Drinks
Laptops hate drinks, any kind of them. Some may tolerate a small sip of vodka or scotch on the rocks, but that’s about all. Any other kind of drink – coffee, tea, wine, pop or any soft drink will kill them almost instantly.
I’ve been dealing with laptops for quite a long time but have seen just a couple of mainstream laptops that are spill-resistant. This is one of the biggest design flaws of all laptops. How hard is it for the manufacturers to put a plastic or metal tray under the keyboard that will prevent any liquids from entering the laptop? It doesn’t even have to be completely waterproof, just spill-resistant. Well, it’s not hard at all and very inexpensive to implement, but… Nobody does it.
Another “thing” is the keyboard. Many years ago some laptop keyboards had a plastic membrane under the keys, covering the actual contacts and preventing any dust, debris or liquids from damaging the keyboard. Unfortunately all newer laptops come with pretty much the same keyboards that have absolutely no protection from liquids. Just a few drops will usually kill a keyboard and it will have to be replaced.
What to do if you spill something on your laptop? Act quickly! Unplug the power cord and any other cords, turn the laptop upside down and remove the battery. Don’t try to shut down the laptop, that takes time… The damage you may do to the operating system by removing the battery while the laptop is running is insignificant compared to the damage the liquid will do to your laptop when it penetrates to the motherboard.
After removing the battery, keep the laptop upside down for a while, allowing the liquid to drain as much as possible. Don’t even think about turning it back on to see if it still works! It has to dry completely first. That takes at least 48 hours. After the liquid has drained, remove the hard drive, usually held in place by one or two screws, the CD/DVD if possible, and all small covers on the back that are held by screws (there is at least one, covering your RAM expansion slot, and possibly another covering the Wi-Fi card).
The next step is removing the keyboard. That is usually not very hard but unless you can get a service manual describing exactly how to do it on your laptop (the procedure varies for different models and brands), I would suggest letting a technician do it. It is important to remove the keyboard because it is most likely damaged and will need to be replaced and because that will expose the area where most of the spillage occurred, allowing it to dry.
The important thing to remember is not to turn the laptop back on before it is completely dry. However trying to speed up the process with a hairdryer is a very bad idea, as the temperature of the air is too high and may damage the laptop. I’ve seen a few melted laptop cases from a hairdryer.
If that was your business computer and you need to continue working, the best thing to do is to transfer the hard disk to an external USB enclosure, providing that it wasn’t damaged from the liquid (in 99% of the cases the hard disk is not damaged). That way you will have access to all your files (but not to your programs) and will be able to continue working on another computer.
A lot of newer laptops are built to resist the occasional spillage nowdays. The keys themselves are so close together, that it doesn’t let water leak in to do the damage. This only applies if you spill a LITTLE bit of liquid though.
I have a mac i got got it 5 months ago tonight i had a party and a drink of whisky and coke was dropped on the keyboard. We flipped it upside down and turned it off but me being the inpation person i am tryed turning the screen on and its black but the buttons are lit up. Is my compter done or is there a chance of it working again???
I spilled roughly half a cup of coffee over my laptop.
I turned it off and tried to mop it up etc and turn it over.
About an hour later turned it on to see if it was ok
It got progressively worse while i was on it – and i couldnt understand why!
By the time I turned it off again (about 20 minutes later) hardly any keys were working.
Is my computer going to live?!!!!
Its less than 6 months old I am gutted.
Please tell me what I can do.
Personally i allway’s make sure no one brings any drinks to my pc me included don’t need no heartaches thank you very much
Yesterday I dropped a cup of soup and it went all over my laptop. It hit the screen, the power button, and the keyboard (just one section of it). It was a thick soup, not watery, and I quickly turned the laptop off and wiped it down. Everything seems to be working fine. Do you think I have anything to worry about? If it works right after the spill happens, does it usually continue to keep working? Thanks!
I brought my ASUS laptop to a party at my friends house just yesterday, some time during our hangout a girl spilled two cups of Sprite onto it (and its less than 6months old!) Luckily we kept our cool, disconnected the power cords, turned off the machine while flipping it so to stand at an angle – the stream of Sprite just kept leaking onto my hand!
After about 30 minutes I finally got everything dried, seems my keyboard has a rather special construction that includes a full metal plate under the keys, so there was literally no way soda could’ve entered the core of the laptop unless through air ducts – I’m glad your website helped reconfirm my method was correct! Thank you!
Marian, noise that appears some time after starting the laptop is most likely from the fan failing. If your laptop is still under warranty – send it back for repair (but backup your files first).
You can usually notice any liquids damage quite easy. Just take the battery out and look closely. If a liquid was spilled on top of it, the first thing to go is the keyboard.
Hi my new HP laptop starts doing a noice some time after had started, I know something happend to my laptop but my sister doesn’t tell me. I remember the laptop was in the kitchen last time it worked well so I will asume it’s something related to liquids.
I don’t think it was a lot of liquid but the speaker doesn’t work and with headphones yes. After 20 minutes is turnd on it starts doing a noise like frying? Plase help on this matter. Also sorry about my bad english.
Marian
Hi Heather, unfortunately on some laptops, especially the smaller ones / sub-laptops the hard disk is not easily accessible. If the laptop is beyond repair you can try searching the Internet for instructions and opening it yourself. You will need a good set of small screwdrivers and a bit of patience, but its not as hard as it seems.
I have Sony Vaio and this is exactly what happened to me. I wish I knew about this web site earlier. Now it is not turning on and the repair will cost over $900!! You say that I can take the hard drive out and put it in usb enclosure to get my files, and it will work. But I don’t see where it is. Its definitely not “held in place by 1-2 screws”. Any help will be appreciated.