If someone poured water on your computer . . .

So, if someone poured water on your computer, how long would you wait before turning it back on?

And, would you simply wait?  Or:

Put it in a low oven?

Blow it with a hairdryer?

Pour denatured alcohol into it?

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March 31, 2009 | Filed Under Kids!, Pity Party, Technology 

Comments

5 Responses to “If someone poured water on your computer . . .”

  1. Therese on April 1st, 2009 7:48 am

    I vote for the hair dryer!

  2. Robin on April 1st, 2009 11:55 am

    How much water are we talking about here?

  3. Pmom on April 1st, 2009 12:59 pm

    It is impossible to say for certain. Probably 1 1/2 cups total were thrown on me and the computer–it seemed like a lot at the time. But I immediately turned the computer upside down, so I hope it was only a small fraction of that.

  4. Pdad on April 1st, 2009 9:34 pm

    I would turn it on the next day. I know for sure I would turn it on the next day because that is just what I did when I spilled water on my own (i.e. work) laptop. I was so glad when the computer worked. I felt that my decision to turn it on the next day was correct. I’m no longer so confident since the day after that I couldn’t get it to turn on again and never have since. And I’ve spent hours (lots of them) since trying to recover something from the hard drive with almost no luck. Maybe it was a coincidence and just happened to be the day after I spilled water on it. Who knows. Of course, you know this story. I’m sharing for your other readers out there.

  5. HardDiscDriven on April 2nd, 2009 7:56 pm

    I would wait as long as you can if you don’t feel comfortable popping out the keyboard to check for the presence of residual moisutre. I would NOT use a hairdryer, or put it in the oven. I wouldn’t even do the alcohol. I would remove every access panel I felt capable of removing — RAM, Wireless card, Hard Drive, the battery, etc. I would use a paper clip to manually open the CD ROM drive. If I could find the manufacturer’s spec sheet online, I would remove the keyboard — it is usually much easier than you think.

    I would then put the screen at a 90 degree angle and stand the laptop on its side, and let it sit in a nice sunny and airy spot.

    If I had immediately powered the machine off when the water hit, and removed the battery (and preferably the hard drive) I would have reasonable, say 85% confidence that it would come back to life on a permanent basis (permanent in this case defined as “it will live as long as it would have, about 2 years since manufacturers now build these things to decompose while you use them, as opposed to making them last.”)

    Sorry I didn’t reply sooner… Call me if you need help.

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