It’s not what you may expect to happen with your laptop. On one fateful day, you spill any liquid on your computer. I am sure that’s the last thing you can expect to happen with your laptop.
No one knows when this unfortunate event can happen, and your laptop gets wet in your office or home. So what to do if the laptop gets wet?
You may be expecting that the laptop has suffered a significant blow. But here is the news that you can take charge of the situation by keeping your nerves under control. Accept the situation and take right actions to save your laptop and the much more critical data.
Without wasting any further, here are my tips to save your day:
Contents
Shut it Down
That’s the first thing you should do in case you happened to be in a situation of what to do if laptop gets wet. Immediately press the shutdown button of the laptop for at least 5 to 10 seconds that would shut down the laptop. Don’t waste time-saving any work, closing any applications, or wasting precious moments to shut down the laptop properly because these couple moments can be a lifesaver for your laptop. The laptop has sensitive electronic components inside. The electronics components are shirt circuited as soon as the liquid gets spilled.
So, it is vital to power it down immediately. Remove charging cable, USB, or any other devices attached to the laptop.
Remove the battery
This is the first step in the case with regard to what to do if the laptop gets wet. Many laptops have a removable battery, so it is good to take it out. However, most laptops these days come with a fixed battery. If you feel comfortable, use a screwdriver to unscrew the back cover and pull out the battery from the bay.
Turn laptop upside Down
The next step is to turn the laptop upside down so that the liquid can drain off. As you know, the liquid would easily seep into the electrical components, so it would be helpful if you can quickly drain any excess liquid. Then wipe the laptop with a dry cloth or tissue paper.
Let it dry inside
After that, let the laptop dry for at least 24 to 48 hours. It would be best if you didn’t turn it on until it is dry. It is better to dry inside the room. Do not use a hairdryer or any other blower because there is an increasing chance that you will damage the laptop’s sensitive electrical components with the blower. Do not put laptop near heater either. From my experience, it is going to do more harm than any benefit. Heating or blowing can cause static problems and may cause permanent damage to the laptop.
Cleaning the laptop
After twenty-four hours or so, you can clean the laptop gently with a lint-free cloth if the liquid you dropped was coffee or any drink that contains sugar. If you are comfortable, remove the back cover to clean the sticky substance left behind by sugary drinks gently. Do not over-clean, do the job with utmost care.
Using isopropyl alcohol to remove residual salt
Liquids left behind salt deposits between components and electrical circuit board. In that case, grab a soft toothbrush or paintbrush, dip it in higher concentrated isopropyl alcohol to scrub any residual salt you find on the circuit board. But use extreme care as it may remove small components from the board. Carefully inspect cable connectors as well and clean them.
Switch on your beast
After the board is clean and dry, reassemble the laptop parts. Insert the battery if it was removed from the laptop bay and plug in the power cable to switch on. Hopefully, all your hard work and patience will pay off, and you will get the working machine again.
Visit a qualified service technician
In case the laptop runs into any glitch, take it to a qualified service technician to take care of any fault. Further, after powering the machine, look for any signs of overheating. After all, it would be better as even after getting dry, the laptop mineral may remain deposited on the circuit, which conducts current and causes corrosion of components. So technician would clean all the parts with powerful solvents so that the circuit board is not further damaged.
Extra measures
No one says with surety that an accident may not happen. But from experience, I would recommend that it is better to back up your data on a separate hard disk. So that if the repair takes some time, you may have something to fall back. So it is good practice to backup your data regularly. These steps can help you a lot in case of what to do if laptop gets wet.
You should also consider the option to:
- get the insurance of your gadgets as with the payment of minor premium; as this might get you out of trouble if unseen happens to your laptop.
- put a silicon cover on the keyboard to restrict damage in case of spillover.
You can also take preventive measures like putting the cap on beverages when working on a laptop while drinking. Moreover, be careful while drinking tea or coffee to avoid this disaster.
In case case you are using laptop outdoors then take extra precautionary measures regarding rain or weather conditions to avoid your laptop from water.
Now I am pretty sure that you know what to do if laptop gets wet. If you follow the above steps, there is no way that you can get the working machine to fulfill all your professional and entertainment needs.
If you are looking for Best Budget Laptop For Adobe Creative Cloud or you are interested in Best Laptop for MBA Students then go ahead check this out in the proceeding links.