Spill Your Drink on Your Laptop? Here's How to Minimize the Damage

Accidents do happen. If you should ever spill any liquid on laptop you need to know what to do. If you act quickly and you may be able to salvage your laptop. At least these tips may give you fighting chance to salvage parts of your laptop and if your lucky maybe the whole thing.

One thing to keep in mind all laptops are not created equal some are designed to handle spills better than others. In all cases you should consult your owners manual in the event of an accident. If you spill water on your laptop this actually the better of three evils. Cause if you spilled coffee or soda they contain more acid and can harm your laptop beyond repair. If you should happen to spill something of this nature consult your owners manual for tips on to handle it. Your laptop manufacturer should have emergency procedures covered in the manual in case of a liquid spill.

First thing you should do if you spill something on your laptop is to turn it off immediately. Within the first few seconds if you don't hear any sparking or smell any burning this is a good sign. Remove the battery and power cable. If they are wet dry them off and set them aside. If your battery got soaked you may just toss it up as needing to be replaced. It may be a good idea to replace it anyway. Same the holds true for the power adapter.

Make sure to wipe down the LCD screen if it has gotten wet. Once again if you spilled soda or coffee consult your manual for proper cleaning procedure of your LCD screen.

Remove all add on cards from there slots and wipe them down. As you dry each laptop component let it air dry. Do not use a fan to dry it. Never use a hair dryer. You should use a lint free cloth or towel. A clean dish towel would make a good cloth to wipe down the components of your laptop.

Remove all modular drives and wipe them down. This would include any CD drives or DVD drives. Any modular drives including floppy drives, zip drives, etc. Dry them off and set them aside. If water got inside any of the drives you may have to replace them.

Consult you owners manual on how to remove each key from the keyboard. Make sure to make a chart of where each key belongs if you are not sure. If only one part of the keyboard got wet than you should only remove those keys affected. Dry each key off being careful so you don't damage them and set them aside to air dry.

Open the memory module and remove them and make sure they are not wet. If they are dry them off and set each piece aside to air dry.

Dry off any wet areas on the chassis and then raise the laptop off the surface of a table by two books so it can air dry all the way around. You should let all components and surface dry overnight. After the laptop has dried overnight you can reassemble it.

The last step would be to plug it in and test it. If you smell any burning or hear any sparking turn it off immediately. If it powers on with no problems than you have just saved your laptop. The important thing to remember the sooner you take action after a spill the more chance you have of salvaging your laptop.