Liquid spilled onto laptops is the leading cause of death for laptops. It is not only dog drool but any liquid. Mostly we see laptops that have had coffee, water or wine spilled onto them. Fluids quickly seep under the keyboard and into the delicate insides of the machine where there are countless electronic components that do not suffer liquids well, such as the motherboard, hard drive, memory, cpu, etc. Some of these parts can be easily and economically replaced if damaged but others, like the motherboard are difficult and expensive to replace and usually spell the end of the laptops life. There is some hope in the event of spills if you act quickly and follow the steps below.
1. Always turn off the laptop immediately. Do not attempt to save your work. Unplug the machine and pull out the battery right away. Sop up any liquid you can with towels.
2. Remove any parts that are designed to be removed by you, the user, such as removeable disk drives, pcmcia cards, etc. Do not attempt to disassemble the unit.
3. Gently tilt the laptop in various directions in an attempt to drain any excess liquids out od the openings that are situated in several areas on the sides and bottom of the laptop.
4. Turn the laptop upside down so that any remaining pools can drain out the way they came in. Canned air can be helpful at this point to help blow any droplets loose and further help in the drying out process.
5. Let the machine air dry for at least 24 hours. You will be tempted to use the machine right away but it is not adviseable.
6. After allowing the machine to air dry, replace any parts you may have removed and try to power up. If the computer does not boot, take it to a professional repair shop. Liquid damage is not normally covered by a manufacturers warranty but there may still be hope that a shop can recover the cpmuter or, at least, recover your data from the hard drive.
If your laptop works now, consisder your self very lucky and promise yourself not to keep any liquids near your laptop. If you spilled something sticky onto the keyboard, you may experience some sticking keys. This can be cured by replacing the keyboard (usually resonable cost if you can find the part on the internet), which will almost always work.
