What you do in the first two minutes largely decides what can be saved. Do not start by finding out whether it still works.
The danger is not only the immediate short circuit : it is corrosion, which carries on working for days, silently, even on a machine that appears to have survived. Many "rescued" laptops fail two weeks later, for exactly that reason.
Do not switch it on to check. That is the most frequent and most destructive mistake : current passing through a wet circuit destroys what could have been saved. Do not use a hairdryer: heat distorts components and pushes the liquid deeper. Rice does nothing: it absorbs moisture from the surrounding air, not from inside a circuit board, and leaves starch dust behind. Do not tilt the machine in all directions, you would spread the liquid.
For air drying, allow at least forty-eight to seventy-two hours - and longer for a laptop. But let us be clear : drying alone only suits clean water, in small quantities. For everything else, waiting merely lets the corrosion progress. The right move is to have the machine opened and cleaned quickly.
It means opening the machine, removing the residues before they settle, cleaning the boards with a suitable product, drying the components and checking what has been affected. Done within days, it saves a good share of machines. Done three weeks later, it mostly records the damage.
Even when the machine does not come back, the drive is frequently intact and your documents can be recovered by connecting it to another computer. That is always the first thing we check. See data recovery.
A word about insurance : some home insurance policies cover this kind of damage. Photograph the machine and keep the quote, it may be useful.
Yes. Corrosion acts over days or weeks : a machine that works on the first day can fail well afterwards. A preventive clean is strongly advisable.
No. It absorbs moisture from the air, not moisture trapped in the circuits, and it leaves residues. It is a persistent belief with no real effect.
It depends on the liquid, the quantity, and above all how quickly you react. Clean water with a machine never switched back on offers good prospects ; a fizzy drink with several attempts to power up, far less.
Would you rather we took care of it ? See our emergency computer repair service, in Lyon and across the Rhone.
Do not switch the machine on and call us : the first few hours count.
Automatic assistant: it can make mistakes. Never share a password or a card number.
