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Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 10:09 am
by matthijs
I'm trying to recover the data from an Asus laptop harddisk. Man, the inside of that thing is something else then the last notebook I opened (macbook). Layer after layer of stuff. I started by trying to keep track of which screws belong were, but I'm afraid I'm long past the point of no return. I have so many loose parts laying around here and about 50 small screws (and counting), the chance of being able to put it back together without ending up with spare parts is getting smaller by the minute :)

The notebook should still work, I think it was a software problem why it didn't work, so maybe I'll give it a try to put it back together. Nice puzzle for a bored Sunday afternoon maybe ... :)

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 10:54 am
by papa
Well, you'll get a less weighing laptop m8... ;)

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:32 pm
by Chris Corbyn
I got pushed into a saltwater swimming pool on Christmas Day with my month-old iPhone in my pocket. Needless to say it died and has never come back to life, so I bought a new one (and took out insurance on that new one!).

Anyway, I opened up my old iPhone for a nosey (no scratches or anything since you use a rubber suction pad) and hmm... yeah, they're pretty fiddly!

On the subject of water damaged iPhones. Anyone know anywhere that might want it? I know it's been under water 'n' all, but I dried it out fast and I'm sure most of the chips are still ok. If you know what you're doing (i.e. you're an iPhone engineer) you can probably replace the burnt-out chips and flash the memory and voila, a working iPhone.

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 4:52 pm
by Benjamin
I'm thinking that you should wash it using clean, filtered water, let it dry and see if it comes back to life. I've seen electronics start working again, but I don't know about an iPhone. It might be toast.

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:43 pm
by Chris Corbyn
astions wrote:I'm thinking that you should wash it using clean, filtered water, let it dry and see if it comes back to life. I've seen electronics start working again, but I don't know about an iPhone. It might be toast.
I could give it a go. It was in saltwater so almost certainly it's toast. Chips inside it would have shorted within milliseconds. I could do more harm than good by washing it in even more water though (you can't get the battery out of an iPhone).

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:47 pm
by Benjamin
Would love to hear from Apple on this, maybe someone should call them and get one of the engineers on the phone.

But as far as the ASUS thing goes, nothing like a good puzzle to keep you occupied:)

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:52 pm
by JAB Creations
Chris Corbyn wrote:On the subject of water damaged iPhones. Anyone know anywhere that might want it? I know it's been under water 'n' all, but I dried it out fast and I'm sure most of the chips are still ok. If you know what you're doing (i.e. you're an iPhone engineer) you can probably replace the burnt-out chips and flash the memory and voila, a working iPhone.
Chris, my 16GB Corsair USB flash drive took a trip through both the washer and drier and it still works! I was absolutely horrified to realize that it was in the dryer! Luckily it still works and I've since kept it in my room. I originally bought it as a backup that was not connected to the electrical grid (Florida being the lightening capitol of the world and all) even on top of somewhat frequent DVD backups and two RAID 1's. Maybe if the washer broke it the dryer fixed it! :mrgreen:

PS - I hate ASUS!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLlIp1EBkn0

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 5:55 pm
by Chris Corbyn
JAB Creations wrote:
Chris Corbyn wrote:On the subject of water damaged iPhones. Anyone know anywhere that might want it? I know it's been under water 'n' all, but I dried it out fast and I'm sure most of the chips are still ok. If you know what you're doing (i.e. you're an iPhone engineer) you can probably replace the burnt-out chips and flash the memory and voila, a working iPhone.
Chris, my 16GB Corsair USB flash drive took a trip through both the washer and drier and it still works! I was absolutely horrified to realize that it was in the dryer! Luckily it still works and I've since kept it in my room. I originally bought it as a backup that was not connected to the electrical grid (Florida being the lightening capitol of the world and all) even on top of somewhat frequent DVD backups and two RAID 1's. Maybe if the washer broke it the dryer fixed it! :mrgreen:
Flash drives are a bit different. An iPhone would (probably) survive a trip through water if it didn't have any power source connected. The reason it's bad to drop a mobile phone (especially an iPhone) into water (especially saltwater) is because the water interferes with the electricity and causes a massive power surge through all the components, blowing them out.

A flash drive on the other hand... well, there's nothing that's going to cause a power surge. Metal + water = fine (minus some potential rust issues). Electricity + water = Bad.

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Mon Jan 12, 2009 6:33 pm
by jayshields
I don't think a hard disk (not solid state) would survive a dip in any type of water whether it had power to it or not. On a side note, I've dropped normal phones (turned on) into water a few times and they've been fine.

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 1:55 am
by matthijs
A friend of mine also had her iPhone in the water. She jumped off a high bridge or something. Mid-air she realized she still had her iPhone in her pocket. That must have been a scary moment ... 8O

By the way, I managed to put back together the notebook. There's only about 15 screws left that probably should have been inserted some where ....
and I'm not sure yet if it still works.

Maybe I should check to see if Asus has a recycling program. I don't want my notebook ending up in India were people manually dissemble the chip boards for its metals, in a very unhealthy way (using a coal to heat up the motherboard, melting the connections to remove the components).

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:01 am
by papa
matthijs wrote:A friend of mine also had her iPhone in the water. She jumped off a high bridge or something. Mid-air she realized she still had her iPhone in her pocket. That must have been a scary moment ... 8O
I would be more scared of jumping of the bridge then my Iphone getting wet though... ;)

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 2:21 am
by matthijs
By the way, does anybody know if I can connect an 2.5" notebook harddisk with an old connection (ATA or IDE it's called I think, the wide one with all the pins), to the connections of a desktop machine? The desktop has the same cable connectors, but it currently has two big harddisks in it, which have both the IDE connector and power connector connected. The smaller 2.5" HD does not have the power connector.

Re: Inside Asus

Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 3:08 am
by Chris Corbyn
matthijs wrote:By the way, does anybody know if I can connect an 2.5" notebook harddisk with an old connection (ATA or IDE it's called I think, the wide one with all the pins), to the connections of a desktop machine? The desktop has the same cable connectors, but it currently has two big harddisks in it, which have both the IDE connector and power connector connected. The smaller 2.5" HD does not have the power connector.
You can buy caddies for them yeah. Just get a firewire or USB enclosure for a 2.5" drive :)