Two days ago

............I spilled about half a glass of water on my laptop.

I have a toshiba satelite...I heard a crackling noise which sounded like the fan or somthing and the computer automatically went to sleep/hibernate not sure which

I immidiatly turned the laptop upside down and didnt turn the power off for mabye about 10 seconds or less (I thought it was off when the screen went out).

so Its been drying for two days in front of a fan....1 night in I turned it on and I got a black screen saying something about please plug in ether net and the laptop was beeping loudly, before that, I managed to login and it would automatically type uuuuuuuu over and over.

so I was hopefull but not sure on my situation. Today I turned it on and everything works fine....there are no signs of a problem.

The only thing I do notice is I beleive it gets a bit warmer now...and it vibrates a BIT more than it did before when in use....I THINK


what should I do from here? what are the chances of my success?

 

I would back up everything of importance on that system right now - no telling how much longer it will work.

 

but there is also a strong chance its fine right? everything is backed up.

Its a bit warm right below the arrow keys...which is somewhere I dont recall feeling warmth...nothing is hot and Ive been using it for an hour....im just trying to stay postive

 

Get a new computer and keep open liquid containers away from it. Liquid damage is probably the worst thing you can do to your PC short of running it over with a truck. It might work well for a little bit, but there will eventually be more problems with it. There's pretty much no chance that it's totally fine.

 

I would take caution when running the system again. Take regular backups of your data, and start shopping for a replacement computer (or RMA it if you have accidental warranty coverage).

 

Im not getting a new computer untill this one is not functioning. I understand that water and computers don't mix but I don't understand how you can be 100 percent certain I will have problems in the future.

I have to work with what I've got...with water spills like this...are repairs usually equally as expensive as buying a new Laptop?

 

The liquid you've spilled is surely not 100% pure H2O. Therefore, there will be impurities in the water (dissolved minerals, etc.) and when the water evaporates, it'll leave those impurities behind inside your computer, resting on the motherboard for the most part. Depending on where these particles are, they can cause a short circuit on the motherboard, frying it completely. Not 100% sure, but 99.99% sure.

 

so does that statement suggest getting those parts cleaned would be helpful?

I understand anything could happen but I have also had others tell me there's a strong chance I will be fine...I just don't know at this point.

thanks for your feedback.

I am still open to more opinion

 

Maybe if you disassembled everything and wiped them with a 50% rubbing alcohol mix, then let it dry. However, I've never done anything that extreme to my laptops before, so I'm unsure how effective that would be.

 

You can either keep using and don't be surprised if it fails on you one day. Or disassemble and clean with rubbing alcohol (I use 99%). I had spilled wine on a laptop of mine. Completely disassembled and cleaned, and it worked fine for some time after that. In any case, keep your important documents backed up on a regular basis.

 

What I would do in your situation (seems a new system or warranty repair is out of the question...) is to buy as much rice (in a sealed package) as you can and get a sealed container in which you can put the layer of rice, the notebook and another layer of rice (basically covering the computer, with the lid closed).

Leave it like this for a couple of more days in a warm room (above 72 F).

Remove it from the sealed container and making sure that no rice has gotten into any slots/holes/vents, use it until it really gives up.

Note: what the rice does is essentially suck all the moisture out of the notebook, making sure it really is as dry as possible. If you have enough silica gel packages (50 - 100 'normal' sized ones) they will do the same thing. The 'trick' is to make sure they are as dry as possible (put them in an unlit oven at 100 C for 20 minutes or so) and put the notebook and the silica gel packets in a sealed (air tight) container).

Good luck.

 

That still doesn't get rid of the impurities, does it?

Mr. Mysterious

 

There is a zero chance it's fine.

Don't fool yourself.

 

No, it doesn't. But with the water completely dried off, it should matter an order of magnitude less.

 

You powered it up before it was dry... its done...

 

Not necessarily true. It could just short something while it's wet. Clean it off and it may work just fine.

 

But if that short hits a critical electronic component (idk, say the BIOS module?), it will be toast, even after it dries. It all just depends on when, where, and how.

 

As someone who has been through this with a couple of laptops in the house, everybody is right. I have had two laptops affected by spills. One had apple juice spilt on it and the other had some sort of soft drink. When it happened, I disconnected the power immediately, pulled all the covers off and cleaned up as much as I could. Then I left them to dry in a nice warm spot. Both came back to life but both needed a bit extra work. In both cases I needed to pull the keyboard out and washed them in the cleanest water I had.

One would power up only if the AC adapter was not plugged in. Once it was started on battery, I could plug the AC in. I pulled apart and cleaned some residue off some components and it was fine afterwards.

Both of these lasted another 18 months. One of them suffered another accident that broke a hinge and the motherboard died at the same time. The other, which was two years old when it had it's bath, started failing and one day just wouldn't turn on. I have always assumed that this was brought on by the spill but never looked into it.

So, it is possible the laptop will last a long time or that it will die tomorrow. If it was in my hands, I would strip it and clean it thoroughly. Then I would just use it as normal (which includes backing it up) until it died or I could find another excuse to buy a new laptop.

 

You are right dude. I don't buy all the bologna all these people are saying about how your laptop is going to fall apart. If it is working fine now, you have NOTHING to worry about. Don't waste your time opening your laptop to "clean the impurities."

 

davidfor and Qing Dao,

I agree 100% with both of you.

In this specific case, because it was water that was spilled on the notebook I think a very thorough drying with rice/silica gel packets will be enough to start using the notebook again.

When we 'have to work with what we've got', I think buying a couple of pounds of rice is within that framework. Compared to disassembling (and possibly further messing things up) and/or buying a new system by default.

 

As long as it works fine now, I wouldn't worry too much! Obviously there are no permanent damages or at least not yet. I would still do the rice thing suggested - it will either help or not change the situation - nothing to loose.

Opening it up and cleaning it is the ultimate solution, but it is risky, especially if you are unsure what you are doing and have no experience doing that.

The air we breath also has 50-80% humidity, so that's nothing to be scared of. Bad is however, if there are still spots containing pure water that is hard to evaporate.

It being louder and warmer is more likely a placebo effect - you being scared of damages and sniffing more carefully - I know that feeling Once you drive over a big hole on the street with your car you start thinking there might be something broken - suddenly the car becomes noisier, less comfortable, less powerful... even the windshield wipers move slower

 

That would definitely work a whole lot faster than just letting it sit out and thoroughly dry for a week or more.

Yes, I really doubt many people would even take their own advice on this.

 

Maybe its a 100% chance there was "permanent" damage. Maybe this damage will only begin to manifest itself in 3 years when the thing is completely obsolete, the inverter and LCD has failed and the hinges are cracked, all of which would probably have happened without water damage.

One of my laptops got rained on, while it was totally disconnected from power and had been so for days. I took it apart (which I was doing on a regular basis anyway) but didn't bother cleaning it with alcohol and all that nonsense. It dried in just a few days. I've used it and worked on it several times since, different CPUs and graphics cards and everything works perfectly. Its now been in use as someones main computer for a few months.

This was new jersey rain too but I really don't think the minerals and inconsistencies and what not are much more dangerous than the grease that gets on a circuit board from your fingers or even metal dust which is really too fine to short anything.

 

Thanks for the feedback guys especially the positive feedback. I'm just going to take it day by day from here.