Damp Laptop

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #1 06-02-2011, 03:05 PM

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 (Trevor) · #2 06-02-2011, 03:37 PM

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 (Peter) · #3 06-02-2011, 03:58 PM

hi jjj

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

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

GeoffW1 (Geoff) · #4 06-02-2011, 04:01 PM

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 (Jeanette) · #5 06-02-2011, 04:26 PM

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 (Bart) · #6 06-02-2011, 04:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Anything else I should be doing????

Pre empt the worst..... go online and shop

......just in case tis broke

....
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 (Jeanette) · #7 06-02-2011, 04:52 PM

it's a nearly brand new puter too.

Im hoping for the best though
people spill worse stuff on their puters all the time

[1ponders] (Paul) · #8 06-02-2011, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

people spill worse stuff on their puters all the time

Really?

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 (Trevor) · #9 06-02-2011, 05:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jjjnettie

Im hoping for the best though, people spill worse stuff on their puters all the time

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.

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #10 06-02-2011, 05:05 PM

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

supernova1965 (Warren) · #11 06-02-2011, 05:09 PM

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

jjjnettie (Jeanette) · #12 06-02-2011, 05:12 PM

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 (Simon) · #13 06-02-2011, 05:22 PM

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 (Martin) · #14 06-02-2011, 05:32 PM

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

DavidTrap (David) · #15 06-02-2011, 09:34 PM

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 · #16 06-02-2011, 09:48 PM

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 · #17 06-02-2011, 10:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mozzie

hi jjj

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

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

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

Oh lol Hi JJJ hope it gets up and running ok for you again

taminga16 (Greg) · #18 07-02-2011, 10:25 AM

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 (David) · #19 07-02-2011, 10:59 AM

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 (Chris) · #20 07-02-2011, 11:17 AM

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