Spilt my drink in my laptop. Advice?

lundyjb

I before i got to turning it off right after i spilt the drink, the fan seemed to boost up to the highest speed in the laptop. Then i took out the battery and havent done anything else. I was just wondering how exactly water ruins a laptop, considering the water will eventually evaporate, right? Is there still hope?

Mordred

Provided you reemoved all power fast enough there is still hope keep all power removed dry out the laptop. Liquid damage unless it shorts a circuit does not necessarily damage a circuit board right away. if it shorted you should smell a sweet smell. If it didn't then drying it out may work

jedishrfu

Sometimes it rusts things. Its good it wasnt pool water with chlorine that how a lot of people lose cell phones.

http://www.popularmechanics.com/tech...o/tips/4269047

I once dropped a soda into my terminal keyboard which is bad but worse is I picked it up to dump out the soda and the soda then got to drip down the shaft of some keys. The end result was a bunch of perpetually sticky keys rendering it unusable

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology...lled-on-laptop

My spill occurred because my drink was next the the keyboard and when I went to answer the phone and standup at the same time the phone cord snapped straight, hit the drink and puff the keyboard got soaked.

jim hardy

try a rinse with distilled water - after removing the battery.

Then dry it in a warm place overnight.

good luck.

Mordred

Actually I would recommend isopropynal alcohol. Most laptops have removable keys that you can pop. Temove the keys. Underneath you will see a row columm strip with graphite pads take the alcohol and pour a bit on a lint free cloth. Clean the pafs and remove any coffee film liquid.

dlgoff

Use good hot soapy water and get the board & components warm/~hot (hot components evaporate the water faster) followed by jim hardy's distilled water rinse (don't wont to leave conductive impurities) then set aside to dry.

OCR

You probably meant isopropyl alcohol, right?...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isopropyl_alcohol


OCR

Mordred

Yeah thats the one lol

skeptic2

I once spilled a Pepsi on a keyboard. I immediately grabbed it and put it under the cold water tap in the bathtub. After thoroughly washing it for about 10 minutes I washed it with distilled water. A couple of days later when I thought it was totally dry, I tried it. It didn't work and it never worked again. Good luck. Maybe one of the other solutions will work.

jedishrfu

So how did the OP Lundyjp make out? Did the computer survive our advice?

sophiecentaur

It's always a good idea to remove the battery from any device that gets a soaking, asap.

anorlunda

Some keyboards have a moisture barrier that can prevent water from penetrating to the rest of the circuitry. For example, my Samsung notebook has such a barrier and it has survived splashes of salt water. Their protection against spills is not absolute, but better than no barrier.

Look for such a barrier the next time you shop for a computer.

lundyjb

Hey sorry just looked at the thread again. My laptop is working perfectly fine now. I just pulled out the motherboard(where i expected the most liquid to be) and i wiped it down with alcohol and a microfiber cloth. I saw an area that had a little more dried soda so i gave it a little extra cleaning. Everything's perfect now. Thanks guys

turbo

For those who have not had much PC experience, please understand that spilling liquids on a keyboard is not a disaster. Rinse the KB thoroughly and let it dry and it will be fine. Spilling liquids on a laptop can be a real problem, because there is a lot of circuitry under that keyboard, and you can't just flush everything with warm water and expect it all to work out.

When I was the IT guy for a large ophthalmic practice, I would scold the clerks/secretaries when they would spill coffee/soda etc on their keyboards. I could easily rinse them off and dry them, but I would punish them by giving them a replacement keyboard that they would dislike. "No beverages on the desk" predated me, but it was widely ignored.

Mordred

Glad everything worked out.