D2 spilled water in her laptop.

SlitheyTove
Sun, 16 Jan 2011 13:16:14 +0000

ek, your daughter is lucky–Apple Care doesn’t always cover liquid spills.

I’ve spilled Diet Coke on my laptop, and the kids once spilled water on our home laptop. No damage, in part because I knew what to do if there’s a spill. Immediately flip the machine over, power it down, disconnect from any power cords, take out the battery, and let the machine dry for a couple of days resting upside down on something absorbant like a towel. Then power back up and cross your fingers.

My Diet Coke spill was on my work machine, so I had one of our IT techs crack open the case and make sure that it was safe to turn back on. No problems. Regular Coke would have been an issue, since it leaves a stick trail that can short out the motherboard. It’s possible to clean off any gunk before powering the machine back up, using distilled water, but we didn’t have to go that far.