[solved] Laptop + water = D:

seasleepy

So about an hour ago my husband spilled about half a glass of water onto his laptop, which was on and plugged in. The water went mostly on the keyboard and a side speaker, but some also went into the fan vents. The laptop looked like it shut itself down, but we obviously don't know for sure. We unplugged it immediately and tilted it to get the water out from inside and sponged off the water on the outside, and then took out the battery (which stayed dry and looks fine). I've told him to leave it open and to leave it for a day before he tries turning it on again.

Now to the questions:
a) I looked a bit at things online, and some recommended taking the laptop apart, but I don't know if those are mostly for if you've spilled something sticky like soda. Should I take it apart (as much as I can) to let it air out more?
b) it's a work laptop, and he...has work stuff on there. So he'd obviously like to get it back and working asap. Can I let him try it in the morning tomorrow or make him wait a full 24 hours, or am I being overcautious and could we try it out later on today?

TychoCelchuuu

Take the keyboard off and blow dry it for a while. It would be best to wait a long time but that's your second best option. If it shut itself down, though, things don't sound so hot. Worst case scenario, you just take the hard drive out and salvage the data (hopefully it's fine), but obviously it's worth trying to turn it on first.

Arch Guru XX

I would pull the hard drive now, just to be safe. When I spilled a cup of water on my laptop keyboard (also a work laptop) I tilted the laptop to let any standing water drain out (some of it came out black, which worried me). I left if on its side for a day to dry, and let it out and turned off for a whole weekend after that. When I turned it on it came to life without any problems, except that the sound chip burned out so I could no longer listen to music at all, either from the speakers or from my headphones.

wallabeeX

24 hours. And I've seen machines short out and work perfectly fine later on - don't let the above post discourage you.

If he needs what he was working on that bad, take out the hard drive and get an external enclosure from your local computer store that can handle 2.5" drives.

seasleepy

Thanks, guys. We booted it up and it looks to be okay.

chuck steak

Hah, I guess I've been kinda lucky. My girlfriends cat spilled water on my laptop and i just tipped it over to drain it and turned it back on in about 10 minutes. It worked fine, and infact made my keys stop sticking (which was from spilling rye and coke on it).

Yeah, this laptop probably won't last too long...