Of course, the easiest way to avoid this problem is to simply keep liquids away from our computers, especially laptops that are more easily damaged.  Lets face it though, we all grow a little lazy after a while when it comes to keeping liquids at a great distance, myself included, and that glass of water, or can of soda slowly creeps its way closer and closer to our beloved laptop.

You’re in luck, though, as most spill situations are solvable.  However, a few initial steps need to happen to lessen the chance of permanent damage:

1. Force shut down the computer by holding the power button until it turns off.
2. If the system is a laptop, remove the battery so that power no longer can go to the system at all
3. Bring the system into a repair shop that is comfortable with liquid spill cleanups.

In most situations, the liquid itself does not cause any damage.  However, especially with liquids that have sugars in them like juice or soda, the sugar can crystallize and create corrosion on the system, which can cause conductive bridges between the small components on the boards inside the computer, which can then cause a short, or can burn components when the power is restored.

If the system is properly cleaned before this is able to happen, then you can save your system from what would seem to be certain doom.  If you cannot, most of the time the damage to the system board is unrepairable (or at least not within a reasonable budget to repair) and would result in a need to replace a very expensive component.  Upon reaching this point, you can have your hard drive removed to recover data, and move into a new system.

There are typically four main components that help to display video on your laptop. The motherboards video output, the LCD ribbon cable (attaches the LCD to the motherboard), the inverter board (inverts DC power to AC power), and the LCD itself.

Here are a list of some common problems that can be associated to each of these components. Keep in mind, the same issue can be caused by different components, and the only way to test these is to work with some known working components.

Motherboard: Artifacted images (can be duplicated by plugging in an external monitor), no display, no backlight, wrong colors in the screen, shifted image, fuzzy image. — Some of these issues can be resolved by simply updating video drivers.

LCD Ribbon Cable: Distorted image ( can be partially remedied by moving the screen around), flashing connection, no backlight.

Inverter Board: No backlight, red hue in image.

LCD Display: No display, no backlight, red hue in image, flashing connection, distorted image, shifted screen.

Use some of these guidelines to help discover the source of your issue. Of course, the easiest way to determine the source of display issues would be to bring your system in to ITZ Solved for a free diagnostic.

The DC Jack, by definition, is an electrical connection that supplies power to the laptop.  This is the connection physically inside of your laptop, and often times will start to fail from use.  Sometimes this can be caused by the connection itself being broken, or possibly the solder that holds it in place is cracking, even the plastic mold that holds the jack in place can be breaking!

Now the primary issue with DC jacks is that they are typically difficult to fix or replace, which will cause most establishments to want to sell you a whole new motherboard.  Never fear though!  This is a fixable problem, and most of the time atleast half the price of a new motherboard, and even less than a new computer.

The process requires complete disassembly of the laptop and removing the motherboard (note: not all DC jacks are directly on the motherboard!).  After this is done, the old DC jack needs to be desoldered from the board, and a new jack soldered in its place.  I typically like to test the jack first with the laptops power cable and a multimeter, and run the same test again when complete to make sure the new jack is making a good connection.  If all is well, reassemble the computer and retest.