5 Crucial Steps on How to Deal with a Laptop Spill

You just spilled your coffee on your laptop… Now what?Your immediate reaction and the steps you take can make the difference between a simple cleaning of your laptop to needing your motherboard replaced.It all depends on what you do next and how quickly you react.

The Crucial Steps to take to save your laptop:

Step 1: Turn Your Laptop OFF. If your laptop is running when the spill happens, shut it down as fast as possible. Holding the power button down for 10 seconds is the fastest way to safely power your laptop down without potential corrupting your operating system.

Step 2: Unplug the Power Adapter From Your Laptop. If you are plugged into a power adapter you need to unplug the cord from the laptop itself.You want to remove all power sources to reduce the chance of something short circuiting.

Step 3: Remove Your Laptop Battery. After your laptop has been shut down, and unplugged, remove the battery pack. This will ensure that your laptop cannot be accidentally powered up and removes any way that power can still be going to the motherboard.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Do not turn your laptop back on. Resist the urge to check and see if your laptop still works. This is the worst thing you can do.It is extremely important to keep your laptop turned off, with no power available to it, until it is cleaned and repaired.

Step 4: Open Your Laptop, Turn it Over and Let it Dry. The goal is to use gravity to pull the liquid from the components and let it dry at least over night.

Step 5: Get it repaired and cleaned quickly. Depending on the liquid spilled on your laptop, it may be corrosive, and can still be doing damage to your laptop. The best defense is getting your laptop in for diagnosis and repair as soon as possible. The quicker you get your laptop into the hands of a professional, the better off you will be in minimizing the damage.

Remember these 5 steps and you can potentially save yourself from needing to buy a new laptop. I have seen laptop repairs resulting from spills range from a thorough cleaning and diagnostic check, to having to replace motherboards, and it is easy to tell when the owner handled the spill correctly and when they didn’t.Just follow the steps!