT shopowner friend recieved a Lenovo laptop that was damaged 2 days ago by spilled water on top entering the keyboard and mainboard. The owner of this Lenovo ideapad 330 was immediately trying to remove the spilled water by holding the laptop upside down. And also tried to dry the laptop internally as good as possible with an ordinary hairdryer. Those efforts were in vain.
Sadly the problem with these very new laptop models is the internal battery pack that can’t easily be removed without opening the case (something that the EU government wants to change!). So this means that the harm done by spilling any liquid can be extensive because of short circuiting currents through those circuits that were affected by the liquid. Also the 2.5 inch hard disk can’t be removed without first opening the laptop.
And so when we received this Lenovo ideapad it already had problems that caused the laptop to make alarming sounds when it was switched on and the keyboard no longer worked.
We therefore immediately opened the laptop and first removed the battery pack.
Next photo shows the mainboard that had still some evidence of spilled water (yellow circle) but not enough to show any effects such as oxidation or corrosion.
Therefore we also needed to examine the bottom side of this mainboard. We removed the Fan, the Wifi antenna and the 4 screws with which the LCD screen and its hinges were attached. The entire board was easily removed by removing 3 smaller silvery screws and after all connectors were disconnected we could turn the board to view its other side. That would likely be the side where water would stay behind between mainboard and bottom of the case following Earth’s gravity.
And indeed there we noticed black corroded pins on a Lenovo chip where also some copper tracks were damaged by the spil. Next photos after the mainboard top photo clearly show what had happened in only a couple of days by just spilling some water in this laptop. Cleaning with alcohol only helped a bit to clean the black corroded pins. And some carefully scratching removed most of it.
But the pin that lost its copper track connection now clearly needed to be reconnected. And we use very thin 0.1 mm wire for this.
Next photo clearly shows what the combination of spoiled water and the previously still attached battery pack had caused to the now blackened pins of that Lenovo chip and the disappearance of at least one copper track. And after the wire connection was made I also glued the wire to the top of the Lenovo chip to ensure its stable connection with a drop of superglue.
Next photo shows the 0.1 mm wire that is connected to the Lenovo chip on the bottom side of the mainboard. And the result is shown on previous photo.
Next photos show the Lenovo ideapad 330 after the damage is fixed. And after a successful burnin test the laptop will be given back to its happy owner.
Following photo shows the Lenovo Boot screen.
The Lenovo is ready and shows today’s date and time. It was brought in today for repair and is good as new a couple of hours later!
After logging in the Windows screen is back!
The owner was very lucky that the damage still could be undone. And none of the other IC’s were affected. And the repair only took some special wire, the right tools and some alcohol, a drop of glue, plus some time to disassemble and reassemble the unit to fix the damage. And of course a steady hand to solder the 0.1 mm to the IC pin and the copper track. And last photo shows the Lenovo chip after the 0.1 mm wire was soldered to the IC pin.
Albert van Bemmelen, Weert, The Netherlands.
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Note: You can read his previous repair article in the below link:
https://jestineyong.com/asus-barebone-desktop-pc-repaired/
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Parasuraman S
March 21, 2019 at 10:07 pm
Excellent rescue operation! An easy fix only for professionals like you!
Albert van Bemmelen
March 22, 2019 at 4:20 am
I'm glad that even at my age my soldering techniques never let me down. Using a solder iron is to me much like writing with a pen. But since this is not a paying job it is not my profession in electronics at the moment. It always feels good helping out if we are needed for our skills! And it is like you know also the best way to stay up-to-date.
Robert Calk Jr.
March 22, 2019 at 7:19 am
Nice work, Albert! I like to use a fine curved soldering tip for jobs like that or for SMD soldering.
Albert van Bemmelen
March 22, 2019 at 11:03 am
Understood Robert, but I used the soldering station of my friend's shop. Sometimes I also bring my own special programmer or other tools with me from home (about 2-3 Km away) but his soldering iron does do the job just nicely.
beh
March 22, 2019 at 10:51 am
ALBERT
since everyone spend a lot of time behind the pcs and or lab tops for eating and drinking time there is no left more time that is why the liquids such as colas or coffees etc. are coming around the lab tops and pcs and spilling such liquids on the machines are probable at any time . but manufacturer must design future laptops with water prof specification . ALBERT well done you saved this machine from dump and you have to ask the owner a good reward
Albert van Bemmelen
March 22, 2019 at 5:08 pm
You are right of course BEH! Sadly the owners only get to find out the seriousness of the problem they caused after their expensive laptop no longer works. We know that liquids, even plain clean water, including moisture is danger for any electronic device!
Aditya
March 22, 2019 at 2:57 pm
I want ask if there is a possibility of adding ssd to this laptop?
Albert van Bemmelen
March 22, 2019 at 4:43 pm
I am sure Aditya that you can swap the internal standard 2.5 inch hdd in this laptop with an ssd hdd. Like it normally would be not a problem. But I do not think there would fit in 2 hdd drives if that is what you were asking?
Humberto
March 30, 2019 at 2:03 am
Hi Albert, great rescue.
ThandoSebeneleMavimbela
April 2, 2019 at 7:36 pm
I wanna say thanks for this knowledge
Yogesh Panchal
April 6, 2019 at 3:56 pm
Good Job! Albert
Nezzy
July 12, 2020 at 11:04 pm
I want my laptop to be fix it got water
Casper van der Stap
February 10, 2022 at 8:06 pm
Hi Albert, I have read your recepy for repair. I also tried to recover a Lenovo ideapd 330S with water damage. The HD was not starting anymore. After 4 months I tried again and now at least with an external keyboard, we could enter the laptop window again. The original keyboard is still not 100% ok. I can use some guidance if you please.