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I recently acquired a used (heavily) acer Aspire 4520. I believe that it was in a flood, but all the components look like they're physically intact. I don't know if it was completely submerged, or splashed, or what, except or a little of some unidentified substance (mold, odd rust, something). Anyways, when I press the on button it the power light flashes once and the computer powers off. The screen doesn't even turn on. I know the computer used to have Vista, and I'd really like to upgrade to Ubuntu, but I can't even turn the thing on! Has anyone had a similar problem? (And in return for the laptop I'm supposed to salvage their files off the HDD.) Thanks!

edit: Yes, I know the laptop sounds dead. I've read about other people having the same problem though (no helpful results though) so I'm hoping that maybe it isn't completely dead (as E recall, it was something with the nvidia graphics card) (integrated, unfortunately)

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I think you answered your own question. I would pull the hard drive and see what, if anything, is recoverable. – bodhi.zazen Dec 22 '11 at 0:31
My primary concern is to get the laptop working. I had already pulled the HDD, but I have no idea whatsoever how to connect a SATA drive as a slave to a laptop not from this side of the century (my own), as it doesn't have another SATA slot. – WindowsEscapist Dec 22 '11 at 0:47
You can buy a 2.5" USB enclosure that you stick the disk in. They're quite cheap so it's hardly a big loss of money even if it doesn't work. The rest of the laptop sounds dead though. – Oli♦ Dec 22 '11 at 1:03
Are those USB 1.1 compatible? (I have an old main computer) – WindowsEscapist Dec 22 '11 at 1:11
If you really want to try to resurrect the dead (machine) then take it to pieces and clean off any mold or dirt and make sure that all the connections are clean and not shorting across. Do not forget the keyboard and the power connectors. If it has a VGA socket try disconnecting the screen and connecting to a monitor. – grahammechanical Dec 22 '11 at 15:28
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closed as too localized by Jorge Castro, htorque, Takkat, Bruno Pereira♦, RolandiXor♦ Feb 4 '12 at 0:59

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