I spilled water into my laptop, how do I get it working again?

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Ok, here are some questions to help us help:

a. What's your experience with dismantling and assembling your laptop? Can you break it up to basic parts? Have you done it before? If the answer's no, then the solutions that can be recommended at least by me are limited.

b. Did you smell anything weird? Can you smell anything weird when you put your nose near the laptop?

c. How about the power supply in your house? Is there a safety switch that comes down when there's a surge? Did it come down?

d. Is there anything else you think is noteworthy?
Since we can't see the laptop, the more you say, the clearer the situation will be.

I worked in the I/T department of a large corporation (3 "Big Blue" letters) for 29 years. We would occasionally have an employee come in with a similar complaint. We would disassemble the laptop so air could circulate to dry out the internal components. Once completely dry, we would reassemble and check to see if we got lucky. If not, we would usually end up replacing parts. Unless you’re experienced, I would not recommend opening up your system. You’ll probably end up having it serviced anyway and you could cause more damage.

I like Leo’s idea of placing the laptop in a container with a desiccant, although I never heard of using rice before. Hey, whatever works. Instead of putting the rice into a bag, how about putting the laptop into a pillowcase? That way you could surround the laptop with rice and more of the system would be in close contact with it to aid in absorbing moisture.

If this doesn’t work and you need to have the system serviced, most places will perform problem determination and provide an estimate for a nominal fee. Then, you can decide whether it’s worth fixing.

Good luck!

I just had another thought...

I also have a brand new laptop. When I ordered it, I purchased an upgraded warranty which covers everything for 3 years, even if it's my fault. For example, I'm covered even if I drop it.

You might want to check to see if your manufacturer offers such a warranty. Some will let you upgrade your warranty only at the time of purchase and some will let you upgrade for some period of time after purchase.

Might be worth looking into...

I actually experimented with old electronics, by dunking them driectly into water, to see what happened to them.

(I experimented with a calculator, an older sony-walkman, and a remote control for a 13 inch tube television that I didn't want anymore).

In my experiment, I took out the batteries, and dropped the electronics in a sink full of water, and left them soaking in the water for 30 minutes.

I then removed them, and waited a couple of days for them to completely dry, and put the batteries back in, and they worked absolutely perfectly. No problems whatsoever despite the fact that I completely saturated them.

A couple of years ago my girlfriend spilled coke on our cable-remote, so I immediately removed the batteries, washed it with water, and then let it dry completely. The remote still works fine to this day.

Thus, when electronics get wet, the best thing to do is immediately cut the power (remove the batteries, etc...

Next, if the liquid was sticky or sugary then I would recommend rinsing the device completely with water to wash away the residue.

Finally, let the device dry COMPLETELY before running power through the circuits.

Doing this, you might just get lucky.

However, in this particular case, the damage seems to have been done. The electronic device -- the laptop -- was turned on, and power was running through it for a while, while it was still wet. Thus the electric current probably had more than ample time to jump across circuits it wasn't supposed to.

I recently took in a non-switching-on laptop, which it transpired had had a glass of cola spilled over it.

It was dried out by leaving it in the airing cupboard for a few days.

The laptop now works....somewhat. The right-hand side of the keyboard no longer works. This has been overcome with a USB keyboard though. Important thing is that the laptop now/still works.

An airing cupboard or somewhere else warm & dry for a few days would be my advice. (Never heard of the 'rice trick' though, might be worth a go!)

I managed to knock over a glass of wine on my laptop and, like a fool, put it in standby instead of switching off. When I tried to pump it up again it was dead. I eventually managed to take it to bits (with the help of irisvista.com) and found a dried sticky patch of plonk on the motherboard, presumably shorting contacts. I cleaned it well with a soapy cotton bud and am using it now to type this...

I just wanted to add that if you elect to rinse any electronics with "water", that you should use distilled water. Most tap water contains some level of contaminants that could leave a residue and cause problems beyond the moisture. If rinsing is going to work at all, using distilled water gives you a better chance than tap water.

During fabrication, they wash the components in distilled water.. As long as it's off when its wet and completely dry before turning it back on, everything should be fine.

You can put the laptop next to the home radiator in the next several days and let the heat dries out the laptop.
Good luck.

Remove the battery and bake the laptop in a baking oven at 50C (120F) for a few hours.
I have done it many times.
If you live in a hot sunny area, you can bake it outside under direct sun.

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