How do I deal with a wet laptop?

The other day when I was working I knocked a glass of water over and right into my new laptop. I removed the power cable straight away, turned it off and removed the battery however I am now afraid to turn it on. What should I do?

Paul, Marylands

Hi Paul,

You did the right thing. Whether it be a phone, tablet, laptop or anything with a power cable for that matter if you have an incident with water or any other liquid the first thing to do is remove power from the device. This includes removing the battery if the device has one.

The big mistake is the one people make next. Reading on the internet will tell you to stick the device into a container of rice and leave it for a couple of days. This is an attempt to use rice as a homemade silica gel. Silica gel is what comes in all those little packets in your packaging that say don’t eat on them. Silica gel will absorb water in return keeping whatever is packaged dry.

While rice will to a certain degree do the same job it will also leave your device filled with rice dust. Also if you spill something other than water such as a soft drink, your device’s internals will now be covered in a sticky mess.

Removing the liquid is only one step in the process.

The problem is once the liquid is removed corrosion will start, especially if the device has been dropped into water containing impurities such as chlorine from a pool or salt from the ocean.

The device needs to be opened and cleaned properly with an Isopropyl alcohol based cleaner. The alcohol will do two things. Firstly it will remove any remaining moisture and secondly it will clean the circuit board, removing any contaminants that may cause corrosion.

At the end of the day removing the power and battery is a great start in improving the chance of getting your laptop working again however you do need to take it to someone to full disassemble and clean before attempting to turn it back on.