What to do if you spill water on your laptop

This blog was updated in September 2022.

Spilled water on your laptop? Don’t worry – we’ve all done it at some point or another. But apart from panicking, what are you supposed to do if your laptop is drowning in water or any other liquid like tea or coffee?

Well, don’t take any notice of all the  “life hacks” on social media. They are rife with misinformation and won’t do anything to save your laptop. It’ll end up in the skip for sure!

So, let’s say you’ve spilt water on your laptop. Time is of the essence. What’s the very first thing you should do that isn’t “dunk it in a bed of rice”? You absolutely must shut your laptop down and unplug it. Don’t just send your laptop to sleep either. Hold down the power button until it’s fully powered off.  

To minimise the risk of damage from water spilled on your laptop as much as you can, disconnect the laptop’s battery too.

This requires opening the laptop up which, depending on the laptop, may be as easy as removing a couple of screws and popping the bottom cover off. It’s important to do so, as it’s not the liquid itself that damages the laptop – it can be cleaned up – but an electrical short. Disconnecting the battery ensures there’s no electricity running through your laptop.

OK, let’s go through it step-by-step…

If you’ve spilled water on your laptop and it’s disconnected from power, here’s what you should do next. You may not be able to boot your laptop up right away, but these steps give it the best chance of recovery…

Step 1:

Unplug all cables attached to your laptop: keyboard, mouse, monitor, and so on.

Step 2:

Pat the outside of your laptop down with a cloth to remove excess liquid. Then, open your laptop’s hinge as wide as it goes and hold it upside down to let the liquid drain out. Use an absorbent, lint-free cloth to dry wet surfaces. Clean the surrounding area while you’re at it. Do not attempt to dry the laptop with a hairdryer or heat gun; drain the liquid first.

Step 3:

At this point it’s a waiting game. Your laptop must be dried completely before powering on again. Otherwise, it could still short out. With these preventative measures taken, now’s the time to hand your laptop off to a professional. Check if you’ve got a warranty and book it in at a repair shop as soon as possible. They should be able to recover your laptop’s data and gauge if it’s ready to power on.

What liquid did you spill?

Some liquids are worse than others. Water is the least problematic, whereas sugary and alcoholic beverages can leave a sticky, corrosive residue that damages your laptop’s hardware over time. So, you’ll need to clean it up. Either way, the aim is to mitigate the effect as much as possible. If you’d rather try to repair your laptop yourself, here’s the next step to take.

Drying the inside of your laptop

As illuded to earlier, opening your laptop may not be that easy. Consult your laptop’s manual for a guide and use YouTube videos as a visual aid.

Most gaming laptops are as they’re designed with user upgrades in mind: installing more RAM, a secondary solid-state drive, and so on. This isn’t the case for most modern thin-and-light laptops, however. 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 drives for.

It’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 had left will likely void.

Step 1:

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

Step 2:

Remove any components you can, like the memory and storage. On some laptops, removing the storage may be as simple as unscrewing a cover on the bottom of the laptop to reveal a 2.5” drive bay, for 2.5” hard drives and 2.5” solid-state drives.

On others, however, it’s likely these drives are slotted onto the motherboard itself. This will require the removal of the bottom panel.

Once you’re in, removing the storage is easy. Remove a couple of screws and then slide the drive out. The memory is just as easy. Press the clips on either side of the memory slide down to eject it. Be sure to remove these components with care as to not damage the connector on the component or the laptop itself.

Step 3:

If you’ve spilled anything other than water, then each component must be cleaned to avoid corrosion. To do so, dip a toothbrush in some isopropyl alcohol and clean gently. Since it’s alcohol, it will dissolve the residue and then evaporate without leaving a trace. 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.

Step 4:

Once everything’s cleaned, and you’re sure there’s no sign of corrosion, you must leave everything as-is for a day or two to dry out completely. Preferably in a warm, dry area to accelerate the process, such as an airing cupboard. A fan will speed it up more, but don’t be tempted to use a hairdryer as static electricity is a concern.

Step 5:

To put your laptop back together, follow the guide you used to take it apart but in reverse. There’s no guarantee that your laptop will work again, but following these steps, you’ve given it the best chance to.

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What to do if you can’t take your 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. This leaves you little recourse, other than sending your laptop off to the manufacturer for repair or replacement. In the meantime, here’s what you can do:

Drain the liquid as instructed earlier, wipe the liquid off, then lay the laptop down on a dry surface with as much ventilation as possible. It may not be much, but it’s better than noting and might gain you some time while you’re waiting for repair. iFixit’s repairability scores are a great resource to check how repairable your laptop is.

Myths

How many times have you heard that dunking your laptop in a bed of rice is the best method to ‘save’ it?

Firstly, rice isn’t nearly as useful when you’re dealing with sugary and alcoholic beverages. It may absorb moisture, but it’s not going to do anything about the sticky, corrosive residue that’s left over.

Secondly, rice isn’t going to absorb the liquid that’s deep inside your laptop, which is where the real trouble lies. What’s more, with all that rice you’re going to have little flakes in your laptop causing even more troubles.

This method can lull you into a false sense of security. Simply dunking your laptop in rice and waiting a day isn’t enough. If you try to power your laptop on before it’s ready, you’re asking for trouble. It will cause an electrical short than can completely wreck your laptop. Take a more productive approach if you want a higher chance of your laptop surviving.

Can you buy a waterproof laptop?

While many laptops claim to be ‘spill-proof’ or ‘water-resistant’, it’s not the same as waterproof. Rugged laptops have the best chance at surviving a spill, but there’s no such thing as a waterproof laptop… yet.

If you’re worried about spilling liquid on your laptop, you could lift it off your desk with a laptop stand and use an external keyboard. Most keyboards aren’t waterproof either, but even if you spill liquid on it, at least it won’t wipe out the much more expensive laptop in the process.

Keyboards can be pretty spill-resistant even with no official rating, if you’re quick to clean it up. Mechanical keyboards have the best chance of survival. The switches underneath each key are less likely to break when wet, and the plate that protects the PCB is better than a membrane layer.

What to do if you’ve spilled water on your keyboard?

Here’s how to fix your water damaged keyboard.

Step 1:

First things first, unplug your keyboard. You don’t want any power going to it. Water and electricity don’t mix well.

Step 2:

The bulk of the water should be on top of the keycaps, so go ahead and day them dry. Then you’ll want to remove the keycaps. It’s possible to pry them off with your fingers, but we’d recommend a keycap puller as to not damage anything.

Step 3:

You should now have easy access to the water that’s accumulated under the keycaps. It’s time to wipe it all up so the water can’t seep further into the keyboard. We’d recommend using a microfibre cloth. A paper towel would otherwise leave small particulates behind, jamming up the switches. If you can’t hit all the nooks and crannies with the microfibre cloth, a cotton swab comes in handy too.

Step 4:

Even though you’ve got most of the water at this point, you don’t want to risk powering the keyboard up just yet. So, flip the keyboard over on a towel and place it in a sunny area. Any remaining water should drip out. No need to dunk it in rice. Just let the keyboard rest for a while, around 48 hours. In this scenario, it’s nice to have a backup keyboard while your main one is out of commission.

Step 5:

Before plugging the keyboard back in, give it a gentle shake and keep an eye out for any droplets of water. If you catch any, you should wait another 24 hours. Otherwise, you can continue to plug in the keyboard and see if it’s working. Use an online key tester to check if every key is functional. If everything lights up green, you’re good to go! All that’s left to do it put the keycaps back on.

Laptops at Ebuyer

Most laptops (gaming or otherwise) aren’t waterproof, but small spills aren’t the end of the world. You can usually salvage your set-up after an accident. Just keep calm, act quickly, and avoid being impatient while it’s drying out.

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