Laptop + Water = ?
 This can be devastating! Not only do you lose your computer which can be a financial disaster but you potentially lose important info, picture, emails and memories. Never to be seen again! Or, and I mean a BIG OR, you may luck out as I did.
This actually happened to me and the techs I questioned came up with these quick tips to try and avoid permanent damage:
- Immediately turn it off, unplug your computer and take the battery out. That's a given.
- Turn it upside down on a flat surface. Get some paper towel to place under it and sop up any water on the bottom. Hopefully, the water hasn't had time to penetrate down to the motherboard level.
- Get the right size screw driver and remove the rear cover. You might be a little nervous about this but I looked at it this way; The computer is probably toast if you don't do anything so...what do you have to lose?
- Make a sketch of how things came apart to aid in assembly and I would even take a couple of digital pics as well. Jot down any notes necessary to help you in putting it all back together.
- Remove components like the hard drive, CD drives and any memory sticks. Just be careful not to let your screw driver touch any thing other than screws! DON'T force anything. My advise, if it doesn't remove easily, leave it!
- Walk away and let it dry! This could take a couple of days. Literally! You don't want to rush this unless you want to rush to your local computer store and buy a new one!
 After the first day I took mine and stood it up on end and allowed some trapped water to run out the side of the disk drive. I also took some small pieces of paper towel and gently slid the corner under the keys to help wipe out the water.
After the computer is dry it is time to evaluate the damages. Put the memory back and then put the battery in. Turn the unit on. What you are looking for here is to see if the unit tries to start up and find the hard drive without sizzling or creating any smoke! You should get a loud continuous beeb. That's a good sign. If you performed this function with the hard drive in place and you had voltage problem you could potentially ruin the drive thus losing information. Next, turn it off, put the drive in, plug it in and turn it on.
If all goes well, great! You may find some quirks off the bat. I found that the moisture caused a couple of keys to stick and I ended up blowing some Carbon Dioxide into the keyboard. This did help and for what ever reason I did a system restore to a couple of days before. So far, all is good!
Remember this. If liquid is spilled into your laptop flip upside down immediately. That is your best hope!
Always consult a professional with questions regarding computers. I am not a pro but I have had my share of experience!
If you have any tips you would like to share, send it to us with your first name and the city where you live!
-Writers of Dads101
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