Spilling water on laptop is a common occurrence throughout the world. Although you can totally destroy your laptop, and hence your data, if you spill water on it, if you know the procedure, it’s not the end of the world. A laptop is a pretty sturdy machine — some people literally take different parts apart and wash them, although we’re not suggesting that you should do that too.
In various computer manuals it is suggested that you keep liquids and crumbs away from your machine as they can accidentally enter and cause damage. No matter how careful you are, some way or the other you end up spilling liquids on your laptop, and if nothing else, your toddler may pee on it, or vomit on it. Anyway, we hope you’re reading this just to prepare yourself and no such eventuality has taken place.
These are the things you may consider if you spill water over your laptop:
- Immediately switch it off. Shut your laptop by force (press the on-off button for a few seconds) and don’t try to shut it off using the standard procedure. If you are lucky, you’ll switch it off before the water causes the short circuit and burns your hard drive.
- Don’t shake or stir the laptop. This is the sure-shot way of sending water to your sensitive areas. In case you need to move the laptop, do it very gently.
- Take out whatever you can. Take out the power chord, USB connections, data cards, DVD drives, battery, mouse, and anything else you can. Remember, do it fast, and do it gently.
- Don’t turn on your laptop. Your laptop will surely burn if you turn it on and it is wet from the in side of it. Many people do this in a hurry to know whether their laptop is working or not. DON’T do it.
- Keep it tilted or upside down for a few hours. Figure out from where you can get most of the water out, and keep your laptop tilted in that direction.
- Use a blower or hair dryer. Blow dry your laptop, but don’t put it on hot. Just use the air to dry the water.
- Keep it in a room with the air conditioner on. Air conditioner suck water out of the room and creates dry air that might help your laptop dry up faster.
- Wait for more than 24 hours. After taking all the steps above, wait for more than 24 hours before your try switching it on. If you feel some serious amount of water had gone in, or if your laptop had fallen into a water container, then you must wait for a couple of days.
In most of the cases you should be able to use your laptop after following these steps, but in case you cannot, better seek professional help. Of course precaution is the best protection.
