<p>I know there was a thread on this recently, but I can not find it. My daughter spilled an entire bottle of Snapple into her laptop, or so she said. Of course she is in the middle of exams, writing a 20 page paper. I told her to call IT on campus and see if they could open the laptop and dry it out; don’t know if that is being done as I have not heard from her yet.</p>
<p>Can someone send me the link to the thread from earlier? Also, any other ideas?</p>
<p>First step - remove power and remove the battery.</p>
<p>Mop up any liquid with a paper towel. I’d place the laptop so the keyboard is in the sun and let it dry for a couple of days before trying to turn it on. Another option is to ‘blow dry’ it with a blow dryer making sure to not heat anything up too terribly much.</p>
<p>Even better - take it apart enough to take the keyboard out so it can be confirmed there’s no liquid on the main board and it can be confirmed when the keyboard is actually dry.</p>
<p>Finally, if it doesn’t work it’s likely the keyboard and not the whole laptop and keyboards are generally easy and relatively inexpensive to replace. Have her pay for it to reinforce not spilling liquids on laptops.</p>
<p>Actually this computer was being replaced next week as a graduation gift! It has been on it’s last leg for a while, but my daughter was determined to finish college before getting a new computer. She almost made it as her last paper is due at 5:00PM tomorrow! </p>
<p>Hopefully we can salvage the computer as my son wanted it to play games on. He was going to wipe the HD clean and install some online sports game he plays. If it can not be fixed, the only thing she will lose I think is any recent itunes since the last sync, bookmarks, and maybe photos, if those were not on her external hard drive. </p>
<p>I think I will not remind her of what she might have lost since she is in the middle of exams. I am hoping she hasn’t thought about it as it is what it is!</p>
<p>Here’s the thread:
<a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/701636-what-do-broken-mac-spill.html?highlight=water+spill[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/parent-cafe/701636-what-do-broken-mac-spill.html?highlight=water+spill</a></p>
<p>I started it. Lots of good information on it.</p>
<p>Thanks for the link. My daughter’s Dell is toast according to the IT guy at school that is a certified Dell IT person. He said her HD was still good, so he is transferring her data to her external hard drive. Luckily, most of her work as well as pictures are on the external already. Because her computer would not boot, he is transferring data from her HD to one of the IT desktops. In the morning, he will transfer the data from his desktop to her external HD.</p>
<p>What have I been doing tonight? We have been deciding which Macbook she wants! I was going to order online, but it will get to her quicker if I go to my Apple store and ship it myself. At 10:00 tomorrow morning I will be visiting the mall and then heading off to UPS.</p>
<p>Happy graduation gift to my daughter!!!</p>
<p>Glad your daughter did not lose her data. It seems that every time I have a crash I lose what I need most…sigh</p>
<p>You might want to send her the link to the thread too. My D’s Macbook was less than 1 year old when she spilled water onto it. It was just a little bit, but enough to do the damage ($790 worth).</p>
<p>My daughter asked me to pick up a keyboard cover while I go to get the computer. I believe it is a silicone piece that covers the keyboard of a laptop. She said her friends have it on their laptop.</p>
<p>It turns out it wasn’t an entire bottle of Snapple, maybe about a 1/4. My daughter startles very easily and she had her earphones in and someone came up behind her and she knocked her drink over, right onto the computer! </p>
<p>I am waiting to hear this morning that IT was able to get everything off of her hard drive. As long as he can get her work she needs for this last paper, my computer guy at home can do the rest. She was going to have Apple transfer all her data from the old laptop to her new Macbook when we got it this summer, but I am guessing with the hard drive not in a PC, they will not be able to do it. When I switched from a PC to my Macbook, Apple was able to even transfer my bookmarks!</p>
<p>I would get some insurance for the next laptop…</p>
<p>My husband has worked on 2 “spill” laptops. One laptop consumed a beer and was able to be fixed. H took it completely apart and let it dry out. The other got drenched when S pulled loose the hose from his water pump knee cooler following surgery and it spilled a lot of water into the laptop. DOA.</p>