I spilled a liquid on my Swift 3 Laptop and don't know what to do

Was eating my noodles then I accidentally jerked the bowl (which had noodle water) onto the keyboard of my laptop. The screen and sound turned off while everything else like the fan and power seemed fine. I'm concerned about the battery too since it happened while I was charging my computer. I've been letting my laptop sit on top of a towel while dripping the liquid in it. When I turn it on, it shows mr a blue indicator of it being on and the fan starts working.. but the screen and sound dont work. I must also recall that I heard a "tss" during the incident.. please do let me know what I can do to fix it. Km currently panicking because it's the first time it happens to me and I'm scared if any parts would be seriously damaged..

Accepted answers

billsey

That doesn't sound good... Leave it in the rice for several days to make sure everything gets a dry as possible and try to keep from turning it back on until that time has elapsed. It's possible that it is too late and the MB or some other component is zapped, but waiting to try again until you are sure it's completely dry is likely to be the only way to tell.

All comments

billsey

It is always possible that parts have been seriously damaged... But it is also possible they haven't. How long has it been since you had the spill? You, if at all possible, don't want to try to turn it on until everything is dried out (too late for that, I understand). The liquid wasn't just water, at the least it was salty water. Salt acts as a conductor for electricity so all kinds of bad things might have been shorted. Start by making sure it's turned off then open the bottom cover and disconnect the battery. Next look for any burned spots, smell for any burned smells, look for where the liquid or it's dried residue is. Next requires a further tear down, you want to take the contaminated parts out and wash them in clean water, no soap. Let them dry thoroughly, best is starting the drying with blown air, but even when it seems dry let it sit in a dry place overnight. Once everything that is contaminated is clean you can carefully put it back together, reconnect the battery and connect the charger to see if it will take a charge. If it charges well then finally try to turn it on. Report back with your results...

fortbulb

I don't have tools in my house sadly. Its been 14 hours since the incident and all I've done up till now is dry up the computer and put it in rice. I've done some test runs to check what's working and what's not and confirmed that the fan is working fine and the power is likely to be fine.. but the screen doesn't turn on and there is probably no sound (was watching a video then the sound cut off during the incident).

billsey

That doesn't sound good... Leave it in the rice for several days to make sure everything gets a dry as possible and try to keep from turning it back on until that time has elapsed. It's possible that it is too late and the MB or some other component is zapped, but waiting to try again until you are sure it's completely dry is likely to be the only way to tell.

fortbulb

Do you think its fitting to send it to a professional today or should I wait a longer period of time to make sure everything is dry?

billsey

No, a good technician should be able to tell you whether the damage was catastrophic within the first hour or so of their diagnostics and they can finish the cleaning/drying for you. It will certainly dry better while apart for the cleaning.

fortbulb

ok one week past since the incident. I randomly turned the laptop on and it worked as if nothing happened.. I honestly didnt know how important it was for laptops to completely dry out. Thank you for the help!

billsey

No problem! Please mark the best answer so the thread will come up easier for other people searching on the same questions.

fortbulb

Update:

Yes I know that I've told you that my laptop started working again but now because I accidentally left it on sleep for a while, the screen wouldnt turn on. That happened yesterday night. I tried again in today's morning and got 3 different results till now.
1. No display
2. Goes to the acer startup then freezes
3. Computer diagnostics

Any clue what's going on?

aphanic

Did you end up taking it to a servicing center or repair shop?

When any liquid seeps through the machine the only appropriate course of action is to turn everything off, disassemble the thing and cut all of its power. Then proceed to clean it, technicians have access to tools that will make the process easier, like ultrasonic baths of isopropyl alcohol, but it is important to remove all moisture from each the components (specially complicated with LCD panels because they are like sandwiches make of many layers).

Not only because of the immediate threat of shorting something, but because being water based what you dumped over it things would corrode overtime, even destroy traces and the repair would then be much more costly. It may work well for a while, but that may just be giving you a false sense of normalcy.

If you did, and they did their job properly what you see now could be completely unrelated, but if you never got the laptop disassembled and properly cleaned you may be looking at a continuation of what happened before.

fortbulb

I didn't take it to a professional because I thought it went back to normal and didnt disassemble it since I have no tools. In that case, the best option is taking it to a repair shop I'm guessing. Any idea on how costly the repair could be??

aphanic

No idea I'm afraid, but they should at least assess the situation without any cost for you. Hopefully there are no parts that need to be replaced, just inspected and cleaned properly.

It hasn't passed enough time for it to be corroded I think, but it depends on the salty content there was or the acidity of the thing. Rice, while capable of absorbing moisture doesn't cut it in these cases I'm afraid (same as with mobile phones), the amount of moisture it is able to pull out of there is very little; that's why I'd always recommend to disassemble things when possible and dry things manually, even if one has to resort to using alcohol for wounds instead of the proper stuff.

By the way, things may just work fine for a while, or forever if the spill was small or didn't seep to an important area. For all we know, maybe what you're currently experiencing is unrelated to the previous event, who knows.

PS. It's completely unrelated, but back in the day over here (Spain) car plates used to indicate the area in which the car was originally bought, one would avoid those from coastal areas because of the salty water they're exposed to when buying second hand or at least take that into consideration.

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