Laptops and Water Do Not Mix: A Cautionary Tale
This past weekend, I was on the web and doing some writing on my beloved Lenovo ThinkPad X40 sub-notebook, when disaster struck. I had a paper cup full of water sitting next to the computer–too close–and a careless brush from my forearm knocked it over onto my keyboard. I watched in horror as half of the cup of water went down below the keys and into the computer.
This is one of the worst things that can happen to a portable computer–especially today’s diminutive ones where liquid jumps straight down to your motherboard and wiring with nearly no obstructions. You can drop most laptops–and some can even be driven over–and still find them workable, but liquid is a no-no. Here’s what I did.
When the water went down into the computer I quickly turned it over and flattened it out, to encourage any water I could to trickle back out. As I did that, I turned the system off, which you can do fairly instantly on the ThinkPads. Even as I watched the computer turn off, though, I could see a sorrowful mess of flashing going on on the display.
I used a towel to get at all the water I could off the computer, and then I removed the keyboard and went about drying the inside of the computer as best I could, including drying with a hair dryer. Alas, though, after I waited a few hours to even try turning the ThinkPad back on, there was no response.
A friend of mine recently experienced the same thing with a MacBook, and when he took it to a repair place, they wanted $700 just to look at it. His MacBook still turned on, but some of the keys didn’t work, so he figured out how to replace the keyboard himself.
In my case, the computer wouldn’t even turn on. So I decided to go one step beyond a cold reboot and actually took the entire system apart, component by component. I removed the hard drive, unplugged everything, and ferreted out any remaining moisture I came across, which wasn’t much. After I replaced each component, and connected everything back together, the ThinkPad turned on like a champ. There have been no further problems, and the little beep the ThinkPad makes when I plug it in currently sounds like great music.
The more years I use computers, the more times I learn that in the vast majority of computing jams, going all the way back to square one–including taking a system completely apart–will eliminate problems. By the way, you can buy spill-resistant keyboard covers for most popular laptops, and Lenovo and other manufacturers have some systems that come with spill-resistant technology. These options are worth considering if you’re going to shell out for a really expensive laptop.
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The first thing I would do is kill the power – ALL the power. That means pulling the plug AND removing the battery; don’t waste your time with a power button. The side effect of pulling the battery is to flip it over as you did, also a good early step, so long as it comes after removing all power.
Obviously be careful not to zap yourself in the process… power… wet hands… puddle, you get the picture.
Then, whatever you can do to dry it out completely before applying power again is a good thing. A hair dryer and patience will go a long way; don’t rush to reassemble.
I would also consider removing and backing up the hard drive to some external source before plugging it back into the affected computer. The last thing you need is to ruin a perfectly good hard drive with a power surge. Most systems should support booting directly to CD/DVD, so you might even try your initial testing after drying out with a boot to a CD, an Ubuntu live CD might be a good choice if you don’t have a bootable OS install CD handy.
Earlier this summer, my girlfriend’s MacBook experienced the joy of an coffee bath when a coworker accidentally spilled her coffee on the laptop.
My girlfriend quickly killed the power, removed the battery and mopped up the spill. She then allowed the laptop to dry for a couple days. I suggested that she clean it further (as coffee residue is not something you want on your logic board), but the machine seemed to power up and operate OK.
Jump forward a couple months – the laptop keyboard and trackpad began cutting out randomly. External keyboards and mice continued to work, so we figured the coffee as the culprit.
We took the laptop to the Apple store in the Pacific Centre in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia … while we did have AppleCare on the laptop, we fully expected that we’d have to pay for the repair (spills are not covered). The Apple Genius asked us point-blank if any liquids were involved, and (honesty being the best policy) fessed up.
The tech said they’d cover the labour under warranty, but we’d have to pay for new parts. If it was just the keyboard tray, it would be about $85 Canadian, whereas the logic board would be much more expensive. We were told that they would need 3 business days to do the repair (this was a Saturday afternoon).
The next day we got a call from the store – the coffee hadn’t made it to the logic board, so they only needed to replace the keyboard tray. Total cost: $85 and we could pick it up anytime (2 days ahead of their estimated repair time). Needless to say we were pretty happy, but it gets even better:
When my girlfriend went to pick up the laptop yesterday, the Apple tech had difficulty processing her payment. Eventually he just handed her the laptop and said “Happy birthday!” (not that it was)
So we ended up having the laptop repaired in under 24 hours, and not paying a cent!
Quickly flipping over is a big no-no: http://lenovoblogs.com/insidethebox/?p=62
Lenovos have drain paths, so you should let these work.
Last summer, my daughter left the water running in the upstairs bathroom, it overflowed, and flooded the kitchen. My wife’s laptop and my old laptop, both Compaqs, were on the kitchen table, and the light fixture over the table was a fountain, with water coming out of the ceiling and streaming over the fixture’s curvy metal segments. Both laptops were inundated.
I retrieved the laptops from the water and removed their batteries. Fortunately both had been closed and unplugged. When the recovery company came, I commandeered an extra industrial fan, stuck the laptops in a corner with their lids open, and kept the fan directed on them for around four days.
I crossed my fingers, held my breath (both crucial steps, I’m sure), reinserted the batteries, and hit the power buttons. Both turned on as if nothing had happened. Cynthia’s was completely fine, while mine made funny noises from the speakers. The damages exceeded $10k, but the laptops were not part of it.
The horror! Samuel, for a moment I thought you were writing about my misfortune.
My ThinkPad T40 took a bath in a 20oz. raspberry Italian Soda. Perhaps due to the conductivity of the syrup, I couldn’t even reach the power button before it flickered and went out. With no life in the machine at all, I had nothing to loose by breaking it down and attempting to revive it.
With my precious ThinkPad completely disassembled, I poured rubbing alcohol over the motherboard to dissolve the raspberry syrup. I did the same to most of the other parts (spare the hard drive and optical drive). Then I took an alcohol soaked cotton swab to the stubborn sugar deposits still in the nether regions, until it appeared to be pretty clean. For good measure I did another alcohol shower. And then finally, I set all the parts in front of a hair dryer on low heat for about 30 minutes.
I reassembled the machine and hit the power button . . . and to my delight, I also got the little beep. I haven’t had a single problem since.
Of course, the value of the machine was at stake, but I was more concerned with the integrity of my data. To that end, I use a back plan or system that would have gotten me through if my ThinkPad didn’t come back to life. Read more about my home office backup plan
*Moves wobbly coffee cup further from MacBook*
Glad to see the tips; if I made such a mistake I wouldn’t have the know-how to pull apart a laptop.
I wonder when schools will start adding basic laptop repair to their prereq curriculums?
Rugged Laptops such as the Toughbook are said to resist coffee spills. I have an old Toughbook which I use for some of my work but its not even half as comfortable as my Macbook.
I am looking into expensive laptops and a spill is one concern I never considered. I should have for I have ruined a cell phone (water) and an expensive office copy machine (can of root beer) with accidental spills. I’m happy your quick thinking and response saved your laptop. Thanks to Samuel Dean’s article I will also include spill resistant keyboard covers and spill resistant technology while shopping for my new laptop. Thank you.
Chuck Rosseel
Cash Gifting Cabbie
You guys that saved your computers are so lucky I have known tons of people who ruin their computers everyday.
Rugged laptops are becoming more commonplace as people find out about them. These are computers built around the military standard known as Mil Spec 810F.
Your example of the repair costs involved make the extra initial expense well worth it.