Damp Laptop

[jjjnettie]

I found my laptop this morning, sitting in about 1cm of water. (don't ask, I don't understand/remember how myself)
I've removed the battery and sopped up the worst. At the moment it's open, on it's side, airing. No water actually ran out of the puter vents, but it is decidedly damp.
I figure 48hrs should be long enough to make sure it's dry.

Anything else I should be doing????

[Quark]

Sounds pretty crook Jeanette, do you have access to a reverse cycle air conditioner, if so I would suggest turning up the thermostat, placing the laptop in the direct air flow, then you would have warm dry air blowing over it.

Another possibility would be a good size cardboard box that you could put a lead light in with your laptop and close the box up. With something like a 60 W globe in the lead light, the air in the box will warm up and help to dry out your computer.

Cheers
Trevor

Cheers
Trevor

[mozzie]

hi jjj

was it water or wine ??????sounds like you've had a big night :lol::lol::lol:

maybe give it a little hair dryer on slow around the vents and usb etc.. outlets

[GeoffW1]

Hi jjj,

Sorry to hear of this, I guess you did not need that. You could also...

take a screwdriver and remove any other cover plates

yes, leave it in a dry breeze for 48 hrs

power it on eventually with battery only, no AC

Good luck

[jjjnettie]

LOL It was only rain water Moz.
I was camping out in a cot tent under cover, and placed the puter on the concrete next to it.
It rained heavily sometime between 3am (bedtime) and 6am and flooded a small part of the patio area.
who would have thought.....everywhere else was bone dry

[bartman]

Pre empt the worst..... go online and shop:D......just in case tis broke:sadeyes:....
Bartman;)
P.S. If it wasn't in water for to long it should be ok after drying. If not, and the experts cant fix it, the HDD 'should' be ok as it is airtight(ish).

[jjjnettie]

it's a nearly brand new puter too. :sadeyes:
Im hoping for the best though
people spill worse stuff on their puters all the time

[[1ponders]]

Really? :whistle: the angel maker wasn't still around somewhere where they?

I'll second Geoff there. No AC, just the battery, and leave the battery out and sitting i a warm spot until you are sure its try

[tlgerdes]

About 5 years ago, my son (4yrs old at the time) vomited on my wifes laptop one night. Cleaned it up, let it dry and turned it on, all OK.:lol:

[jjjnettie]

If only it was a snow angel. (insert little green sick emoticon)
I've got the battery and lappy sitting in a cross breeze in the astro storage room, I mean dining room :P

[supernova1965]

Wait as long as you can and try those little packets you get that draw moisture into them selves it can't hurt

[jjjnettie]

Glad to have one back up lappy, thanks to all my wonderful friends from IIS. And it's the one I use for running the guide cam and toucam.
It just means I can't do any processing at the moment.
Which is ok, it's cloudy atm.

[kustard]

When I was working in IT as a sysadmin I had to dry a laptop that a coworker had spilled coffee over. He had his freshly brewed coffee sitting right next to his laptop when he got up, walked a few meters, turned and threw his jacket towards his desk... you can work out the rest.

Anyway, the coffee had soaked down between the keyboard and out the bottom. Fortunately he had quickly unplugged the computer and managed to turn it off.

All I did was remove all the panels on the back (and also the keyboard section but you shouldn't need to do that), removed all the RAM and the hard drive and grabbed a blow dryer and gave it all a reasonable dry. We left it for about 24 hours changing it's sitting position as well, giving it blasts of hair dryer every couple of hours or so.

That was back in about 2007 (it was brand new when he did it) and he still has the laptop and uses it to this day.

As long as the computer was turned off then you should be ok in regards to getting short circuits. As long as you let it dry completely it'll will be fine. If you can, remove the RAM and HDD and give the connectors a good drying as this will help prevent corrosion as well.

HTH,
Simon

[mill]

You can alway's clean a computer with distilled water when something sticky has been spilled inside the computer.
I have washed many 240V machines with water and after drying they all worked as before :P

[DavidTrap]

I dropped a pager into a sink at work. Switch put it on top of a monitor for a couple of days. The warmth from the CRT gently dried it out and I got my pager back. Bit more difficult to balance things on an LCD nowadays...

Hope it fires up ok JJJ.

DT

[TrevorW]

Take off cover and get out the hairdryer

worked for me on mobile phones a couple of times that have been dropped into toilets (don't ask)

[Jen]

:lol::lol: that was my thought too Mozzie (now where did i put that glass of wine again) :lol:

Oh lol :hi: Hi JJJ hope it gets up and running ok for you again ;)

[taminga16]

Hi Jeanette,
Place your laptop on a bed of uncooked white rice and cover with clear wrap, watch out for 'Gluggy Rice'.
Good Luck.
Greg. :)

[AstralTraveller]

If the humidity is high, as I imagine it is up there, perhaps you could help things along by placing it in a warm oven. If you just put the oven on for a minute you can get it to 50-60 degrees which should be OK for the lappy. Don't have the oven on with the lappy in it!

[Screwdriverone]

Hi JJJ,

Like Warren suggested the little moisture gel packets work well in a closed box. The other thing you can try is the "Damp Rid" absorbent buckets of crystals designed for closets and underfloor storage where there is high humidity....

If you place the laptop (after its dried the way you are doing now) into a closed plastic storage box in a warm area (not the sun as it might melt things), with the damp rid bucket, this magic little bucket will "suck" all the water vapour out of the air into the gel absorbers and theoretically the lappy will become bone dry inside....

Worth a shot if you want to be triply sure to get all the moisture out.

Good luck

Cheers

Chris

[gbeal]

Ended up washing my iPhone a few years back, and Googling seemed to suggest sealing it in a bag of rice for a week, the plan being the rice absorbs the damp. Worked, although 30 minutes on a deep wash had made it an uphill battle before I started. Worth a try though, but as others have suggested, open it up as much as you can and dry, off what you can first, then into the bag of rice.
Good luck,
Gary

[tlgerdes]

Done that one :D, 15 years ago dropped the mobile phone down the toilet (before any business had been done). Fished it out, dried it out, and worked for another 2 years.

[AstralTraveller]

If you sare going to use desicant packets make sure they aren't already soaked. If they have been sitting around for yonks they will be in equilibrium with the atmosphere. They can be dried in a wrm oven - up to 100 should be OK. The beads (if you can see them) have colour codes but the colour depends on the type. The newer ones are clearish when dry and yellow when damp.

[jjjnettie]

Hmmm, sure you aren't confusing that with kitty litter crystals?

[GeoffW1]

:lol: I once did that with a power tool which had been left out in the weather. :thumbsup: So far so good.

Then I went away and forgot about it :eyepop:

New power tool :P

Cheers

[alistairsam]

J,

depending on whether you can get all the screws back, I'd suggest opening the back and leaving it open for a while to dry out. also depends on whether it has a warranty which will be void if you open it.
I'd avoid direct heat.

water will eventually evaporate but can also re-condense in corners or tight spaces if not aired out. main concern would be water condensing on dense exposed tracks or smd chips on the MB. most pcb tracks are covered, exposed areas would be high density smd ic pins.

most hard disks do have a pinhole in them, so hard to say what could happen if it was completely immersed for a while.
if it was coffee, IPA is the best to remove sticky stains as it evaporates without residue.

[alistairsam]

if the hard disk bay is removable which it usually is (just one screw), i'd remove the hard disk and let it air as well. also the cd drive as that lets air circulate.
was the power adaptor soaked as well?

[mswhin63]

As water is not pure some of the impurities can start to corrode so at best will have to open it up. If water has gone in then it will void warranty anyway.

Isopropol Alcohol is the best cleaning solution and can be bought for the chemist (Rubbing Alcohol) with a non static brush. Toothbrushes are used sometime but with todays electronics a finer brush with stiff bristles would be appropriate.

But all said an done best take it to someone with experience.

[jjjnettie]

I have the damp laptop sitting on a cooling stand. (it's used to keep your lappy cool in summer) I have blocked the air intake on one side, so it's drawing in the heated exhaust from the old lap top I'm using.
I'd take a photo and show you but I can't upload images on this laptop.
I wish technology would stop hassling me. :sadeyes:

[ballaratdragons]

I find it really funny to walk around at Camp and see all the laptops sitting out in the night air all night absolutely ringing wet.

I remember one particular night when I was watching Bird doing a Saturn capture.
His laptop monitor was so wet with dew that he couldn't read the settings so he wiped the water off with his hand. Where did he wipe the water to?
Straight down onto the keyboard where it vanished into the gaps around the edge of the keyboard panel and into the laptop. :lol:

I queried the danger and Birds reply was a very nonchalant "it will be ok". :thumbsup:

[Jen]

:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

:scared3:

[jjjnettie]

LOL
I keep a towel over mine on really dewy nights. But it has had a few dribbles get into the works. Figured that the heat it was generating would dry it out.
But sitting in a puddle for a few hours is probably a bit more serious.

[jjjnettie]

Thunderbirds are GO!
She fired up no problems, no funny smells or anything.
.................yet.
Thanks for the input everyone.

[Jen]

:D Woooohoooooooo great stuff JJJ :thumbsup:

[OzRob]

I would also backup the hard drive before replacing it if there is any data on it that you want.

[hotspur]

Glad to hear its 'at take off'

At the sawmill I work at a few days a month,they have various pieces of electronic equipment,such as moisture meters and digital measuring devices connected to the saw benches.These items are not in the open-but very close-basic open sheds that have rain blow in, moisture drop off roof,lots and I mean lots of dust.They look no different to a hand controller on a go-to mount-not a lap top but similar-I am amazed how these electronic devices work perfectly fine all the time.I think these similar items all must be able to handle a little bit of 'out in the field use'.Someone mentions lap tops been left out in the open at star parties.Many of these owners are computer engineers,and it appears they feel safe using them in such conditions.I think I tend to 'baby' my gear a bit too much.

[alistairsam]

Hi J,
good to hear its working well.

Chris, the reason those instruments work is due to the way theyre designed. they're designed with these environments in mind, so lots of differences in manufacturing processes to normal electronic devices.
HP and others make rugged laptops that are designed for extreme conditions and they can take amazing extremes.

i'm a computer engineer and i guess how much you push it depends on ones experience with different types of failures.
in our data centres, they use a non conducting fire suppresant thats a liquid like water. but ive seen demonstrations where they take an operating electronic board, with power applied and dunk it in the liquid and it still operates fine.
was weird to see that.

i was in snake valley camp and didnt think of the dew in the night.
had my laptop off and on and noticed hard disk errors erratically. it was because the disk platters were below their operating temp. thats the last thing you want in the field.

so I just left it on. the heat kept it operable, but its always better to be careful.
the simple box that most keep their laptops in for light shields actually help a lot with the lappys ambient env.