Spilled Water On My Computer

Thanks for reading,
Last night, I spilled a glass of water on my laptop. Within minutes the monitor went blank,I left the computer on last night hoping it was temporary.
When I came to work today a coworker called his friend who works for IBM
and told me to shut the system down and dont turn it on for 2 days and there was a 50-50 chance it would dry out and be ok.

Does anyone know if this is right and have any thoughts.
I am at work now and will be for about an hour and then wont have access to a computer till the week after Christmas so if any one can share their thoughts right away I would appreciate it.
Its a toshiba with a vista OP and waranty just expired.It is one year old.
I cant afford another computer so I am praying this works. I had to take the battery out to shut it off because the button was not shutting the computer off itself.
I am a beginner so if you can keep it simple I would appreciate it.

Thank-- for sure i am not smiling like the guy above right now

 

That would be my thought too. Shut it down and let it dry out.

 

any thoughts on the chance it will work? Has anyone ever seen a situation such as this correct itself?
Thanks
Thomas

 

No sorry Thomas, I don't know if that will work but what have you got to loss in trying it out. I would turn the computer upside down so the water can drain and dry out. I would think after a week it would be dry. Sorry my friend that I can't help you more than this.
Phil

 

Several times but

Water and electronics don't mix, if you'd immediatley powered down completely and removed the battery you'd have a good chance it would still work (albeit with a little TLC). Leaving it on overnight as your earlier post implies reduces that chance to less than %1 (if that).

 

pressurized air

 

I haven't had such an occasion with a laptop but I have had similar experience with a pager and cell phone that got dunked in fresh water (on different occasions). I removed the battery for each and let them dry out. I hung the pager above a heat register overnight. I put the cell phone (candy bar style Nextel) in an oven on VERY low temperature for an hour or two and then I removed the cell phone from the oven and let it sit (without the battery) a couple days.

I would be inclined to keep the battery and power cord out of the laptop for at least a week (but I probably would not use the oven without further research).

Cross your fingers.

 

Hi Thomas,
If it was fresh drinking water, no gas, no additives, there is a good chance that it will recover. If it was my laptop I would visit my friendly local camera, or computer shop, and beg some of the little fabric silica gel bags that are always packed in with the various items of equipment. Then seal the laptop in a plastic bag with the silica gel bags around it, and leave it in a warm place for a week.
Good luck,

Roger

 

Several good suggestions have already been posted but I'd have to agree with wildfire, your chances of recovering this machine are slim to none at this point in time. For future reference, disconnect power and pull the battery immediately and do not touch any keys or try to do anything else in the event of a spill. The laptop can then be turned upside down while open in an inverted V and left to dry for a week or more. Following this one can remove the keyboard and check for remaining moisture. Although some may suggest hair dryers or heat guns, slow air drying is probably the most effective.

I have encountered this only once with a plumbing leak and collapsed ceiling and in that case, the owner also tried using it immediately after the spill. After drying this out, I still had to replace the keyboard (tested OK with a USB external so we went ahead with a keyboard replacement) but consider it very lucky no other damage was evident.

In my own stupidity, about 3 years ago I cleaned my PDA screen with windex that then wicked/leaked around the screen (touch screen) and could never recover it.

For liquids other than pure water, the routine is similar but some dissassembly and an alcohol wash are probably going to be necessary. Quite often things can be salvaged with minimal parts replacement as long as power and battery are disconnected/removed immediately.

 

I couldn't add much more. I would look at removing the keypad while it dried. I use Contact Cleaner for the electronics. The contact cleaner I use states "removes moisture...leaves no residue ". I would blow any dust out first though.

I sympathise with Rockster about cleaning the screen. I use a soft disposable cleaning cloth. Wet it with slightly warm water. Ring it out until there can be no dripping water, spray a small amount of glass cleaner onto the cloth. Wipe the screen, then immediately dry it with a soft tissue.

Matt

 

It sounds like Thomas is offline for a week. Hope he did set the laptop aside to dry out, powered down and without a battery.

It sounded odd to me that the screen went black but the computer kept running. Since he said that he had to unplug the laptop to turn off (since the switch did not work), maybe there was a short in the electronics but the fan and lights kept running. It seems unlikely that just the screen shorted out but that the rest of the computer ran fine all night. But it depends where the water went, I guess.

I had good luck with my only spill. I spilled part of a Coke on the keyboard area. I quickly turned the laptop over and let it dry for a day. It worked fine. I had unplugged it and turned it off, but did not remove the battery. I suspect the liquid never seeped past the keyboard to the electronics area.

 

I think that's his only hope, like you I've only had one problem with spillage (and that was due to a four legged furry wee friend so he's forgiven). Fortunately it was only the keypad that was affected and after removing the keypad for 24 hours (using an external during that time) it was working fine.

If Thomas is lucky it is only the keypad therefor easily repaired/replaced but a lot depends on his original cleanup job and how much (if any) liquid seeped into the workings.

My advice for others still stands, if you have spillage then remove power completly and immediately then follow the other sound advice in this thread regarding drying the system out.

 

My Computer Is Working Everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Last night, I tried it after two days of the battery being out and having it shut down-- as you reall the only way it would shut down was to pull battery out.
Last night, I was thinking what a great C. gift this would be. I plugged everything back and No Dice!!!

Tonight-- the 26th when I returned from work I said what the heck if it didnt work last night there is no chance it is going to work tonight( especially after reading one or two of the post--- Which I know Were Written To Help Me!

I started it up and I seen the Tosbia sign and I was in shook!!!!! It tried to run but said the system was not working and asked me if I wanted to do a System Restore and I said Yes. I did the restore and then after I would say a little more time than normal is began running. I kept praying to God and then Wham my desktop with icons appeard, then I was like ok all I need now is the ability to get online and Bang!! I got right on line and it was as if the computer didnt miss a beat!!!!
I am still in shook everybody and that is happy shook.

Thank you all for your thougts and when I came back tonight to share and seen more people post I said to myself I wasnt alone all those guys were discussing it and in my corner!!
If anyone ever does this to their laptop I would highly suggest listening to the suggestions above. Most important, I learned: Don't be placing water near my laptop too much of a risk!!! Hopefully this post will help someone else avoid a blunder such as mine.

If anyone reads this, can they comment on cleaning the computer with windex which is what I do. Is this another no, no!!!!
Thanks again everybody, I had to share with you all because I am soooooooo glad it is working!!!!!

Thomas

 

Oh,
If it helps anyone, I turned it over and made like a tee pee or a V and placed it over the heating vent. I dont know if that helped but I just trying to give back a little since I receive so much on this site
Thomas

 

Thanks for posting back with results and congratulations. It sounds like Santa was very good to you.