neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

[JustJason]

what to do....

Neighbor knocked on my door yesterday, he needed help with his boat.

He bought a new trim pump on ebay, he installed it, it was not working.

He filled it up, but long story short, the trim fluid was recirculating between the up and down circuits instead of pressurizing the trim cylinder.

So I grabbed my laptop with all my service manuals on it, pulled the manual up for the trim pump, and he dissasembled the new pump to get into the manifold.

Again long story short. I was on 1 side of the garage while he was on another. For whatever reason he decided to take the trim ram and push down on it with all his body weight. ATF shot across the garage, covered me, covered my laptop keyboard, covered the screen etc.

Currently the laptop is working, i'm on it right now. But ATF is dripping out of the bottom still. The LCD is ruined because there is ATF behind it. He said last night "no worries, whatever it takes to get it fixed". He was not familiar with the brand name of it, and he wrote it down.

What I have is a durabook, it is basically 1 step down from a Panasonic toughbook. It is a rugged laptap. I need this thing, and use it daily. I think he got sticker shocked last night because now he wants to see if we can get this repaired. But at the same time I can't take the chance of this thing just dying.
Even though this laptop is 3 years old, how demanding should I be as far as demanding a comperable replacement? I hate for this to ruin our relationship as neighbors, as he is a good one. But he is a retiree and his funds are limited. He's looking at a $1500-$1800 mistake.

 

[tx1961whaler]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

The ebay buy it now price for a 3 year old toughbook is about $350-400.
He does not owe you a brand new laptop IMHO.

 

[JustJason]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Opinions will vary obviously. But 1 more thing to keep in mind is that I have 70+ gigabytes of data I need transfered over. Who takes care of that? That doesn't take care of itself. Some of it is backed up on to DVD's, maybe 50 of the 70. Right now i'm backing up the other 20GBs

The other thing is I work for myself. I use the laptop daily. I can not afford to be without it. If I broke it, I would be buying myself a new one, as I can't rely on someone elses used ebay junk.

The laptop was meticulously clean, when I use it out on boats, i wear latex gloves. It is completely configured, has all my software that I use. It has no junk/viruses anything of the sort. This isn't a piece of junk XYZ laptop, its a work machine.

 

[mcgyver210]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Since I am a business owner I can tell you people have a tendency to forget that most items especially laptops depreciate so remember you really are only entitled to the actual value after depreciation at time of the loss & IMO a friendship is worth much more than a LapTop.

As for repair it may cost more than the actual value to repair.

As for data if you really are dependent on your data you should be backing up regularly. I know I have 500 gb on my laptop & I backup regularly as I do new things.

I can't tell you how many times friends have accidentally damaged something of mine.

Good Luck

 

[ehenry]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Jason, you mentioned that the laptop is a "work machine". Does the laptop belong to you or does it belong to your employer? If it belongs to your employer they may have insurance to cover something like this. As for your data, backing it up and transfering it to a new machine falls squarely on you. An external hard drive is cheap and if I were you I'd purchase a one and get my data backed up or copied pronto before the ATF causes the machine to shoot craps completely.

I agree with Tx1961Whaler and Mcgyver210...your neighbor doesnt owe you a new laptop only what it's depreciated value is. You must assume some risk in taking it over to your neighbors shop to begin with.

 

[bruceb58]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Opinions will vary obviously. But 1 more thing to keep in mind is that I have 70+ gigabytes of data I need transfered over. Who takes care of that? That doesn't take care of itself. Some of it is backed up on to DVD's, maybe 50 of the 70. Right now i'm backing up the other 20GBs.

This is the easy part. Just transfer everything you want over to another computer or external hard drive.

 

[BuzzStPoint]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

I had a similar lesson..

Nice personal laptop I used for diagnostic work for cars.
Friend was over and dropped some car parts on the laptop.. Didn't tell me,

LCD was busted. I did go out and buy a new laptop.
But I now have a laptop I got for free, I fixed it and now use this for all my diagnostic work. If this one gets busted it's no big worry.

It sucks.
But there may be other ways around it.

Home owners insurance? See what is deductible is. perhaps he'll help pay for fixing/replacement of the laptop.. Hopefully the hard drive didn't get filled with ATF. If not, you can pull that out and transfer the data.

 

[xxxflhrci]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Sounds like at most he is responsible for about half of the price the going price of a used laptop.

 

[rbh]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Anyway you look at it, a puter in the shop/garage is just asking for trouble.
Yes you need them, but you know something, somehow is going to happen someday.

 

[Bounce19712]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

your data / hard drive can be removed and put in a similar laptop.

is atf conducive ?

wipe it up and press on....

if all your precious data is in one spot and not backed up you're running around with your pants at your ankles...

 

[642mx]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Sounds like at most he is responsible for about half of the price the going price of a used laptop.

I'll agree with this one.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Well if it was me, I would find a used replacement and take the hard drive out of yours and put it in the replacement, you should be able to find a nice use replacement for a reasonable price, then swap the drive into it..

 

[j_martin]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

ATF is not conductive. It will collect dust and eventually the dust will cause problems.

Quick fix, acquire another laptop with the same configuration. Using usb adapters and another computer, clone the hard drive to a fresh one. Put it in the "new" laptop, and go back to work.

Now back to the wet one. Disassemble it, wash the parts off with 99% isoproponal (available from computer centers in 1 quart cans), dry them off, and put it back together. If the vent on the hard drive (usually 1/8 inch or less) didn't get oil on it, you can probably put an electrical tape bandage over the vent and clean up the hard drive just like the rest. Just don't get any oil in the absolute filter. If it get's oiled, discard the disk, even if it seems to be fine. It won't be for long.

Probably a "new" used LCD is the only other part you should need. Maybe a keyboard if it can't be pulled apart enough to get the oil out.

Now you have a spare.

If you're going to run a computer for business, you need to have a recovery backup to reload the drivers and base system, and keep the machine backed up on a regular basis, preferably with rotating media. (week 1, week 2, etc) If I have an elaborate system, parts are so inexpensive compared to time these days that it's often worthwhile to maintain a clone of the main work system, so if the main one goes out, you can just grab the backup and keep working

hope it helps
John

 

[Go Aweigh2452]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Well if it was me, I would find a used replacement and take the hard drive out of yours and put it in the replacement, you should be able to find a nice use replacement for a reasonable price, then swap the drive into it..

+1

That would seem the best logic. I would have the computer shop do the swap out for you into another similar laptop. While they are at it, maybe swap out the hard drive for a bigger one. I did just that with the admirals laptop. Cost me $180 for the ghosting of the old 70 gig drive to the new 320 gig drive. That price included the new hard drive... not that expensive and you get a fresh OS install. I even decided to switch from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 for her laptop and it flies now...

 

[j_martin]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0k15XbrHXMA

 

[joed]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

I would take it to a shop for repair estimate. They might be able to repalce the screeen and wash out the inside. The HDD will be sealed so it should survive and could be removed and installed a new laptop if that is the route you take.
Seems like he is agreeable to the cost of repairs, "He said last night "no worries, whatever it takes to get it fixed".". Be resonable with him. If you don't feel he should pay the full cost let him know what it cost and what you feel he should pay.

 

[NoShy]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Why wouldn't he be entitled to a new laptop?

Had his not been ruined, he wouldn't have to replace it now. And only giving him half of what it's worth will limit him to buying a used one. No one wants someone else's headaches and that's pretty much what you get when you buy used, especially anything electronic.

Don't mean to be controversial, guys. I just don't understand why the neighbor wouldn't have to pay full price for a new one, plus data retrieval fees.

Linda

 

[avenger79]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

I would say back up your files as should have already been done if you really need them for work and your working in a garage.
i don't think you'll get the answer you want here. he doesn't owe you the newest latest greatest machine because he spilled some fluid on a 3 year old machine that you brought out in the garage and left unattended. it stinks but it happens. it's never fun.
you could probably get away with rinsing most of the fluid off and let the machine dry thoroughly before turing it back on.

 

[JustJason]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Well this one is settled.

Before I tell you all what happened. Seems like none of you caught the type of laptop that I have.

What I have is a Durabook. They are like a toughbook. They are all custom built to order, they do not have them sitting on shelves. This isn't a Dell or HP or anything like that. They are specialty laptops that are rugged and sealed against water. This isn't something the geek at best buy can fix.

All of you that speak of value and depreciation. How do you value a laptop? How do you value a custom laptop that was custom built for me 3 years ago? There is no Kelly blue book for laptops. Ebay does not set market price on used laptops.

I called Durabook this morning. They are actually shutting down production on them for the holidays, and won't be back in production until Jan 4th. Durabook said they can look at mine.
They want 200 just to take a look at it. It does need an LCD, that I know. What other damage inside the unit is unknown unless it gets opened up. They said if I can get away with an LCD the 200 will cover the labor, and a new LCD runs another couple hundred bucks.

Long story short. My neighbor ordered me a new one this morning. I won't have it until the 2nd week of January. But I suppose this is still the best possible outcome. I will do all of the data transfereing, as I have some things on here that I don't want anybody to see. Once the older one is scrubbed clean to my satisfaction then my neighbor gets it, and it is his to do with as he wishes.
We had a good talk about it all. He feels terrible. He is a good neighbor, and I value him. And I was up front in telling him that before we talk about an outcome on how to deal with this laptop, that I don't want it to ruin our relationship as neighbors. He agreed.

I am surprised at you guys who think I should get some kind of depreciated value on this. If it happened to any of you, you would all want a new one. This isn't a car where I can just replace a fender if it gets dented.

 

[korygrandy]

Re: neighbor ruined my laptop.... what to do...

Just reading the OP I think the fair resolution would be to split the cost of the depriciated value of the laptop. It took 2 people for this accident to happen, you for bringing the laptop over and your neighbor for causing the mishap. Without either of the 2 elements the problem wouldn't exist so it appears you are both responsible and should accept that.

It's an unfortunate situation since you had good intentions. If it was me I would make the top priority maintaining the relationship I have with my neighbor, then I would put the laptop second to that.

Uncle Sam should be able to help you with your portion of the replacement cost if the laptop is used primarily for your business.