A subscriber sent in an Alienware x17 R2 laptop recovered from a university e-waste program. Despite being in great condition, the laptop was dead, with the power button and battery unresponsive. Upon opening it and examining the motherboard, it was discovered that a college student’s attempt to clean and replace the thermal paste had gone wrong. The laptop used a gallium-based liquid metal thermal paste, which had spread everywhere, causing catastrophic damage by shorting out the motherboard. Repair was impossible; replacing the motherboard would cost over a thousand dollars.
If you need a repair, complete a service request form at partspeople.com
source
I spent many hours trying to fix this motherboard. I was able to get all the liquid metal cleaned off, but because it shorted out so many components, I was not able to find all the bad chips, which prevented the motherboard from starting. There was no burnt or obvious damage, and I tried every trick I knew, but ultimately, I had to give up. I can't fix them all.😑
If you have a Dell or Alienware laptop and live in the USA or Canada, you can fill out a service request form at partspeople.com and send it in.
Fried laptop.
Here we can do too with wd40 for electric
It's called E – Waste ! For a reason
The processor and gpu could be used as a replacement for another repair
Send me gift
Wait do all gaming laptops come with this liquid instead of a normal thermal paste?
Ooooo laptop😮
Lesson learned take my laptop into a shop if it needs repairing cuz I have Liquid Metal too
Why the hell are you putting liquid metal on the laptop ! It's so stupid for a device that meant to be in carried to put liquid metal it's the most dangerous thing.
i would first see if my laptop has fkn liquid metal
Why do ppl buy alienware anyway go for a zephyrus or a razer or smtg
Whi the fuk throws away a laptop?
Convert it as a monitor
The screen should still be workable(?
Remove the screen and connect to another laptop to see if it works
Also, try the other parts of it
Blow heat air till gallium melts and try to remove it by sliding down along with blowing hot air and check if that works
I would wash the board best i can,take some measurements on cold for shorted cpu,gpu,ram,vram MOSFETs . If there's no shorted MOSFETs,i'll inject power and start measure some base voltages. From 3v3 rail,1.8v bios voltage.
It may got away with a dead power ic.
liquid metal my beloathed
LM cooling is great for putting way more CPU horsepower than you actually need in a laptop and turning what should be a one-hour repair/tune-up into an absolute mess.
Can be sonic cleaned to remove the liquid
Ide wipe it carefully
Hi. I have a Dell Inspiron 153000. My laptop is running very slow lately and I can't download the windows update. Whenever I try to it just give me error.
My Laptop have an i3 7020U
12 GB ram
Intel HD 620 Graphics card.
Please help me.
Wow what a waste, if only they did some research on his laptop
dip it in isopropyl alcohol and brush the liquid metal off of it , if no ddamage was done , no burnmarks visible it just might work
The dumbest thing I've ever seen was trying to repair a laptop yourself as they're not worth repairing. Doesn't need to be re-thermal pasted if it's less than 15 years old.
Bro quit acting like Salem Techsperts 😂😂 here in Austin Texas 😂😂 where your store is located
that one comes with an I9 12700h and a 3080. If you replace the motherboard ($1000) you can try to sell it by $1500, right? I mean, is a very good laptop
for as much as I like new tech and cool temps this is why I won't mess with liquid metal. I go into my PC to often for that to not be an unexpected consequence. I have zero idea how to clean it up and don't have any interest in learning other than as a preventative measure if a machine with it crosses my desk.
keep it
for monitor keyboard and cooling system
Freeze it got solidify the gallium then brush it off
3000 i would buy a gaming PC full set-up
Send it to the greatest technician that's ever lived 👍
❤😊
Beyond my skills… going to e-waste heaven…
I mean that laptop is going to be relevant for the next 3 years so I'll spend that 1k