Spilt Water on Your Laptop? 9 Immediate Steps to Try
You might be working peacefully on your laptop with your drink beside and suddenly, a disaster strikes! You spilt the drink all over your laptop by mistake. Whenever there is laptop water damage, all you need to do is to act fast.
Indeed, there’s a slight chance to salvage your laptop if you take the right action quickly. Not sure how can you handle such a difficult situation? Well, this guide will take you through the journey of consecutive steps that you should take when your laptop is in danger.
Let’s get started, shall we?
1. Turn Off Your Laptop
First, power off your laptop as soon as you realise the water damage. Even though your device seems to work fine after the accident, it’s crucial to power off the computer. Above all, water doesn’t react well when it comes in touch with electricity.
So, the objective is to avoid any kind of short circuit and electrical failure after you spilt water on laptops. After all, you don’t want further damage and any additional trouble. For your information, unplug your laptop from charging if you have still the charger attached.
2. Eject All External Devices
Have you been working with any kind of peripherals connected to your laptop? If yes, then unplug them as soon as you are done turning off the device. Be it a minor device like a mouse or keyboard or a vital one like an external hard drive or printer, detach them immediately.
After removing all the peripherals, you can inspect them separately to ensure whether they have received any damage. On the other hand, keep your laptop bare.
3. Remove the Laptop’s Battery (If Possible)
Does your laptop have a removable battery? According to a laptop repair near me, it’s best to remove the battery whenever there’s a water emergency. For removable batteries, you need to flip the laptop and slide the battery lock. Soon, the battery will be loose and you can get it detached from the device.
However, not every laptop has removable batteries. Then, you will require a screwdriver to unscrew the bottom casing. Make sure you refer to the overall architecture of your laptop supplied by the manufacturer. Thus, you can spot the exact place where your laptop’s battery resides. Carefully, access the battery connector.
If you are not comfortable with removing the battery then you can seek expert intervention for laptop water damage repair. Otherwise, you can move on to the next step.
4. Soak up Excess Liquid
Still, your laptop might have residual fluid on it. It’s time to remove the excess liquid to reduce the risk of an electrical shock. Or else, your laptop will end up seeping more liquid and damaging its internal core elements.
Well, you can use a dry clean towel to absorb the liquid from the laptop’s surface. However, too much pressure can help the liquid spread all over the laptop and inside it. Also, you can dab the towel instead of rubbing it. Because rubbing can force the moisture to sneak deeper into the laptop.
Alternatively, you can turn your device upside down with the lid open. The longer you keep your laptop facing down the less the liquid will enter your device.
5. Place the Device on a Towel
First, place a dry towel on a sturdy surface like a table. Then, keep your laptop open like a book and place it with its face down on the towel. The tent shape will help your laptop prevent further liquid damage.
Water is not acidic and may harm your device a little. Whereas soft drinks and other beverages can be acidic. So, they might cause more harm to your laptop and its internals. Keeping your laptop in this position will help evaporate the liquid. Indeed, you can accelerate the speed by choosing a warm environment.
Consider keeping your laptop in this tent position for 24 to 48 hours. Hence, choose a location that is warm, dry, and unobtrusive.
6. Open Your Laptop Up
Are you comfortable opening up your laptop? Then, you can benefit from this particular step. According to the best laptop repair shop near me, opening your device will provide sufficient airflow for effective drying.
However, a laptop repair in Business Bay doesn’t recommend opening up the laptop if you don’t have sufficient technical know-how. Otherwise, you might inadvertently cause more damage.
7. Remove Laptop Components
In the case of spilt water on laptops, internal components need to be dry and clean. Indeed, the goal is to soak up as much moisture as possible. So, focus on removing components such as storage drives and RAM modules from your laptop if you are comfortable with it.
However, you can leave the whole matter to the professionals of a laptop repair near me. Only trained and experienced technicians know how to deal with laptop water damage repair.
8. Bring Out the Keyboard
When you spilt water on laptops, the liquid reaches the internal parts through the keyboard. So, you can prevent major laptop water damage by disconnecting the keyboard from the laptop. So, check your user manual to figure out how you can remove the keyboard.
Thus, you can ensure that the liquid damage can’t reach the motherboard or other crucial parts inside. After removing the keyboard, you can clean it with a dry lint-free cloth. If the drink was sticky or sugary then you can use alcohol to wipe the keyboard.
9. Reassemble Your Laptop
After complete drying, it’s time to assemble everything. Return all the components to their place on your laptop. Make sure you connect the battery at the last stage to avoid static damage.
Now, test your laptop. Turn it on and check its screen sound, USB ports, and everything in between.
Things You Shouldn’t Use During Laptop Water Damage
Here are some strict restrictions that you have to follow while drying out your laptop after water damage.
- Make sure you don’t turn on the device in the middle of the laptop water damage repair or drying.
- In addition, avoid cloth with lint while dabbing the excess liquid from the laptop.
- Also, you should not use a hair dryer to evaporate the liquid. This can melt your laptop’s keyboard making the device unusable.
- Refrain from shaking your laptop to get rid of the excess liquid. Indeed, shaking might help the water get into the laptop’s internals causing further damage and complications.
- Don’t be tempted to use rice as shown by DIY videos. A rice bag won’t help you much accelerating the absorption process. However, your laptop will be a complete mess if you use rice. Cleaning out rice will be more difficult if the spilt drink is sticky.
Contact a Laptop Repair Shop for Further Assistance
Not sure whether you can handle the laptop water damage repair and maintenance? Well, it’s best to hand over the task to someone worthy. Consider the best laptop repair shop near me or a laptop repair in Business Bay to treat your device with the expertise and care it requires. Often, you can retrieve your water-damaged laptop back to fair condition if you hire an expert quickly.