[NTLK] Water and newtons

From: Doug Parker (doug_at_ispinn.com)
Date: Tue Apr 20 2004 - 09:29:49 PDT


<emergency response voice>

Stay calm! Everything's going to be OK. ;-)

</erv>

As soon as possible, as a minimum, before you get a chance to crack
the case and strip the unit into its component parts, put the newt
on top of some electronic device that is very, very warm, to speed
up the process of slowly evaporating the water from inside the case.
Open the interconnect door. Remove the top cover. Pull out the
battery case. The idea is to open the unit up to the air as much as
possible.

Do you have card blanks in it? Pull out the blanks. Do you have PC
cards in it? If you flick the power switch and get no response, it's
hard to say if you'll risk losing data by removing the cards, and
it's questionable if risking losing that data is less or more
important than opening up an additional exhaust vent for the water
vapor to escape. Others may have some input on this. I personally
would risk the slight chance of hosing data to get the slots opened.

This evaporation process is not going to be very effiecient,
however, due to the enclosed casing, but it will still serve its
purpose as a temporary measure.

As soon as you can open the unit, do so, and again place the parts
on a non-conductive surface that is very, very warm. The warmth will
get into the areas where the water will want to collect due to
capillary action and will evaporate it away. Use a heat lamp if you
have one. Warm the unit. Don't heat it!

There may be some side effects from the minerals left after
evaporation, but it is what it is. We're trying to save the unit.
Leave the warmed parts exposed to the air for a long time. A day?
Two days? Whatever you can afford. The longer you wait, the more the
heat will evaporate the moisture away.

Though nothing like a Newton, my pager once did the
dunk-the-pager-in-the-WC dive (eeeuuu!). I opened the unit, took all
the separate parts and set them on a laser printer above the power
supply where it would be nicely warmed, and would also be exposed to
the printer's constant fan. I did that four about five or six
hours--I don't remember. Longer is better. The pager worked fine
when it was reassembled.

No doubt Newton designers expected this kind of thing to happen.
Although I can't promise you anything, I'm still confident that if
you act quickly enough and get the warming / drying process started
as quickly as possible, you'll not have any problem with yours.

Be brave. Have faith. Get screwdrivers. Get going! ;-) Go green. (Go
white.)

Doug Parker

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