Dropped my baby in water

[hughlle]

Side story:
I spilled coffee on a new Vaio laptop in 2001. I called Sony and confessed immediately. They took note, asked me to send it in to a service center, and then called me after receiving it. They stated that because I told the truth, rather than be out $1,800, they would charge me $150 plus shipping to completely replace the device. That is when they told me about all the water damage indicators throughout the device, and how often they get customers denying that they were the cause.

Sony treated me very well. So did my concience.

So many people underestimate the value of honesty. My cat recently knocked a mug of coffee over my mothers laptop, kaput, local repair shops were asking almost £500 to repair it, so my father phoned John Lewis, and they said send it in, we'll see what can be done, we'll be in touch. About 2 weeks later it was completely repaired, all data still there, and didn't cost a penny. Same kind of thing happened with my partners iphone, years out of warranty, had bought it second hand, yet she went to the store, asked nicely and told the truth, and she got a brand new replacement when they had no reason to give her one. People value honesty, which in turn works to your advantage, which then will very likely make you a loyal customer, this is a good thing for the company

As said by others in this thread with regard to manufacturers knowing all the tricks, in any business, if a company realises you're trying to screw with them, you're not gonna have a good experience with them from there on out.

 

[vsherry]

I wish Best Buy were as kind as Sony.

 

[GreyFox7]

I wish Best Buy were as kind as Sony.

In 2001 they could both afford to be... probably much less so today

 

[mcsenerd]

I personally save every bag of desiccant that comes in all of the knick knacks that I've bought over the years. I keep them all in a large, sealed up zip lock bag away from curious children. I have done this for years on the off-case that some piece of electronics in my household winds up getting a little too attracted to the wet stuff. Well, my son dropped his iPod in...yep...the toilet not too long ago. It was actually still on and working even after pulling it out. I know not to shake any device or try to extract the water/liquid in any aggressive manner (this often just forces the water into smaller and smaller spaces in the device), so I immediately shut the iPod off. I took those little baggies and cut a ton of open, dumped em all inside a new, smaller ziplock bag, and in went the iPod. I then put the whole lot of em on the top of the refrigerator towards the rear (it stays warm there but not "hot"...all the time). 48 hours (yes...48 hours/2 days) later, the iPod comes out, I try to turn it on...and it powered up immediately and has been working flawlessly for months ever since. I'm not saying I've got some secret sauce here, but I think this entire process is based on sound reasoning. The desiccants are equally as effective or superior to rice for moisture absorption in most aspects and keeping the entire thing warm (but not HOT...as that reduces the effectiveness of most desiccants) and above room temperature encourages the absorption process. One other item I've heard folks using that I think might be a consideration is the gel based kitty litter...I guess the alternate effect there is that your device might smell a little "fresher" too

 

[vsherry]

I do now wish I had simply waited and just bought the i7 512GB version. I have now spent that much money on Surfaces.

 

[Markos]

Sorry to kick this old thread but I can buy a SP3 i7 512GB for only 75 euro. Downside however is that it got water damage. When it boots it does show this screen:

But it doesn't boot further, does this indicate the ssd will be broken? (Even though I think the ssd is the most water resistant part of the sp3) or what else could it be?
Beside a fried mainboard

I'm hoping to fix it with rice and/or some heating. And if that doesn't work try to remove the screen with suction cups and see what happened inside

 

[GreyFox7]

IMO 75 euro is too much for a paper weight and it's not big enough to use as a doorstop.

 

[Markos]

But if I'm able to make it work I will have a amazing cheap SP3 i7 8gb 512gb haha.
No but serious, I know I'll have to assume i won't get it working. But I do have some faith in the ssd to be oke, because as far as I know, these are (of course relatively) better water resistant then other hardware parts.
So if that screen means the ssd will most likely be broken, then I have to reconsider it again. But if it's not, and maybe there's even a way to check the drive. Then I might have a working 512 ssd for 50~75 euro. And a chance to try to open it (hopefully without cracking the screen with suction cups) and see what dmg is done underneath.

If I can get into that screen, its the bios screen right? I can check there if the ssd is recognized?

 

[GreyFox7]

There is very little you can do in the UEFI Bios. You would probably be better able to determine something by booting to a recovery drive and use the Advanced Recovery Tools or even booting to another recovery USB of some type.

 

[CrippsCorner]

I'd definitely give it a go for 75 Euros! Good luck

 

[GreyFox7]

I suppose you could always buy another one perhaps with a cracked screen and combine the two into one working unit *assuming* you can pull that off. either way... IDK if you can assume the SSD failed but if you have the skills, equipment and good luck a repair job would get you a nice bit of kit for not a lot of dough.

 

[Markos]

There are different types of warranty available for the SP(3)?
I have the serial number of the SP3 and when I check the warranty status I can only see this:

Technical support expired: 02/23/2015
Hardware warranty expires: 11/24/2016

Is there a way to see what is covered in this warranty?

This is the warranty description from the MS site:

Standard limited warranty coverage
With the standard limited warranty you get:

• 1 year of warranty for hardware defects and malfunctions.
• 90 days of technical support for preinstalled software from the experts at Microsoft Answer Desk for Surface.

Microsoft Complete
With Microsoft Complete, you get:

• 2 years of technical support from Answer Desk.
• An additional year of limited warranty coverage.
• Accidental damage protection—even from drops and spills.*

Does this means that the SP3 just has the standard limited warranty because otherwise both dates should be the same? (technical and hardware)
Or is there still the possibility the device has the warranty against drops and spills?