Is it Possible to Clean Liquid Spilled in a Laptop?

Answer: Yes is is possible depending on what was spilled into the laptop and under what conditions.

I have had many laptops brought to me to repair that have had everything from water to soda spilled into the device. And about 75 percent of them can be dried out, cleaned and used again with some parts replaced.

Gasoline had been spilled into one laptop I was given to fix. That one didn't make it. Gasoline and other toxic chemicals like benzine will melt some plastics.

Let's take a look a what you do when liquid is spilled into a laptop. The first thing you must do is immediately shut the laptop off if it hasn't already done so on its own. Do not be concerned with shutting the laptop down normally from the shutdown icon and don't be concerned about closing your software down that you are using when this occurs.

As quickly as you can turn the laptop off with the power button. It is particular important to get the laptop shutdown quickly if a sugary liquid like soda has been spilled into the laptop as it will start to cook the sugary liquid and may cause a short. Of course, any liquid may cause a short if the computer remains running.

In some cases you will smell burned sugar (smells like baking cookies) if the liquid finds its way onto the computers processor or other parts that produce or disperse heat. You will likely lose any work you have open and not yet saved, but you may possibly lose all the data if you don't act quickly to shut the system down. Now at this point you should let the laptop sit and dry as best you can.

Don't blow air into or on the laptop as this may cause the liquid to spread further into the laptop. You should take a dry paper or cloth towel and dab up the the liquid that is still on the outside of the laptop. Do not wipe the liquid as this will cause some of the liquid to be pushed into the laptop. Make sure you don't tip the laptop any more than necessary to keep liquid from spreading further.

Some people will feel adventuresome enough to open up the laptop and try to repair it themselves. If you don't feel comfortable taking apart the laptop call your computer repair company immediately. You will notice that all of the screws are labeled on the outside of the case each with a single letter. For example, all of the screws that go through the back of the laptop and attach to the keyboard are labeled with the letter K. I recommend sticking the screws on the back of masking tape that you have labeled to make sure you get them back in the correct holes as the screws vary in size. If you don't label them it will just take longer to get the whole thing put back together.

CAUTION TAKE NOTES: Make sure you write down how you have taken things apart and find a way to label wires and cables so you will be able to get it all back together.

Once you have the laptop opened up and the keyboard removed you can begin cleaning up the spill. Use a towel to dab up any remaining moisture you can see and check for rust. Rust or other deposits such as sugar may be cleaned up with denatured alcohol. Do not use rubbing alcohol as it will eat up plastic and leave residue. You may want to use a cotton swab or a small soft brush to help clean up the affected areas.

The hard drive and CD/DVD drive should also be removed and dried and cleaned. If the hard drive is encased in a cradle then remove the hard drive from the cradle to clean and dry, but do not attempt to take the hard drive itself apart. If you have not backed up your data and the laptop does not restart after being dried and cleaned, then the hard drive can be attached to another computer with a USB adapter unit and your data can be copied to another machine. If the hard drive itself was ruined by the spill (this is rare) then you may be out of luck unless you are willing to spend a few to several hundred dollars to have a data recovery company rebuild the drive and recover the data.

Once you have dried out the laptop and put it all back together it should start as long as you have connected everything back together correctly and there was nothing shorted out by the spill.