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Need some tech help: Laptop display is doin' some weird shite

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Gareth

Gareth

Nothin' to see here
Ok Im in safemode atm.

Couple of minutes ago I picked up my dos bowl of water to refill... didnt realise there was still a little bit of water in the bowl... some splashed out and *minimal* amount of water landed on the corner of my laptop.

It really wasnt much and I wiped it off straight away and none landed on the keyboard or anything.

Ok, so the problem is my display keeps flashing on and off. Whilst flashing Im hearing that little sound you hear when you connect a USB device, and then I hear the sound when you disconnect a USB device. So the screen is blinking on then off again continually, with a 1-2sec gap between each state, and the USB sound.

So its definitely not the physical monitor itself because when it flashes off I can still use/see the mouse pointer. When I restart the computer the screen displays everything normally with no interceptions all the way up to my actual desktop being displayed, it then does its little on/off routine.

Also Im in safemode now and the screen is working fine.

So Im thinking its the graphics card because in safemode it seems to use a different display driver than the usual graphics card.

Any thoughts / ideas / help?

Ill owe for life. This is my only machine and the on/off blinking was sending me insane after only 5 mins.

Cheers.
 
Switch off immediately, remove the battery, and let the laptop dry out for at least 24 hours. If that doesn't work, get a PC repair tech to look at it. But definitely switch off now - water and electrics don't mix, and you could end up with a fried machine, or possibly even an electric shock. Also, when you're in safe mode, chances are your firewall and other security software are disabled, so that's also not a good idea.

Here are a couple of links that may help:

How to Clean Up Laptop Spills | eHow.com

Clean a Spill on a Laptop

Saving Your Laptop After a Spill

Hope it'll be OK - good luck.
 
Thanks Siani.

It really was a minuscule amount of water. Everything seems to be working fine. Im thinking it must be the physical connection of the graphics card.

Think Ill leave it off for a bit then open it up.
 
i have never heard the sound of a usb device being plugged in or being unplugged. is it a pc thing?
 
pixelsmith said:
i have never heard the sound of a usb device being plugged in or being unplugged. is it a pc thing?
Click to expand...

Yeah PC thing.

Mod can delete this thread now. I completely un-installed my graphics card drivers and then reinstalled them and now its fine.

Weird that a water hit would have a software effect. Im guessing it was an unrelated coincidence.
 
You didn't happen to do a Windows Update, by any chance, just before the display went nuts? WU has often pickled things on my machine, which I've then had to undo.
 
No. I rarely do WU's for that reason and others. I find them so annoying.

I certainly dont have it on auto-update like it defaults to.
 
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