How to Clean up Laptop / Notebook Liquid Spill
A laptop liquid spill (water, cofee, or soda) should not necessarily cost you money to fix if you quickly perform these steps:
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Instructions
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Unplug your laptop from the AC outlet.
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Power down your laptop via its operating system.
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Lay your laptop keyboard faced down on a clean hand towel to drain as much liquid as possible.
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Next, lay your laptop keyboard faced down in a tray full of cheap desiccant like baking soda for at least 24 hours.
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After all excess liquid has drained out of laptop, follow these steps to perform an internal clean up:
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Find disassembly instructions on the internet for your particular laptop make and model.
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Wear an anti-static wrist strap and safely disassemble your laptop, making sure to place all key electronic components on an anti-static surface.
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Do a little bit of detective work: trace the path liquid traveled internally to determine the extent of the spill and which components need cleaning and which need replacement. Usually, a heavily soaked power inverter and hard disk drive are the only components that need replacement, however if your laptop was powered on at the time of spill or you attempt to power it on after the spill, you will also need an expensive motherboard repair or replacement. Sometimes, if you're lucky, only the track pad, battery, or the DVD player are soaked and the motherboard is spared.
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Thoroughly clean the electronics board (motherboard and any additional boards specific to your model) with rubbing alcohol and plenty of q-tips. Water residue is easiest to clean while thick sugary spills like coffee or soda need more attention and time. Make absolutely sure that all nooks and crannies on the board are free of any spill residue.
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If the laptop keyboard/track pad feels sticky from a coffee or soda spill, take it apart and thoroughly clean it. Some makes or models feature a sealed laptop keyboard/track pad, in which case you may have to either replace it or alternatively completely soak/wash it in a rubbing alcohol bath for an hour and then let it dry for a week.
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Leave the cleansed parts outside in a small enclosed, dust free, warm, and shaded area to dry for at least 24 hours. No direct sunlight or exposure to fine airborne particles. Leave a cup full of baking soda next to the motherboard to facilitate drying.
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Re-assemble your laptop.
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Assuming that you followed the steps above and did a thorough cleaning and with a little bit of luck, your laptop should power on and work as it did prior to the spill.
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Tips & Warnings
If you feel you did not or can not do a complete clean up of the internal parts, it's best to contact a third party computer repair professional before turning on your laptop. Experienced third party (not associated with the laptop manufacturer) repair professionals should be able to fix your laptop for a couple of hundred dollars.
Under no circumstances should you be tempted to power your laptop back on before a complete clean up of the internal parts. Even a completely soaked laptop motherboard will function again, without needing any internal repair, if A) Laptop was shut down at the time of spill and B) You do not attempt to turn it back on before a thorough internal clean up.
