Food/Water Accidental Damages

Food + your computer is not a good combination. Looking at computers coming into the tech department covered in crumbs with splattered food covering the display and keyboard, we think to ourselves, “it was only a matter of time.”

We get machines in here that have had milk, tea, water, beer, wine, and food spilled all over causing shorts and corrosion on all the internals effectively killing the computer. Any kind of food and or liquid spill on a machine is, nine times out of ten, fatal for the computer.

Computers have become such an everyday item for people that we typically don’t think twice about eating or drinking near them, until the accident happens and that expensive machine is going to require an expensive repair. I myself have fallen prey to this false sense of security of being able to eat and operate near my machine only to have my college work go up in literal smoke. Yes, my machine sparked and smoked itself to death.

Luckily, I managed to get my data extracted from the hard drives but there was a good three week period where I wasn’t able to work in my dorm room. Since this incident, I have been much more careful.

There are a couple measures to take in the event of a liquid spill. If the machine is still on, immediately turn it off as quickly as you can without jarring the liquid around. Place in a warm dry area, devoid of power, for a couple days. Some people say to place the machine in rice to draw out the moisture, but I am skeptical of this measure only because the rice can get into the machine and cause mold to grow as well as jam up your ports (I have seen both happen).

However, the most important thing is … DO NOT POWER THE MACHINE ON. Once dry you should have it looked at by a technician or repair center (like Small Dog Electronics).

Ed. note – Rebecca K. also suggests you should tent your laptop by leaving the display open at a 30 degree angle or so and place the laptop on its front edges so that it looks like a tent so to speak. This will, with any luck, keep liquid from coming in contact with components while drying.

Just because the machine was running while it was soaked doesn’t mean that it will continue to do so. Once the liquid drips to the logic board, the machine will die as surely as running it through with a knife. The safest measure you can take is to not eat near your computer, and to keep liquids secure and away so as to not cause that costly repair.