Fluid in laptop

[sdcards]

My notebook was crashed back in the some time due to fluid I was drinking fell down on the board. Now Its useless, Can some one recomend me what to do now?

[Poconos]

Depends on the fluid and other conditions.

-- What did you spill?

-- How long ago?

-- Did you pull the battery and fully unpower the thing immediately?

-- What actually did the liquid hit?

 

With any kind of a spill whether it be a laptop, cell phone, or any electronic equipment, your best chance of preventing permanent damage is to kill all power as fast as possible. If you can take it apart and open things up, do it. Wash the parts with plain water followed by immersing in 90% isopropyl alcohol, then dry thoroughly. Drying could be pretty quick if you have compressed air and warmth or quite lenthy if it cannot be disassembled and all you have is warmth to aid drying. Of course there are no guarantees as with some electronics the parts are so sensitive that even the slightest bit of electrical conduction between printed wiring runs can electrically destroy components. This process has worked successfully for me on several cordless phones that have been dropped in my pool.

Hope this helps.

Al

[Jelly Bean]

I do not agree.

 

To add more water into the already wet product is certainly a no way.

 

Ok certain drinks can leave deposits on hardware like my nephew did with his MAC book,he spilt coke I belive.

 

I also do NOT advise opening up any machine unless you know what you are doing.Especialy with laptops.You can totaly cause more damage if you are not fully skilled in this area.

 

My advise I give to those who have spilt any fluid into a laptop is to power off straight away remove any removable parts such as battery.Tip the laptop on one of its edges and let it drain of water.Do not place in a airing cupboard at all.Just place in a war room and leave for 2-3 days.

 

If after 2-3 days the machine dont power back on then it is replace the mainboard wich could be costly.

[Starbuck]

http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs44/f/2009/125/8/d/Washing_Machine_Tard_by_DrM94.gif

[Plastic Nev]

First bit quite correct, remove power and battery as soon as possible, spilled a drink in it? remove all power now!!! Not in ten minutes.

 

Too many computer components can be ruined just by being wet, even with no power on, so washing with clean water is a definite no. As Jelly Bean says, try to drain out what has got in, then leave to dry out in a warm room for several days is all that should be done.

 

SdCards, if it got wet some time since, and the battery and power wasn't removed straight away, you can try asking a repair tech locally to look, but it may now be too far gone to repair cheaply if at all.

Nev.

 

PS I like the idea of the spin dryer Starbuck, if you ruined it by getting it wet, you might as well totally destroy it in there.:D

[Tony D]

This process has worked successfully for me on several cordless phones that have been dropped in my pool.

 

I think that's proof that his process MAY work. It's a 'useless' machine right now anyway.

 

I had a laptop in here where the user spilled a glass of wine in it. I took it apart and scrubbed the system board where the wine spill was evident. The machine came back to life. The only problem after the alcohol wash was that the USB ports didn't work. Thinking that USB ports supply 5 Volts, it was probably a fuse that blew with the wine spill.

[Tootech]

sdcards, can you let us know what liquid you spilt on your laptop.

 

Personally I think all the methods described can work - it depends on the liquid and the potential damage.

 

I wouldn't tend to use water to clean electronic components as JB points out, BUT how do you remove a sugar based solution without water? Used sparingly to remove Cola or sugared coffee residue may be the only answer.

 

Certainly a total stripdown is in order. Hard drive should be ok, keyboard probably not, mainboard, maybe ok, they do survive quite well.

 

If you have IPA, Isopropyl alcohol - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, you can probably do a decent clean up, using cotton buds and IPA on all of the connectors and cable ends and ribbon cable ends.

 

I too have worked on machines that are considered dead, and after a full strip down, clean and thorough dry they have come back to life.

 

If you don't consider yourself capable of a stripdown, take it to a shop for further work.

[KenB]

I tend to agree with Tootech.

Whilst mixing water and electrical components is usually a definite "NO" if the drink left a residue that is shorting the connections on the motherboard say - there is little option but to wash it off.

 

The water will eventually evaporate or can be assisted using compressed air or a hair dryer.

It is important to ensure that the individual parts are completely dry before switching on again.

 

The damage is probably done if the machine was not switched off immediately the drink was spilled.