You spilled water/coffee on your laptop. Don’t panic. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the steps to take to try and keep your laptop safe from damage.
If you’ve spilled water, coffee, or any other liquid on your laptop, you are probably panicing. Liquids are touble for electric components and depending on how much you spilled and whether or not you act quickly, you may lose your laptop.
However, there are steps you can take top help you eliminate the risk of water getting onto your laptop’s core components. In this guide, we’ll walk you what to do if you have spilled water on your laptop (or any other liquid).
Table of Contents
1. Step 1: Assess the Situation
2. Step 2: Wipe Off Excess Water/Cofee With A Towel
3. Step 3: Unplug Everything & Turn Off Your Laptop
4. Step 4: Remove Your Battery
5. Step 5: Turn the Laptop Upside Down and Let it Drain
Step 1: Assess the Situation
Did you spill a lot of water or coffee on your laptop? Go to Step 2 now.
Or, did you just spill a little bit of liquid on your laptop?
If you just spilled a little bit of water/coffee on the keyboard or screen, you probably don’t have to follow the rest of the steps in this guide. Simply get a towel and wipe off the excess liquid.
If you want to be thorough, though, move on to the next step.
Step 2: Wipe Off Excess Water/Cofee With A Towel
Before you start unplugging everything, get a towel and wipe up as much of the liquid as possible. The last thing you want to do is start spinning your laptop around and letting the liquid still sitting on your laptop to run off into open ports or vents.
Once you’ve toweled off all visible liquids, then you can start unplugging stuff.
Step 3: Unplug Everything & Turn Off Your Laptop
The next step is to unplug all external devices, remove discs and USB drives, and turn off your laptop. The more things you have plugged in, the more the water or coffee can damage.
So, unplug everything now and then power down your laptop.
Step 4: Remove Your Battery
Once your laptop is turned off, flip it over and remove the battery. If the battery has any liquid or moisture on it, or the battery enclosure has liquid or moisture inside of it, use your towel to dry it our as best you can.
Leave the battery enclosure open.
Step 5: Turn the Laptop Upside Down and Let it Drain
With your laptop already turned upside down, place it on a dry towel and let it sit. Ideally, you should let the laptop sit in this position for long enough to where any moisture inside of it will have evaporated. 24 hours is a safe timeframe to guarantee that all liquids have evaporated.
If you feel comfortable doing so, you can also open up the storage and memory compartments, and/or take off the bottom casing altogether to help get more air inside of the laptop.
Step 6: Test the Laptop After Sufficient Time Has Passed
After sufficient time has passed, you can put your battery back in the laptop, plug back in your important external devices, and turn it back on. I’d recommend turning your laptop back on without the charger plugged in (if possible) at first, and then connecting your charger afterwards if it is working fine.
What Happens if the Doesn’t Work Properly Anymore?
Unfortunately, if you’ve followed the steps above and the laptop is either not working at all, or is malfunctioning (screen not working correctly, not charging, keyboard/mouse not working, etc.), it’s likely that the spilled water or coffee has damaged your laptop.
At this point, your only option is to A) contact your laptop’s manufacturer if it is under warranty and ask them what to do next, or B) take it into a computer repair shop for more help.
