Comments on: How to Clean Up Laptop Spills

on 11/23/2009 You should also let your board completely dry before you plug it in or power it up. You also should leave your battery out so that there isn't any power in the board. If you don't remove the battery or power adapter, you risk in frying your board even more. I always remove the logic board (motherboard) and give it a shower with denatured alcohol and also brush it with a tooth brush, then let it dry or dry it with a compressed air duster can that you use to blow dust out of a computer. The thing people don't quite understand or know that they should do after a spill is that if you spill liquid on a device, you should disconnect the power and remove the battery, then take the laptop completely apart and clean the motherboard with denatured alcohol.. Corrosion is our worst nightmare because it eats away components and makes the solder on each component disappear and then it looses conta...

on 11/23/2009 The best solution is to use denatured alcohol (not rubbing alcohol, Denatured alcohol.) If you have any signs of corrosion then you should wet your board with the denatured alcohol then use a tooth brush to clean it. Thats what I do and most of the time it fixes it... I work on macs laptops and I see water spills a lot so that's my recommendation!.

on 11/7/2009 A couple days ago I spilt a little tea on my laptop keyboard. I was quick to immediately turn it over, perform a cold shut down (pressed power key until it turned off), and dry off the keyboard with paper towels. I kept it upside down for around 6 hours before powering it on to see if it works. No problem, everything is fine (whew!). However, now I wonder if some of the tea may be on the boards that could cause them to erode with time. My warranty does not cover water damage. Should I take it apart and clean the board and immediated areas under the keyboard with q-tips and distilled water or just hope that nothing was affected? That is, how much more damage could I do to it by trying to clean it? I am a computer science major who is familiar with electronics, but not an expert in the area.

on 1/5/2009 Unfortunately, I didn't read this site until after. I kept it on and it was charging. I only attempted to do these items about one hour later. I am drying it now. Is it too late for my computer?

on 9/29/2008 Last night my dog knocked the table and some water spilled onto my laptop I didn't know about this site. The first thing I did was unplug it and shut it down then got off as much of the water as I could I let it sit overnight to dry ( did not invert it or remove the battery) thought I dried everything out ok This morning I plugged it in and turned it on hoping it was OK it is coming up as hardware malfunction
So is this a total loss? any ideas on what I do now??
Help!
Thank you

on 9/26/2008 I am the world wide expert on repairing very expensive equipment which often gets wet. I started with $10-20,000 medical equipment but after perfecting my methods, now we do all laptops ipods and phones. If anyone needs this repair, see my website www.macadamia.us

on 8/26/2008 Hi...thanks for sharing such a useful information,it really helped me as it happened with me 2 days back with my new laptop that I got from http://www.checkcost.co.uk/laptops/c/4220/. I followed the above instructions and it really saved my laptop. Thanks once again for a given article, keep posting.

on 6/17/2007 what about something that has dried under a key so that that key no longer works?

on 5/30/2007 when I worked at IBM laptop systems before sold to Lenovo. There are a few myths posted here in the comments and the original article is also wrong. Hard drives on laptops are self-contained and SEALED. You CAN short the pins across the power leads. You CAN NOT get liquid into the physical disk, or the controller board. To the person who mentioned not using Saline, your half right, Saline would seperate the lamination from the boards and other components. Most importantly, system critical paths are Gold, Saline should never be used anyway. To the person who stated using Distilled water you are 100 % correct! That would be the ONLY solution to use when cleaning a board preferably de-ionized which distilled water. For all users reading this strongly encourage you to not do any of this yourself thats why you have a warranty. If you must I would also recommend using a Q-tip between keys.

on 4/26/2007 Is it possible to experience damage down the line if water is spilled on the laptop? The keys weren't working properly, but the next day everything seemed to be working fine. I'm worried there may be some latent damage that could ruin the computer in the future.

on 9/16/2006 Follow user manual instructions or Google how to remove your keyboard. It's basically just a tray with sensors that lies on top of the other stuff in the computer.

In my case (HP Pavilion DV4000) I had to pry off the switch plate, by pressing down keys near the top and snapping it off, then unscrewing the keyboard from the frame.

Check to see if it's looks sticky or very dirty at the back of the keyboard. If it's bad you might want to replace the keyboard.

I spilled a bowl of frosted mini-wheats into mine. Pried off the keys and cleaned it, but underneath (at the back of the keyboard) it was pretty nasty so I found a replacement on eBay.

on 8/8/2006 The primarily goal is to avoid electrical shorts. These are most likely to cause permanent damage to the laptop. Next, get the sticky stuff out before it dries.

* Act quickly - shut down the computer, unplug power and any cables, and remove the battery. Any electricity in the laptop can possibly cause a short - even if it's turned off. Most laptop battery packs can be removed without special tools.

* Tip the laptop sideways, then upside down, preferably away from any CD/DVD/Floppy drive. Tip or shake gently to drain all fluid.

* Here's the hard part: quickly rinse out the keyboard with water, then turn the laptop over as before to drain. Repeat this two or three times. Work quickly - rinse, drain, rinse, drain. Distilled water is best, Brita, Pur, or other filtered water is the next best, but any water will do in a bind.

* Allow to dry completely - ideally for several days before re-installing the battery or plugging it in.

Pouring water into your laptop keyboard on purpose may sound like madness, but face it - it's already soaked! Would you rather have sticky pina colada drying in the keyboard or nice clean water? I've done this successfully - but there are no guarantees with this kind of accident. Good luck!

on 6/30/2006 Anyone who lives near the ocean knows that salt water corrodes metals faster than regular water. Do not clean a laptop with saline solution.

on 12/8/2005 I work with multiple laptops. Keep drinks below laptop level at all times. Try not to place drinks on the same table as a laptop. Keep laptop elevated if you have to use laptop tilters or laptop fans. You really don't want to spill on your laptop. I always find myself moving my friends drinks away from my laptop when we work together. It's your money, protect it.

on 11/22/2005 I have repaired many laptops that others have claimed to be dead by opening the machine and getting all the gunk off with saline solution and Q-Tips. I then soak the logic board (minus the processor, ram, fans, etc.) in deionized water for a few hours, then allow to air dry. To date, I've fixed about a dozen machines this way (0% failure rate) ranging from water damage to Margarita spills. A bit more hands on than the average person is willing to do, but it works for me!