Any computer guys here?

[ck80]

So, I'll make a long story short. Apparently the wife managed to spill italian salad dressing onto the BACK/BOTTOM of one of the laptops while eating in bed???

Second part of the equation is that she allowed it to do a windows 10 upgrade at some point as well... (which plays in below)

For what it matters it's an acer e5 model.

It turns on (at least the blue light comes on) but the screen stays dark. I tried playing with the function+brightness buttons... no luck.

I tried running a HDMI from the laptop port to the tv, and then pressing the function+screen switch button. - I think it was f5

Anyways, I mentioned the windows 10 thing since I've heard it interferes with the secondary display functionality sometimes in some online articles?

Does anyone have any cheap, and more importantly, quick, ideas on how to get at the files on that hard drive? There's some stuff in there from a couple years ago that, as luck would have it, I just now happen to need right after she did that...

 

[TURNA]

if you can reload windows 7 on it from a USB flash drive.......... you can get them cheap on ebay

Just reuse your product key on the windows sticker on the bottom of the laptop when you are prompted to do so

if that don't work take off the back cover a see how much dressing got into it try to clean it with 91% alcohol on q-tips

when you turn it on do u smell the dressing "cooking"?

 

[axisg]

the simplest thing I find is to pull the HD and use an enclosure. Once the laptop HD is in the enclosure you can plug it into another PC via the usb cable and get access to the files. Tech friend showed me that many moons ago when they came across password protected PC's when an employee had left the company and figured they locked their PC. Pull the HD, pop it in the enclosure and you get access to the files you want to copy, reformat and start again if you want.
There is another trick using a Linux bootable CD to fire up your PC then plug in the enclosure with the infected HD if somehow you cannot get past the password but that would bring me to nerd level 3 which I have not yet acheived

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=14&language=en

 

[ck80]

if you can reload windows 7 on it from a USB flash drive.......... you can get them cheap on ebay

Just reuse your product key on the windows sticker on the bottom of the laptop when you are prompted to do so

if that don't work take off the back cover a see how much dressing got into it try to clean it with 91% alcohol on q-tips

when you turn it on do u smell the dressing "cooking"?

She basically did everything wrong she could. She kept it upside down to wipe off what was outside, but then LEFT it that way thinking it would "dry"... instead encouraging the film of oil to seep deeper.

The two things I did were pull the battery (oil seepage onto it from inside) and then after that, pull the screws and look at the upper side of the internals under the keyboard (pretty much dry).

I only ran it a couple minutes at any time, and nothing smelled like it was burning off.

I can't see anything on a screen is the issue, so loading an earlier windows 7 back in is a no go since I can't see what's going on.

Actually, I can't even tell if I'm inputting her password properly. I wait a short bit to make sure the loading screen should've passed, hit ESC to (hopefully) bring up the password prompt, and try using her password in case it needed a login in order to do the switch screen... no avail.

the simplest thing I find is to pull the HD and use an enclosure. Once the laptop HD is in the enclosure you can plug it into another PC via the usb cable and get access to the files. Tech friend showed me that many moons ago when they came across password protected PC's when an employee had left the company and figured they locked their PC. Pull the HD, pop it in the enclosure and you get access to the files you want to copy, reformat and start again if you want.
There is another trick using a Linux bootable CD to fire up your PC then plug in the enclosure with the infected HD if somehow you cannot get past the password but that would bring me to nerd level 3 which I have not yet acheived

http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?cPath=14&language=en

Enclosure might have to be the ticket... I'd hope for something less invasive, but, gotta do what I gotta do.

I did decide I'm not getting her another one anytime soon, let this lesson sink in a bit...

 

[axisg]

We had 3 Acer pcs at work over the years. Eventually all 3 had ribbon failures making the screen do funny things and cost more to fix than replace. I use one for a TV pig now via the HDMI port out to a TV with a remote keyboard to gain access to the last one that still works because the screen is completely fooked.
Enclosure is not invasive, it just removes the HD from the infected computer and by connecting it to another PC via USB you bypass whatever Operating System is on it to gain access to the files within. Messing around with loading earlier software or system restore will likely do more damage than harm by messing with the software when its likely a hardware issue at this point.

Probably start shopping for a new laptop and you can load all the old stuffs from the enclosure to the new pc. Keep the HD as personally I use an enclosure as a Backup to the Backup using old hard drives I have kept over the years. Typically once a year, around xmas I just back up all the pics and stuff from all the household PC's and laptops to an old HD in an enclosure. Mark the year on it and toss the HD in the cabinet at work in the event of a total loss if there is a flood or fire at home.

 

[ssn696]

Try something like this. All of these ship from China.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Order=BESTMATCH&Description=SATA/PATA/IDE+Drive+to+USB+Adapter+&N=100006519&isNodeId=1
You pull the drive and plug it into this adapter that then goes into another computer (after that one has already booted up.) If you need more advice on how to drive around the folder structure to find what you want to save, let us know.

 

[ck80]

So something like this may be the ticket?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00FDLCTQO/?tag=gbody-20

In many ways I hate the Internet era... 20 years ago, if it was something you wanted, there'd be some kind of mom and pop store, if not a chain, that you could go out and get it.

Now you need or order it without seeing in person, wait a couple days for it to show up... unless you get lucky and it's one of the few "next day" items out there...

 

[TURNA]

She basically did everything wrong she could. She kept it upside down to wipe off what was outside, but then LEFT it that way thinking it would "dry"... instead encouraging the film of oil to seep deeper.

The two things I did were pull the battery (oil seepage onto it from inside) and then after that, pull the screws and look at the upper side of the internals under the keyboard (pretty much dry).

I only ran it a couple minutes at any time, and nothing smelled like it was burning off.

I can't see anything on a screen is the issue, so loading an earlier windows 7 back in is a no go since I can't see what's going on.

Actually, I can't even tell if I'm inputting her password properly. I wait a short bit to make sure the loading screen should've passed, hit ESC to (hopefully) bring up the password prompt, and try using her password in case it needed a login in order to do the switch screen... no avail.

If you want to save the files then yes pop out the HD and put it in to another PC all you need is a empty power plug off your power supply and an open SATA cable port.

If you have to buy the stuff to do it, any PC repair place can retrieve your pics/documents for cheap

If you want to try and save the laptop get the flashdrive with windows 7

 

[1979Calais]

Most likely the video chip on the motherboard is fried.

 

[axisg]

How did you make out with the salad-tossed laptop ?