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

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Hardware stores sell a product called DampRid. It is basically a plastic container like a tall cottage cheese container, with a strainer in it and granuales of a chemical. This is what I would do - Put the computer in a large plastic garbage bag. Set the open DampRid on top of it. Set a clothes basket over the top. Seal the bag. I would leave it about a week. The granuals in the DampRid attract moisture, it is drawn into the container, strained through the DampRid and collects in the bottom of the DampRid. You could probably open it every few days to see how it is doing.

Posted by: Susan at January 8, 2009 4:44 PM

How about a claim on your household insurance?
Re the rice idea, I always keep those little bags of dessicant gel you get with shoes and trainers- these wouldn't get into the machine and might be a lot more efficient.
A teqnique I have used, though not iwth a laptop is to leave it for a day or two on a radiator, a boiler or in an airing cupboard- with as many covers removed as possible to alow the water to dry out.
And if were going to be dishonest, put it on Ebay and blame the Post Office! (I hope you all realise I say this tongue-in-cheek!)

Posted by: Paul Higgins at January 9, 2009 10:10 AM

There was a water leakeage in my house and my new laptop was lying on the floor.It was dipped into water and the worst part is that, it was on stand by mode at that time. What can i do for it. It is almost 2 days i havent swtiched it on. I had already taken the battery out. Please suggest me something.

Posted by: vibhor singhal at March 15, 2009 3:58 PM

Hey, my new dog dragged my cola bottle in to my room and he started to chew the top of the bottle and some of the coke got on my pc, and when i went back to my room my screen was blue ad had some writting on it. but then it shut off and when i tryed to start it it turns is self of after 15 sec and the screen is black all the time, what can i do? if u know how i can fix this with out using money please reply

Posted by: Mark at July 10, 2009 6:02 AM

I spilled coffee on my laptop. The computer seems to come on fine, I hear the windows startup & the lights come on. I can see the caps lock light come on. The problem is the screen. Totally black. This happened about 5 hours ago.

Posted by: Cheryl at August 1, 2009 2:37 PM

I spilled some coffee on my keyboard, while my laptop was on, and, even though it still worked, some of the keys would print the letter diagonally next to them when hit...i.e. "T" would pring "T5", etc...I unplugged the laptop, and took the keyboard off, using a downloaded user mannual, and wiped the back of the keyboard with a "none lint" dish cloth dipped in rubbing alcohol....then I poured alcohol all over the back side of the keyboard, tipping it so the alcohol could run off....I wanted the alcohol to get "into" the back side of the letter "buttons". I wiped off the excess, and let it all air dry for about 5 hours. I then reassembled the keyboard back into my laptop. I am writing this reply with it now, so as you can see....it worked!...Good luck.
Thanks Leo, for such great information.

Posted by: dan at August 18, 2009 6:38 AM

I hear that if you have an electronic device that has been affected by liquid you should leave it in the freezer for the night and leave it out to dry for a few hours.....I have done this with a cell phone and a pocket pc and they both are in perfect condition!

Posted by: Sam at August 22, 2009 11:39 AM

i did this and had a huge electrical shock

Posted by: qwertyuiop[] at October 3, 2009 6:14 AM

Following on from the main question, I could really do with some help. I've recently bought a new Samsung notebook and spilled some water over a few of the keys on the right handside. It was a pint glass of water but most of the water went on the floor - a bit went on the notebook. The laptop was on and when the water went on it didn't affect it but I turned it off straightaway. I also put it close to a fan, used a cool hairdryer briefly (I could see little droplets of water next to the keys on the far right of the laptop) and put it keyboard-down so that any remaining water would drain out. It took me literally an hour to figure out how to remove the battery as I couldn't understand it or get any help from Samsung but it is now removed. I unscrewed all that I could (looking at the memory, hard drive, etc.) and could see no signs of water having damaged these parts. I now have the laptop close to a fan to hopefully dry it out. I am very upset by this so any further advice would be gratefully recieved. Thank you.

Posted by: Ellymoo at October 13, 2009 3:07 PM
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