Dealing with liquids spilled on laptops

Coffee, tea, beer, wine, sodas, fruit juices, and water are the most liquids that tend to be associated with accidental spills on laptops. The problem with laptops is that their portability elicits highly personal usage patterns that often result in proximity to the aforementioned fluids. With desktop computers, spills are mostly limited to keyboards that are peripheral to the case where the CPU, hard drive, and other components are housed; this is not the situation with laptops, whereby liquid spilled over the keyboard may quickly soak the crucial and delicate components installed underneath.

Spilled liquids over laptops happen all the time; they can be destructive in many cases, but they can also be handled in ways to minimize the damage. Here are some advice from the professionals at Sonic Systems about things you may be able to do:

KEEP YOUR IMPORTANT DATA IN THE CLOUD

Losing an expensive piece of hardware is not as bad as the prospect of not being able to access personal and business data stored in a ruined hard drive. Since spills are simply waiting to happen near laptops, the best protective measure is to make sure your most vital data is backed somewhere, preferably in secure cloud storage. If you need help with selecting a remote backup service, or even a remote backup solution for your entire business, Sonic Systems is ready to help.

ACT VERY QUICKLY

Even if your data is safely backed up, you certainly don’t want to lose a piece of expensive hardware without at least trying to salvage it. The moment you spill a cup of latte on your laptop, your first move should be to unplug it and turn it off by holding down continuously on the power button for most laptops.

SET THE LAPTOP TO DRY

With your laptop in a fully open position, use a towel to wipe down the spilled liquid before finding a spot where it can be set to dry. If the case is easy to open by means of removing a few screws, you may do so but do not go any further than that. Consider setting the laptop somewhere where moisture can be removed. If you feel confident that the laptop is dry, you can try turning the laptop on; if it is unable to boot the operating system, contact our technicians.

PREPARE AGAINST FUTURE ISSUES

A laptop that has water damage will be at higher risk of future problems. Mitigate risks by implementing a backup and restore solution if you do not already have one.