If you have a drink beside your laptop, whether it’s a glass of wine, a bottle of water, or a cup of tea, you face the danger of potential liquid damage. Water and electronics don’t mix. Therefore, you should act quickly if you spill water (or another liquid) on your laptop. One accidental splash won’t necessarily kill your computer, but there is a potential that it might cause long-term damage. So, the following instructions should be followed to prevent liquid damage to your laptop:
Have you spilt water on your laptop? Here's how you can fix it
Power off your Laptop
Turning off the computer right away after a mishap is the first thing you should do. On almost any laptop, the quickest way to do this is to press and hold the power button for six to ten seconds until it shuts down. Disconnect the laptop from the wall socket or power adapter as soon as it has finished shutting down.
Disconnect all equipment
Once the most important need to switch off and detach the laptop has been addressed, continue isolating it from any accessories. Remove any connections from the laptop, including USB cables and any flash drives or other things that may have been plugged into USB ports.
Dry Off
- Working fast allows you to eliminate as much water as possible. The longer your laptop remains wet, especially if the liquid isn’t merely water, the more likely it may sustain permanent damage.
- Nevertheless, exercise caution, especially if you open the laptop and touch its interior parts (see the section on opening your laptop). There are several fragile pieces.
- In general, you should use absorbent cloths or paper towels to absorb liquid, but utilize cotton swabs for tiny portions, nooks, and crannies. For a water spill, that should be sufficient, but if you spilled soda, coffee, or tea, it’s vital to clean up any conductive residue that could have been left behind after the liquid evaporated. Small quantities of rubbing alcohol are helpful, but you should always dip your swab or cloth in the alcohol rather than pour or spray it straight on the components.
- To allow any liquid that may have crept into the device to drain through the keyboard, vents, and seams in the casing, you should also open the laptop into a wide “V” shape and stand it upside down on a level surface. Leave it set up like that as you think through your next move to give the confined liquid time to escape. As liquid emerges, keep drying the surfaces of your laptop.
Remove all the components you can
- This phase will depend on the kind of laptop you have and how comfortable you are doing electronic surgery. Remove the battery from the case’s bottom if your laptop allows it. You may skip this step if your laptop is one of the many modern models with non-removable batteries. But if the battery can be taken out and put away, do so if it has a button or slider on the bottom of the casing. If the battery is moist, dry it.
- Open the laptop to obtain access to internal parts such as the hard disk, CPU, and RAM if it can be opened for maintenance. If possible, carefully remove and lay aside any internal parts that are easily accessible. Any of these interior parts that you can access should be carefully dried.
- It may take many days to dry these parts thoroughly, so leave them outside. Wait until the laptop and its internal components are dry before putting it back together and turning it on. Wait a few days (or longer) before turning the laptop back on if you cannot access it or remove any parts.
Take your laptop to the Service centre
Consider bringing your laptop to the HP Service center in Chandigarh, and get your device adequately repaired as soon as possible. Professionals can take better care of your laptop and ensure it is thoroughly cleaned and dried than you can use improvised household tools and methods. If hiring a professional service isn’t an option, keep in mind to be cautious and thorough, and wait at least a few days before reapplying power.