What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop? How to salvage your notebook

[rayzoredge 2]

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From one aspect, it's pretty amazing that you can save your ill-fated laptop from liquid death, but from another standpoint, it's common sense we don't usually think of when it happens. The article states to immediate pull out the battery and disconnect AC power as you tilt the laptop to the side with the most liquid to help drain it off of/from the laptop, take it apart, and clean the computer out (to include drying time) before finally assembling it back together to bring it back to life. What gets me is that they recommend you clean the components with tap water and rinse with distilled (or de-ionized) water... which is kind of a hokey concept at first glance (since we're so used to the idea of keeping water AWAY from our computers), but makes sense if you think about it.

Read the comments... and the horror stories. The amount of information about recovering from a disaster like this is valuable in case the situation happens to you.

I just recently restored a Dell Inspiron 1501 that my girlfriend consistently and stubbornly kept near a mug of fresh, hot coffee. Needless to say, there was a lot of spillage and one day, after incident #4, the laptop would suffer from irregular and random power downs. After taking the "piece of crap" Dell from her, I opened it up using Dell's awesome repository of laptop disassembly information and wiped down old coffee stains from the aluminum housing and wherever I could without touching the circuitry (since I actually did this before reading the above article). I cleaned out the dust, put everything back together, powered it up, and - yay - I had a 64-bit system in which to test Microsoft's new Windows 7 OS.

So if you spill something onto your laptop, just keep in mind that it's NOT always a done deal that your laptop is toast. Try salvaging it. What do you have to lose... a laptop?
Edited January 23, 2009 by rayzoredge (see edit history)

[Echo_of_thunder 1]

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From one aspect, it's pretty amazing that you can save your ill-fated laptop from liquid death, but from another standpoint, it's common sense we don't usually think of when it happens. The article states to immediate pull out the battery and disconnect AC power as you tilt the laptop to the side with the most liquid to help drain it off of/from the laptop, take it apart, and clean the computer out (to include drying time) before finally assembling it back together to bring it back to life. What gets me is that they recommend you clean the components with tap water and rinse with distilled (or de-ionized) water... which is kind of a hokey concept at first glance (since we're so used to the idea of keeping water AWAY from our computers), but makes sense if you think about it.

 

Read the comments... and the horror stories. The amount of information about recovering from a disaster like this is valuable in case the situation happens to you.

 

I just recently restored a Dell Inspiron 1501 that my girlfriend consistently and stubbornly kept near a mug of fresh, hot coffee. Needless to say, there was a lot of spillage and one day, after incident #4, the laptop would suffer from irregular and random power downs. After taking the "piece of crap" Dell from her, I opened it up using Dell's awesome repository of laptop disassembly information and wiped down old coffee stains from the aluminum housing and wherever I could without touching the circuitry (since I actually did this before reading the above article). I cleaned out the dust, put everything back together, powered it up, and - yay - I had a 64-bit system in which to test Microsoft's new Windows 7 OS.

 

So if you spill something onto your laptop, just keep in mind that it's a done deal that your laptop is toast. Try salvaging it. What do you have to lose... a laptop?

Been there done that and yes it is toasted. But it also depends on how much is spilled as well. also if you use a cover over your keypad. they come in very handy for that very reason. Sounds cheap but if you can not find a cover Ciran wrap works great too. I myself use it on my keyboard to help keep out any spilled and dirt dust.

[shadowx 0]

Taking the battery out is always the first thing to do if anything electrical gets wet. the only damage water can cause is a short circuit and the only time it can do that is if there is a power source, so by removing the power source you take away all danger of any ill affects. of course time is of the essence, those first 5 seconds could mean a short circuit straight from battery to CPU = dead computer! I spilt tea on my laptop, took the battery out and let it dry etc... i never took it apart though, i should have but i let it dry and used it and had a few sticky keys and few dead ones, was a pain as the "=" and "0" key didnt work, being a PHP programmer that hurt.... = became CTRL+V (paste )

[Parubilla 0]

It happened to my uncle, he spilled a glass of water in the keypad and it completely die... he had to buy a new one since you don't have any warranty against liquids..

[rayzoredge 2]

I have another success story to add, this time for my work laptop.I work off of a Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100. This thing, as old as it is, actually boots up faster than any of my personal machines... and it only boasts a Pentium 4 1.8GHz with 512MB of RAM. The wireless is dead in it, and the power board is infamously unable to utilize the battery as well as keep the CMOS battery in use, resulting in the system never being able to keep a system clock. (It always resets to midnight of 2000.)But enough about that.I did a minor spill of water from a bottle of water that I, for once, left haphazardly on the left side of the laptop. A swinging right elbow brought that disaster to life, and so I looked at the spill, looked at the LCD, then quickly unplugged the AC power adapter and removed the battery. I tilted it to the side, drained it, and out of curiosity, plugged it back in to see what would happen.The computer booted up into Windows, but the LCD was beginning to fritz out, displaying a screen-wide tint of magenta.I turned it back off, unplugged it, and called it a day at work.An hour and a half later, I proceeded to disassemble this thing, dried off what I could see, and put it back together. And as of right now, I'm still typing on it as if nothing happened a couple of days ago. I noticed that this laptop, as old as it is, actually has some plastic shields to cover the main board from any accidental spillage that leaks by the keyboard (which always takes the brunt of the spill). It's nice to know that there is some deterrent against liquid death, which gives me even more confidence that a lost fight with the morning coffee doesn't always end in despair.

[iGuest 3]

Whats really wrong now?What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?Good people of the world, I recently spilled (not intentionally) cider on my 2 months old Packard Bell Easynote ALP Atax A. I disconnected the battery with emmidiate effect and used my sister's hair drier to blow off liquid grom hell, After blewing it , I then hopefuly turned it on, and to my disbelief it turn on and Vista was normally booting. Problem is when I turn the thing today it just stared at me, with no hope of getting powerd up. What next now, Any good idea somewhere on planet Earth?

 

[rayzoredge 2]

Whats really wrong now?

What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

 

Good people of the world, I recently spilled (not intentionally) cider on my 2 months old Packard Bell Easynote ALP Atax A. I disconnected the battery with emmidiate effect and used my sister's hair drier to blow off liquid grom hell, After blewing it , I then hopefuly turned it on, and to my disbelief it turn on and Vista was normally booting. Problem is when I turn the thing today it just stared at me, with no hope of getting powerd up. What next now, Any good idea somewhere on planet Earth?

It might be dead.

 

I started this thread to give a bit of guidance as to how to follow up with a spill on your laptop, in which you were correct in disconnecting the battery, but I don't understand why you introduced heat when heat is the #1 killing factor when it comes to computer hardware. With laptops, the keyboard acts as a shield that covers most of the other components inside the laptop so that when you do spill something onto your laptop that this shield prevents most of the liquid from getting onto these components... but that doesn't mean that it won't be able to get in. That's why it's important that you actually follow up by opening up your laptop, drying ALL of the liquid, and if need be, even wash your components in deionized water and making sure that all components are completely dry before reassembly and booting it up.

 

I'm not sure what sugared water (your cider) will do to your computer, but I reckon that it's not all that great... Try opening up your laptop and cleaning it up a bit to see if you can resurrect it. What do you have to lose? Your laptop seems dead already.

[iGuest 3]

I spilled water on my laptop. I wasn't sure what to do so I just dried the keyboard with a towel. It kept on working fine for the next half hour and I decided to turn it off. After being powered off for 15 minutes it turned back on, on its own. I turned it off by removing the battery and it was disconnected from the power source. The next morning about 8 hours later I tried turning it back on and it won't power on. Any ideas on what I should do or what components I might need to replace? Thanks! 

-question by dbx599

[k_nitin_r 8]

I spilt tea on my laptop, took the battery out and let it dry etc... i never took it apart though, i should have but i let it dry and used it and had a few sticky keys and few dead ones, was a pain as the "=" and "0" key didnt work, being a PHP programmer that hurt.... = became CTRL+V (paste )

Hi!

I've got an old Presario laptop, powered by Intel's Pentium 4, with a couple of dead keys on the keyboard. It's the space bar and the 'B' key. It's also got a bad power connector so once it does power up, I shouldn't move it or turn it off :-(
Although I've got my shiny new work laptop and my slightly old personal laptop, I still use it for running the Apache web server and for an occasional game or two.

I play Smokin' Guns, a free open-source CounterStrike alternative for players frustrated with all of the CS bugs, so I had to change the 'Buy' key to 'N' and the 'Jump' key to 'V'.

I can't write anything without the space bar, so unless I go any buy an external keyboard, all I can do with it is use Remote Desktop... I use my old Thinkpad 600E, powered by Intel's Pentium II, as a remote desktop client.

Think I have too many old laptops lying around? I've also got an AST notebook, powered by Intel's 80386SX. It's got a worn out LCD - there are colored lines all over the screen, but if you can hook it up to a VGA display, you can play Xenobots and run Windows 3.1 on it! :-)

[iGuest 3]

The moral of the story is.... What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

Well, think about your cell phones.  Mix electronics with any liquid and they are usually toast. Remove the battery immediately and dry thoroughly. 

The things that I have heard about that may occasionally work... 

• Use blow dryer on low heat.  

• Put in a ziploc bag (or any plastic) and put in the sun.  The heat will pull the moisture out and condense on inside of the bag.  

• I knew someone who put it in an oven on very low heat to allow it to evaporate very slowly.  Salt water is usually the kiss of death because of the resulting corrosion. 

Try these at your own risk. The sooner you do this after it is wet the better your chances it may work.  

Lastly, if you had an inexpensive keyboard cover, your computer would withstand the spill.  If you are going to eat and drink around your laptop, it is so important to protect your investment with a computer keyboard cover (keyskin) and keep it safe from spills and germs. These keyskins hold up even with bleach and germicides used regularly. They are made in the USA but ship internationally. Visit the website http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ for more information on keyskin covers. Discounts are available.

-reply by Nan Brown

[k_nitin_r 8]

Put in a ziploc bag (or any plastic) and put in the sun. The heat will pull the moisture out and condense on inside of the bag.

Why would you want to use a ziploc bag? That traps the moisture within the bag. You could just leave your phone near a table fan or any place with good air flow to allow the moisture to escape.

 

BTW, keeping your phone in an oven is usually a bad idea because some of the plastics can be affected by the heat and may warp. You out to just the phone dry up on it's own after removing the battery.

[iGuest 3]

Liquid spill dilemmas: how to switch on a laptop with a broken switch?What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

Hi everyone,

Very happy to read it is not such a strange idea to spill tea (or other liquids) on ones laptop. Anyway, when it happened to me (8 days ago) I turned it off and removed the battery pretty fast - though not immediately. Then I put it on its side and let it dry. A couple of days later, I tried to dismember it completely, but didn't manage to take it apart fully. (Even after removing all the screws it didn't come apart easily and I didn't want to break anything. On top of that, as it was just unsugared tea, I supposed just letting it dry would be sufficient) Anyway, I created some 'airing space' between the parts and left it out to dry for another couple of days.

Today, I reassembled it and pushed the power button. Nothing. Then I thought maybe the battery is low, I remember I was reloading it when I spilled my tea. So I connected it to the adapter. This did make the indicator lamp light up. However, nothing could get the laptop started. So I wondered: could it be that the power button is down? And if that be the case, is there any other way to switch it on?

Of course, it might also be true that the laptop short circuited before I took the power off. But I'm afraid I'm not yet willing to accept that... ;-)

All advice welcome!!

Thanks

[rayzoredge 2]

<br /><B>Liquid spill dilemmas: how to switch on a laptop with a broken switch?</B><br> What Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?<br><br> <p>Hi everyone,</p> <p>Very happy to read it is not such a strange idea to spill tea (or other liquids) on ones laptop. Anyway, when it happened to me (8 days ago) I turned it off and removed the battery pretty fast - though not immediately. Then I put it on its side and let it dry. A couple of days later, I tried to dismember it completely, but didn't manage to take it apart fully. (Even after removing all the screws it didn't come apart easily and I didn't want to break anything. On top of that, as it was just unsugared tea, I supposed just letting it dry would be sufficient) Anyway, I created some 'airing space' between the parts and left it out to dry for another couple of days.</p> <p>Today, I reassembled it and pushed the power button. Nothing. Then I thought maybe the battery is low, I remember I was reloading it when I spilled my tea. So I connected it to the adapter. This did make the indicator lamp light up. However, nothing could get the laptop started. So I wondered: could it be that the power button is down? And if that be the case, is there any other way to switch it on?</p> <p>Of course, it might also be true that the laptop short circuited before I took the power off. But I'm afraid I'm not yet willing to accept that... ;-)</p> <p>All advice welcome!!</p> <p>Thanks</p><br />

<br /><br /><br />I know it's been a while, but I'll respond anyway just in case.
I would try to troubleshoot what exactly may be dead in your laptop and replace as necessary, if you truly want to go through the efforts to salvage your laptop. It's more of a pain to do this for a laptop than it is a desktop, but if you have the luxury of having more than one like laptop, I would try swapping components until I found out what was the culprit.

You are receiving an indicator light, but you failed to mention what lights were on.

My guess is that the power board may be functional, but the mobo is toast; or the circuitry to the power switch is toast. Problem is that it's pretty hard to troubleshoot or give any advice on anything from a million miles away from the troubled item... If you think it's a lost cause, you can always try to take it to a tech, but I wouldn't bother. Rip the hard drive out, throw it into a 2.5" enclosure, salvage what data you can off of it, and buy a new laptop. Recycle the old laptop and see if you can get cash for it... and if not, it's one less paperweight you'll have lying around.

[iGuest 3]

Liquid Spill on my LenovoWhat Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?

Hello. Last night my son took it upon himself to lay his freezer pop down on the keyboard of my Lenovo laptop. By the time I came back into the room there was a nice puddle of sticky glue on the left side of the keyboard. It boots up and runs fine, but many of the keys now do weird and fantastical things, even when I plug in an external keyboard. Any suggestions?

-reply by AndyC

[iGuest 3]

Pop spilled on laptopWhat Do You Do If You Spill Liquid Onto Your Laptop?My daughter spilled pop (pepsi) on her laptop(2 months old, cost $750). Innitially it would not turn on. Now it will turn on and I can access everything...It seems to be working fine. However, some of the keys do not work. I can have the keyboard replaced for about $200 or use an external keyboard (I checked, it works fine).Does anyone have experience on how long until I might see problems with the computer. I don't know how much, or if any, pop got down into some of the more critical parts of the computer. We are trying to decide if we should replace the laptop's keyboard or just get the external keyboard.Any suggestions?-reply by Teekay