Thanks for the entertaining story. Enjoy your good fortune.

"wtrplnet" <wd12@YOUKNOWTHEDRILLexcite.com> wrote in message
news:47cbfeea$0$1104$4c368faf@roadrunner.com...
> HP Pavilion dv9220
>
> After a full year of intensive use as a replacement for a desktop I decide
> to give the poor thing a break. I get a new PC.
>
> I visit my nephew who has a disc with pics I need. I insert the disc in
> the HP, open Win Explore and attempt to read the disc. Suddenly the
> screen goes black, no blue screen, no sounds, no nothing. The start
> button does nothing. Blue glow at the power connection as normal. Try
> using the mostly charged battery. Nothing. No sound, no boot, no blue
> color behind the shortcut keys at the top of the keyboard as normal. I
> admire my shiny new doorstop.
>
> Take it home, plug it in, fiddle around with no better results. Decide to
> let it sit there with the battery in, plugged in, and maybe charge. It
> sits there, silently, doing nothing, as expected.
>
> Suddenly (what else?) I hear a 'snapping' sound from the direction of the
> laptop. I look at it and notice blue sparks (!) coming from under the
> middle of the keyboard. Using my years of experience in this kind of
> thing the first thing that flashes through my mind is "this isn't good."
> I unplug the unit. I continue to admire my shiny (and now dangerous) new
> doorstop.
>
> With nothing to lose (expired warranty) I decide to locate that HP manual
> shortcut I archived long ago. Surprisingly, I actually find it! I do
> have some experience with electronic equipment, mostly in coin operated
> arcade equipment, and in my many years of experience I learned that
> sparking was usually a sign of something bad happening with electronic
> circuitry. So, I decide to remove the keyboard and see just how many
> crispy resistors, transistors, board traces, etc. I can find. Don't know
> exactly what I will do when I find the burned parts, but I'm sure they're
> there.
>
> I remove the keyboard and the first thing I do is turn it over and inspect
> the bottom. Sure enough, on the clear plastic barrier sheet there is some
> 'smoky' looking residue right in the middle, as expected. I look at the
> now exposed chassis of the laptop and notice there are only a few small
> openings in it exposing the assorted parts inside. There IS a board under
> the small rectangular opening in the chassis. I inspect, expecting to
> find *something* burned. What I find is -nothing unusual. No burns, no
> crispy critter smell, nothing. Well, SOMETHING burned! Sparks don't
> appear out of nowhere.
>
> So, I do the only things I can do. I reseat anything that can be
> reseated, I use compressed air (hot breath, attempting not to spit on it)
> to clear any microscopic debris, and then brush any accessible surfaces
> with a soft brush. I notice nothing loose, no debris, no bit of errant
> solder, no dust bunnies, no rodent droppings, no spiders, not even any
> Cheeto crumbs or cat hairs. (Now the last IS surprising, my apartment has
> cat hair EVERYWHERE, despite my best efforts to keep it under control.)
>
> So, to make a long story even more boring than you imagined possible, I
> buttoned the thing up, plugged it in (while shielding my eyes) and waited
> for the expected small explosion, or at least an interesting light show.
>
> Nothing.
>
> I push the power button, it starts as if nothing had ever happened. It's
> worked perfectly for three months now.
>
> All I can imagine is that some kind of conductive debris shorted
> *something* and when I fiddled around inside I dislodged it. What is
> surprising about the incident is that the short was bad enough to cause
> sparking, and yet nothing got cooked.
>
> Anyone else have this kind of experience with a laptop?
>
> Alan
>
>