Water+laptop=...?

[Yes]

In a moment of extreme clumsiness, I spilled some water on my laptop. I pressed the power button to turn it off, removed the battery, and dried all the water I could see from it. I left the lid open and am letting it air out now. Is there anything else I should do? And how long should I wait before turning it back on?

Any advice is much appreciated...

[Paqman]

And how long should I wait before turning it back on?


Depends how much water got in, and how warm and dry your environment is. Laptops are expensive to repair, i'd err on the side of caution.

[Blasphemist]

I'd also take off anything you can from the bottom of the laptop, hard drive, memory cover, etc. And two more things, yes it is good to err on the side of caution and you're lucky it wasn't a sticky carbonated beverage. Oh, if you have anything you can use to blow air through it, do so.

[forrestcupp]

Wait until tomorrow and you should be ok. My boy spilled Dr. Pepper on my wife's laptop, and it ended up being ok.

[Yes]

Alright, I've removed the hard drive and optical drive and memory cover. Aside from a few drops near the hdd everything seems bone dry - I shined a light through where the optical drive was to the motherboard and couldn't see any water. I'm just letting it sit like this now, there's a fan blowing on it and its 82F in here so hopefully any remaining water gets dried up.

Thanks for the advice : )

[Fraoch]

I did the same thing a few months ago to an old Windows XP laptop. At first I didn't think it was a big deal, I shook the water out and it continued running fine. Then a message popped up about an unrecognized USB device - oh oh - and finally it died.

I did what you did, took apart as much as I could and dried as much as I could out. I also took a hair dryer (with a *COOL SETTING*) and blew all remaining drops of water out. Took quite a while to blow everything out.

It booted fine shortly after and has been fine since - in fact I'm typing this post using it.

[tgalati4]

My thinkpad t43p has coffee holes inside the chassis. There's a youtube video about how it works. I've never tried pouring a hot cup of coffee into the keyboard to prove it works, but I assume it does.

Put the laptop inside a sealed box with some dry rice coating the bottom. Leave it sealed for a couple of days.

Pray.

[kaldor]

Alright, I've removed the hard drive and optical drive and memory cover. Aside from a few drops near the hdd everything seems bone dry - I shined a light through where the optical drive was to the motherboard and couldn't see any water. I'm just letting it sit like this now, there's a fan blowing on it and its 82F in here so hopefully any remaining water gets dried up.

Thanks for the advice : )

I'd just switch to Arch if I were you.

;)

[Maheriano]

Unless it was a full glass of water you should be fine, most keyboards on laptops act like a cover for the internals and don't let liquids through, they just sit in the keyboard. You could try putting it in a container with rice to dry it out faster but you should be good tomorrow. Especially if you lay it outside for an hour in the sun. Well maybe the sun's not a good idea.

[aguafina]

I'd just switch to Arch if I were you.

;)

Just install Arch
Lol is Arch waterproof?

[Quadunit404]

Yes, and it will also waterproof your shoes, watch, every other electronic device you own, allow you to own a horse without everyone disconnecting on you and make every troll on the Internets bow down to you :lolflag:

[jmore9]

I spilled a large mug on coffee on mine and i turned it off. Then i removed everything that could be taken off easily. Then let it sit on top of 2 erasers so it was off the table for 3 days. Then i very lightly shook it and let it set for a couple of more days.

I then put everything back and fired it up. Haven't had a problem with it at all. I keep my coffee on another table now !!!

[juancarlospaco]

I think that the Water can be affected, dont drink it

[Dragonbite]

Water trashed my system. My son spilled water on it while we were on vacation. :sad:

Actually, I think I may have tried turning it on too soon. #-o :oops:

Somebody recommended, since it wasn't booting anyway, to use rubbing alcohol to wash off the motherboard.

I would only look at that as a "it doesn't boot so what have I got to loose?" action.

[Fraoch]

Somebody recommended, since it wasn't booting anyway, to use rubbing alcohol to wash off the motherboard.

If the alcohol was strong enough, it would serve to suck up all the remaining tiny water droplets and evaporate quickly. However if you're using regular 70% rubbing alcohol it deposits a fair amount of water on its own. 91% would do a much better job, and 99% (often only available behind the counter) better still.

So high-strength (91/99%) rubbing alcohol might do the trick, then a hair dryer on low or cool setting to evaporate the rubbing alcohol and the water it found.

Of course if power was applied to a shorted component, the component might have been destroyed.

[forrestcupp]

I'd just switch to Arch if I were you.

;):lol:


Just install Arch
Lol is Arch waterproof?

Arch will clean your house, pay your bills, and go pick up your carry out pizza for you. :)

[aaaantoine]

:lol:



Arch will clean your house, pay your bills, and go pick up your carry out pizza for you. :)

Arch won't clean my house, just the bathroom. Maybe I misconfigured something. I'll have to see what the wiki says.