It’s every person’s nightmare to spill water on their electronic devices and learn it isn’t working anymore. When it comes to your laptop, experiencing water damage puts your gadget at risk of losing all the precious files that have been with you through the years.
Fortunately, you can still find a way to turn the situation around and fix your laptop, given that the incident just happened and you act on it immediately. Keep reading below to find out how to prevent water damage from ruining your laptop and help you retrieve your data.
Turn Off Your Laptop
The moment water damage occurs on your laptop, you should rush to shut it down to prevent its electrical components from being affected and possibly putting you at risk. Turning off your laptop as soon as the accident occurs keeps the situation from worsening.
While it can be tempting to turn your laptop back on after a while to see if it still works, you should never do so unless you’re sure that the water that has seeped into your device is gone. If you do, your actions could result in more damage, such as igniting a broken circuit, ruining your hardware, and losing all your files.
Take Out Detachable Items
While keeping your laptop off, you should remove any items connected to your device that you can detach, like its battery, mouse, keyboard, printer, external hard drive, and USB. Your laptop’s battery is integral because, without it, you can’t power up your device.
Also, your laptop’s battery is extremely sensitive and could store the liquid in its socket. Removing every detachable component possible and placing them in a dry area is crucial to controlling the potential damage your laptop can experience due to water damage.
Pat the Device Dry
You can now move on to wiping your laptop and its parts dry. You should use only a soft fibre cloth that doesn’t contain lint, or it will make its way into the holes and openings of your laptop and cause more problems.
If you’re drying parts of your laptop that are too difficult to reach, you could use cotton earbuds to make it easier. Since you’re waiting for your laptop to dry, you may be tempted to use a hairdryer, which is the last thing you want to do. The heat it produces could damage your laptop more, so it’s better to stick to safe drying methods instead.
Position it Correctly
The last step you can consider to help your laptop recover is to place it upside down and in a V shape so that its screen and keyboard turns to the ground. However, make sure to support your laptop with a towel or cloth underneath it, allowing it to absorb excess water and moisture.
You never know if your methods of patting your laptop dry were entirely successful or not. You could leave your laptop like that for an entire day to guarantee the water damage becomes dry. If you become impatient and turn on your laptop to check its status, if it still has water inside, then everything you did was for nothing, and your only option is to seek computer repairs.
Conclusion
When you accidentally spill liquid on your laptop, you should remain calm and avoid panicking. You can still salvage your gadget if you focus on your situation at hand and do everything you can to get it to work again. You should turn off your laptop, take out detachable items, pat the device dry, and position it correctly. After doing all that, you could test it out to see if it’s working. If it isn’t, your best course of action is to opt for professional repairs.
Are you in need of computer repairs on the Gold Coast? Mobile PC Pro specialises in repairing, debugging, monitoring, reviewing, and solving your computer-related problems. We offer virus removal, protection to data recovery, and managed business IT solutions too. Get in touch with us today to book an appointment!