Summary: Spilling liquid into your laptop or keyboard can cause serious damage. The first step is to dry it thoroughly, and we'll look at one possible solution.
While I was asleep, my cat must have tipped over a part full cup of water on my new laptop computer. The computer lid was closed and the AC power cord was connected when my daughter tried to turn it on in the morning. It did not turn on (and it hasn't ever since, even after leaving it to dry out for a couple of weeks). There was also a small pool of water under the computer (about 5cm in diameter) and drips of water come from the keyboard when tipped over. What should I do to maximize my chances of getting it working?
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I'm going to recommend an obscure long shot as something to try.
I'm also going to ask for help.
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First, readers, if you have any suggestions to help in a situation such as this, please feel free to leave it in a comment below. I'm particularly interested in techniques that you've tried that have been proven to work.
Which is unlike what I'm about to suggest. 
First, I need to set a some expectations.
The problem is that water conducts electricity. So the moment you turned the computer on while it was still wet inside, the computer likely experienced a number of short circuits and crossed connections. It's possible, perhaps even likely, that some of the electronics were damaged. The only solution, if that's the case, is to isolate and replace the damaged components. That'll require someone looking at the machine and attempting to diagnose the specific failure.
It's worse if what was spilled is anything more than plain water. If it's soda, coffee, tea, milk ... whatever ... when it dries it's going to leave a residue. Be it a sticky sugary residue, powder of some sort, or who knows what else, anything but plain water is going to be much worse, and much less likely to be fixable.
Now, on to my off-the-wall idea.
It's actually not that off-the-wall, as I've heard it recommended repeatedly for people who've dropped their cell phones in water. But I'll throw it out there to use at your own risk...
Rice.
Place your laptop in a sealed container filled with uncooked rice for a few days.
My concern with this approach, of course, is that rice grains are small enough that they might end up in your laptop instead of around your laptop, which is what you really want. Perhaps you should bag the rice in nylon or some other very porous material.
The theory, that apparently works well for cell phones, is that the rice acts as a desiccant - absorbing moisture out of the air. If the container is properly sealed, the only place that moisture can come from is your laptop.
It's a long shot, but given that the laptop's not working, and as long as you can keep the rice outside of your machine, it couldn't hurt.
But as I said, I'm interested in what other ideas people might have. This is not an uncommon situation.
Related:
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My '2' key stopped working. How do get Windows to recognize it again? Every so often a keyboard stops working or acts up. It's tempting to look everywhere but at the most likely culprit: the keyboard itself.
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How should I clean my computer? A lot of time and thought goes into cleaning your hard disk, applications and so on. But what about the box itself and other attached peripherals?
Article C3610 - January 3, 2009
My Laptop works fine now but i think my cat is missing. Same story here, my cat tipped over not water but a full glass of "Coca-Cola" on to my opened laptop. Fortunately the laptop was not turned on or plugged in. It's been 9 months now and all is well with no problems. The fix was simple but not quick. Items needed: PC repairer tool kit - about 5 gallons of Distiled (NOT REVERSE OSMOSIS) water - about 1/2 gallon of 99% pure isopropal alcohol - assorted size and shape of small tooth brush type brushes - two clean (never used) spray bottles - desica gel (or rice--minute rice works best)and time - lots of time. Using the tool kit take apart the entire laptop (if you go on line you can find all the schematics needed to take it apart.) Using the distiled water spray one at a time every nut, bolt, screw, circuit bord, every square inch of your laptop using one of the small brushes to GENTLY scrub the soda off. NEVER REUSE THE WATER JUST LET IS DRIP AWAY. When you're satisfied it's clean use the other spray bottle with the alcohol and spray every single piece allowing it to just drip away (don't reuse the drippings). Allow all pieces to air dry for 24 hours (a fan can be used BUT NO HEAT) After air drying place all the Pisces in a sealed container with the desica gel for a minim of 72 hours. then just reassemble your laptop and your good to go. I've used this method on 5 laptops and 3 PC's since fixing my own as others have heard of my success. Only one failure of the bunch but that was because SHE turned HER laptop on before bringing it over to see if it still worked lol. Good Luck to you all.
God Bless The CPU
Posted by: Timothy R at January 7, 2009 10:16 PMHardware 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 PMHow about a claim on your household insurance?
Posted by: Paul Higgins at January 9, 2009 10:10 AMRe 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!)
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 PMHey, 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 AMI 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 PMI 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.
Posted by: dan at August 18, 2009 6:38 AMThanks Leo, for such great information.
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 AMi did this and had a huge electrical shock
Posted by: qwertyuiop[] at October 3, 2009 6:14 AMFollowing 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