Q&A for How to Save a Laptop from Liquid Damage

The circuitry may be damaged on your touchpad and it is probably worth getting a check, if you haven't already, try seeing if your touchpad was disabled by accident first.

You should have turned it off right away. It sounds like your laptop has shorted out and likely won't recover from this. Bring it in to a repair shop to find out if its fixable.

It could, but every situation is different. I spilled milk on mine and turned it off and then back on 20 minutes later and it was fine, except for some speaker damage. So it really just depends how bad the spill was, where it got into the machine, etc.

Chances are the "liquid" has dried and gummed up some of the keys. Try cleaning underneath the keys (i.e. removing the actual letter or number plate and clean thoroughly underneath.) Be careful not to break the plastic arms that are like the hinges of the key!

If the SD card did not come in contact with the liquid, then it might still be usable. If it did come into contact with the water, you should try to pry it open carefully and let it dry out overnight. If there is any visible or sticky residue, you need to wash it off first.

I removed the back from mine and used a blow dryer on it. It responded with a blinking light and, after I let it sit for 12 hours, it was fixed.

If you turned it off immediately after the spill and removed the battery right after, you can try opening the board and dry the liquid out. But if you have the battery inside your laptop with the liquid inside for many days, there is a chance it will short-circuit when you boot it up, if it will boot up.

The battery is probably damaged. Try getting a new one for the model of your computer.

Yes. Submerge your laptop in a bag full of rice for about two days.

You can take your hard drive out, put it in an appropriate hard drive enclosure, and plug it into a working computer via a USB and boot it up to the external drive. However, if the hard drive is also dead, you will not be able to boot it up.

That's highly unlikely, unless you spill something on it again.

In many models you can. To do so, take off the back case of the laptop where the battery is indicated, then when you see a black bar that says power something, there's the battery. However, not all laptops can be opened without voiding the warranty, while some laptops are only suitable to be opened by professionals, such as the MacBook Air. Read the manual accompanying your laptop for more details.

Probably not. The water already got inside your laptop and affected the circuitry.

It depends on how much water damage your laptop has encountered.

It's possible to buy a new one from the manufacturer (or from sites like eBay and Amazon) and install it yourself. If this exceeds your capabilities, a computer repair shop can fix it for you.

Do not turn it back on for at least a week. You need to be 100% sure that it's dry. If there's still liquid in there when you turn it on, it will be completely destroyed. Follow the steps listed in the article. If you open any panels and see liquid has gone though the keyboard and down to the bottom, it needs to be taken to a professional for repair.

It depends on the severity of the spill and if you care about voiding a warranty. In most cases, you can take the data from the computer's hard drive and simply copy to another external hard drive and all will be fine. If you cannot open it for warranty reasons, let the computer company do this for you, it should be a relatively easy task for them.

If there is no visible damage, then you may get away with it. If your laptop has stopped working and the manufacturer finds evidence of water damage, then the warranty might be void. You should contact your laptop company's customer service to find out.

You could buy a new pretty nice laptop for $1400. Unless your original was really pricey, I would recommend backing it up, buying a new one, and restoring from your old memory. $1400 is too much to spend on repairing when you could get something newer and better without memory loss.

Sounds like a severe hardware failure. I'd suggest taking your laptop to your nearest PC repair place ASAP. Keep in mind, you might be looking at buy a new laptop.

Get a computer keyboard that will go in the USB. If that doesn't work, you may have to get a new laptop.

Turning it on made the electricity jump through the liquid and go places it shouldn't have been. You'll need to bring it to Apple to be repaired.

Follow all of the steps above to prevent circuitry from shorting. If the honey just went into the keyboard, it's an easy fix. With a bit of searching, you can easily find a replacement keyboard for your laptop. Don't try to install it yourself unless you have the proper tools and have done it before. You should ask a professional to install it. You can also pay the manufacturer to repair it. It shouldn't be any more than $50. If the honey shorted the circuitry, the repair is going to cost a lot more. Again, contact a professional or the manufacturer.

You've most likely done serious damage to your laptop. Take it to a professional to be repaired.

Yes, it can be effective to use a fan.

Make sure the liquid is completely dried. Try to remove the battery and turn on the laptop while it's plugged in. If this works, put the battery back in.

The motherboard may be damaged and would have to be replaced. They typically would only cost you around $50 USD.

Throw it in some white rice so it will soak up the water. Depending on the size of the laptop, you'll probably need a good amount of rice. Make sure there is some on the bottom and then cover it completely.

Wait a day for it to dry as suggested above since this is most likely due to there being lingering fluid within the computer. Follow the steps suggested above.

Power it off and remove the battery if possible. then wipe it down and, if extensively wet, place in rice.