Uncategorized

What to do if you spill water on your laptop

Spilled water on your laptop? Don’t panic — but time is of the essence. Quickly move your device away from any split liquid, unplug it and switch it off immediately. If you have a removable battery, take that out too.

Okay, now you’ve done the most imminent steps, we can run through things in more detail. The good news is, in lots of cases, you can save your device.
In this article, we’ll run you through a comprehensive step-by-step guide on what to do if you spill water, or any other liquid, on your laptop. We’ll also cover what to do if you spill anything on an external keyboard and common FAQs like whether or not the rice trick actually works.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU SPILL WATER ON YOUR LAPTOP: A STEP-BY-STEP

Follow these steps closely to give your device the best chance of recovery.

REMOVE ANY POWER SOURCES

Stopping any power running through your laptop and battery is the first crucial step. It’s not the liquid itself that damages your laptop, but an electrical short.
1. Immediately unplug any cables attached to your laptop, including its power cable and any peripherals like your keyboard, mouse, monitor and so on.
2. Switch off your laptop and hold down the power button for five seconds to remove any residual power.
3. If you have a removable battery, open up the back of your laptop and disconnect the battery.

MOP UP AND AIR DRY

  1. Use
  1. Use an absorbent, lint-free cloth to pat the outside of your laptop down. Remove any excess liquid and dry any surfaces.
  2. Make sure to dry the vents, keyboard, trackpad and any ports that may have come into contact with any liquid.
  3. Open your laptop’s hinge as wide as it will allow and place it upside down on a cloth or towel to let any liquid drain out.
  4. Leave it to air dry for at least 24 hours.
  5. Do not attempt to dry the laptop with a hairdryer or heat gun.
  6. Do not place your device in rice.

CONSIDER PROFESSIONAL HELP

Your laptop must be completely dried before powering on again. Otherwise, it could still short out, completely wrecking its internal components and hard drives.

So now you’ve taken the most imminent preventative measures, it might be best to consider handing your laptop to a professional before trying to reboot.

Check if you’ve got a warranty and book it in at a repair shop as soon as possible. Usually, you can refer to your device’s manufacturer or a local repair shop that specialises in damaged devices. They should be able to recover your laptop’s data, clean the inside of your device and gauge if it’s ready to power on.

If you want to continue with the cleanup yourself, the next step involves drying the inside of your laptop. 

HOW TO DRY THE INSIDE OF YOUR LAPTOP

Opening your laptop may not be that easy, especially if you’ve never done it before, or don’t have any experience with laptop motherboards.

Most gaming laptops are designed with user upgrades in mind — things like installing more RAM or a secondary solid-state drive and so on, so they are easy to open up. But this isn’t the case for most modern ultra-thin or light laptops. With this type of device, you can easily rip a fragile ribbon cable if you’re not careful. Not to mention some laptops use uncommon screw heads which you might not have the screwdrivers for.

That’s why we recommend handing your laptop off to a professional, especially if you’re a tech novice. You can do it yourself, but if you damage anything, any warranty you have will likely be void.

If you’re determined to continue, consult your laptop’s manual for a guide on how to open up your specific device, use any YouTube videos as a visual aid and follow the below steps.

REMOVE THE BATTERY

If you haven’t done so already, disconnect the battery if you can, so there’s no electricity running through your laptop.

REMOVE ANY COMPONENTS

  1. Open up your laptop case and remove the RAM (memory) modules. Locate the RAM access panel, unscrew the screws securing it and unclip the RAM module. Refer to our guide here for details on how to remove and update your RAM .
  2. Remove the hard drives. These are either located in either the 2.5” drive bay for 2.5” hard drives or the 2.5” drive bay for solid-state drives or slotted onto the motherboard itself.
  3. Be sure to remove these components with care and not damage the connector on the component or the laptop itself.

CLEAN THE COMPONENTS

  1. Gentle pat each of the components down with a lint-free cloth and sit them on a towel or cloth to air dry.
  2. If you’ve spilt anything other than water, each component must be cleaned individually to avoid corrosion. To do so, dip a toothbrush in some isopropyl alcohol and gently move it over each of the components. This will dissolve any residue and evaporate.
  3. Alongside a can of compressed air, a bottle of isopropyl alcohol makes a great cleaning tool for a PC builder. You’ll also need it for cleaning up thermal paste, for example, so it’s good to have on hand.

LEAVE TO AIR DRY

Once everything is cleaned, and you’re sure there’s no sign of corrosion, you must leave everything to air day for at least 24 hours. Leaving your laptop and components in a warm, dry area, such as an airing cupboard, or using a fan, will accelerate the process.  Don’t be tempted to use a hairdryer or heat gun, as these can cause static electricity which could further damage your laptop, especially its exposed components.

REASSEMBLE AND REBOOT

After your components have completely dried out, put your laptop back together by following the guide you used to take it apart, but in reverse.

Reinsert your battery, plug your laptop back into a power source and boot it up. There’s no guarantee that your laptop will work again, but by following these steps, you’ve given it its best shot at recovery.

If your device is slow or acting up after reboot, check out our article on how to troubleshoot a slow laptop.

WHAT IF I CAN’T TAKE MY LAPTOP APART?

Some laptops, like those from Microsoft’s Surface line-up, are next to impossible for the average user to take apart without irreversibly damaging them in the process. Your best point of call is to send your laptop to a repair shop, or back to the manufacturer for a replacement. In the meantime, here’s what you can do:

  1. Drain the liquid as instructed earlier.
  2. Wipe the liquid off and lay your laptop down on a dry surface with as much ventilation as possible.

It may not be much, but it’s better than nothing and might buy you some time while you’re waiting for repair. iFixit’s repairability scores are a great resource to check how repairable your laptop is.

Most Popular

To Top