Husband spilled diet soda into his laptop...again

[sbwertz]

Just in case you ever spill a soft drink or coffee, or anything else but water, into your laptop or keyboard, here is how to save it.

Immediately pop the cd drawer open. Then unplug the laptop it and remove the battery. Unplug everything from all the ports. Take it to the sink, and run cold water all over the keyboard. Be sure it flushes out everything, especially if it was a sugared drink....the sugar tends to be hard to rinse out. Shake out as much of the water as you can, then blow out the keyboard with compressed air...either with an air compressor or with canned air. Then partially close the lid so it will stand upright on the front edges like a pup tent. Make sure the cd drawer is still open. Stand it in front of a fan for 24 hours.

If it was just water spilled into it, just shake it out, blow it out with air, and stand it up to dry.

Replace the battery and boot it up. If it boots up, you are golden. :biggrin:

Same treatment for a desktop's keyboard.

His is back up and running. (I'm a computer consultant by trade, by the way. Have to admit the first time I have to do this to a client machine they almost have a heart attack when I put it under the running water LOL. So far I have a 100 percent recovery rate.)

 

[1080Wayne]

Thanks for detailing the proper recovery procedure Sharon . Haven`t committed that sin yet , but always flirting with it .

 

[sbwertz]

Thanks for detailing the proper recovery procedure Sharon . Haven`t committed that sin yet , but always flirting with it .

I think regular coke and coffee with cream and sugar are the worst. If it really gets a soaking, I open the back and take out the hard drive and memory before flushing it. If necessary, I rinse them separately. Just trying to keep the sugar and acid from getting flushed into the innards of the hard drive. Water won't hurt it if you let it dry completely. If you have something that does not have a removable battery, this method can be chancy. You really don't want any source of electricity in there when you rinse it out.

I know someone who actually ran their computer keyboard through the dishwasher after spilling some fancy starbucks concoction into it. It worked. (top shelf only)

 

[JimB]

I've never had this happen but it is good to know. Thanks for sharing.

 

[LouCee]

Have to admit the first time I have to do this to a client machine they almost have a heart attack when I put it under the running water LOL.

I almost had a heart attack just at the thought of doing it, I didn't realize that was an option. Thanks for posting this, it's great information to have if I spill a beer on my laptop...again.

 

[tbroye]

Thanks Sharron, if I had known that it would have saved me the cost of a new Apple keyboard and let pad.

 

[randyrls]

I worked for a time as Tech Support. One day a call came in a keyboard was not working. As I picked it up and tilted it, coffee ran out. The person swore they didn't drink coffee, but there were several empty coffee cups in the waste can.

 

[Woodchipper]

Interesting. Sharon, I had a guy tell me a consultant was a person who couldn't hold a regular job. Yes, I worked as a manufacturing consultant.

 

[leehljp]

I have done that a few times over the years on family's computers and many non-waterproof phones. AS to phones, I would dry them and stick them in a bowl of uncooked rice to draw the moisture out.

Thanks for sharing this.

 

[gimpy]

Thanks for the info, my wife and I each got new laptops, the funny thing is the new ones don't have a cd slot any more

 

[sbwertz]

Thanks for the info, my wife and I each got new laptops, the funny thing is the new ones don't have a cd slot any more

I know. I bought a usb cd/dvd burner to use with my netbook. It doesn't have a hard drive either...just a big memory chip for storage and a SD card slot. But it is very small and very light and I carry it around with me to clients so if their system is down I can still get on the net.