Spilled on My Laptop, What do I do?
It appeared I wasn’t alone when I panicked after spilling my glass of water on my laptop. Why, because when I jumped on the web in search of finding a quick solution, my search returned over two million results. The only thing I quickly found was that water, or any liquid spilled on a laptop, especially the sticky type like coffee or soda, was not a good thing, and chances were that my computer would never be the same again.
Knowing that time was of the essence, I clicked on the top result for “ spilled on my laptop what do I do” presented by WikiHow and proceeded to frantically follow the steps listed, including the detailed instructions that followed the bullet points.
The first thing to do is immediately turn the laptop off and remove the AC adapter and the battery (easy enough)
Second make sure to unplug everything, including the mouse and wireless cards.
Then, turn it upside down immediately.
Clean the spilled liquid with a lint-free paper towel or cloth.
Then examine the keyboard. If after panicking it turns out that you were lucky enough to have one of those spill-resistant keyboards, pour out the liquid contained in the keyboard enclosure and remove and clean an easily removable keyboard.
If you spilled anything but water, thankfully I didn’t, make sure to clean the sticky residue.
You’re not done yet, and the next steps can be shocking so get grounded and pay attention!
Very Important – Insulate yourself from static discharge.
Take apart the case.
Remove dry residue
Rinse off the residue
Let it dry
Clean with a solvent
Reassemble and test the laptop
If the laptop doesn’t turn on, contact customer service
Literally, the race was on. Fortunately, for me I can say that after carefully following all of the steps, and leaving the machine to dry for 48 hours, with the battery safely resting in a bag of uncooked rice, the method worked. Unfortunately, however, when you depend on your laptop for work, and you don’t know if your data and photos are safe, 48 hours can be stressful and seem like a lifetime. Still, it beat having to spend a lot of money on repairs or worse buying a new computer.
When the ordeal was over, just in case it happened again, I decided to search for an easier less time consuming fix. I browsed a few of the other million answers returned on liquid spills and found that in a sense I was lucky that it was only water I spilled. I noticed that although the wikihow article did take you through steps to help with sticky residue, I’m not so sure I would have been so successful because others I read indicated that most liquid damage caused by coffee, soda, beer, or any of the sticky drinks can be near impossible to solve without professional help.
While searching I also found a few comments to be amusing, the best was “why would you drink anything near your computer in the first place”? Come on who doesn’t? I think the answer to that is simple, in today’s world we work long hours, and we’re often consumed at our desks, so having a coffee or any beverage is either a necessity or just comforting.
So, what did I take away from what began as a water spill? I now know that I’m not clumsy, because millions of people have also searched for liquid spills, I also know that there are no quick fixes for a laptop damaged by liquid, and that you can try, but it’s not practicable to sit at a desk for hours without a drink nearby.
What’s the solution? How about not getting your laptop wet at all? Just use a CUPRIGHT desktop cup holder, it will prevent spills, and It may just save you time, money and a lot of aggravation. If you only have one desk accessory on your desk, make it a CUPRIGHT Insulated desk cup holder, you won’t regret it.
