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Protect Your Laptop Keyboard from Liquid Spills


Chris | Live Tech Support | Video Help | Add to iTunes

About a year ago, I spilled coffee on my desk, and ruined the video card in my Gateway. Liquid and hardware just don’t get along.

A community member at large sent me a frantic Email earlier, saying that he had spilled soda pop on his laptop, and wondering what he can do. Unfortunately, you may not have any luck. It’s quite possible you’ve damaged something beyond repair. It depends on how well your keyboard is enclosed.

If you do spill things on your keyboards, make sure you unplug the keyboard or laptop immediately. If it’s a laptop, pull the battery out as well. Attempt to dry the keyboard off as best you can. I know that Kat had success cleaning her regular pc keyboard after spilling soda on it. She took all the keys off, and dried it really well. Then she used a cotton ball soaked in alcohol to clean up the stickiness, and voila. Keyboard worked again. However, you can’t really take the keys off of laptop keyboards.

If you have a newer laptop, your keyboard may be able to be easily replaced. However, if you have an older style, or even one with vent holes in it, you could have irrepairable damage to it.

Preventing this from happening is easy. You could simply not drink near the computer, or keep a lid/cap on your beverages. You can also get a keyboard skin (cover) specifically made to protect your particular model.

What other tips and tricks do you have for protecting your keyboard, or cleaning it up after a spill? Be sure to let me hear from you!

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57 Comments

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imagine spilling coffee on a 5000dollar computer hahahhahaha

LOL, funny little nerd.

i spilled oj on my old dell laptop 3 years ago, i never turned it off i just froze and thought sh!t. nothing happend and after a wile i thought i could clame off the insurance so poured more on it untill it was dripping out the bottom as fast as i was pouring it in, it dident dammage it! honnist to god that was the truth, the laptop still works to this day!

My cousin spilled a Pepsi on his HP and it ruined HD and sound card

I am God
God suggests you get a baby bib

Wouldn’t it be easier to let the computer run and let the drink evaporate? ~Jhon

To start with, don’t confuse your disc drive with a coffee cup holder like this fool: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO9J5H9Nm4c
HA!

In my experience, you are in the most trouble with sugary drinks – it sticks to the components inside your computer/laptop so much more than an unsugared tea or coffee.

I have rogue cats in the office, and have lost many a piece of paperwork, and even a brand new keyboard to them knocking over my drinks – I now keep any current drink behind me on the mantlepiece – an area of the office so cluttered with ornaments that the cats can’t get up there! When a neighbour’s cat managed to climb in the window, knock over my glass of water and promptly scare itself enough to “spray” all over my various LCD screens was when I become most cross with myself for leaving drink on the desk!

Be protective about your desk surface, and don’t use coasters – doing this will encourage you to move the drink to another part of your room, away from your expensive hardware (and likely unbacked up data!).

I suppose for quick cleanups, it’s handy to have some cotton wool earbuds and paper towels close to hand at all times…

Bad memories. Last June a glass of soda dropped on my laptop. Quick reflexes didn’t help, in a split second the screen went dark and the machine had died. Everything except the harddisk was damaged and needed to be replaced. The repair bill was 1.500 euro, which was luckily covered by insurance.

For me, this is just a risk of the job. I need my laptop to do my work, but I need coffee as well. Since I know these things can happen, I’m keeping my old laptop as a spare machine. When a bad thing happens I can quickly get back to work. The major lesson, make sure you store all data on a network and create regular backups. You can replace hardware very fast, but recreating documents is a whole other matter.

Things are called different names in other places of the world buddy.

It’s SODA. Not pop.

Would people drive like idiots on the road if there was a big spike coming out of the steering wheel? So using these protective skins are going to make people drink more liquids around a PC. Stick with bottles with caps, NEVER use mugs or open cups or cans

i spilled oj on my old dell laptop 3 years ago, i never turned it off i just froze and thought sh!t. nothing happend and after a wile i thought i could clame off the insurance so poured more on it untill it was dripping out the bottom as fast as i was pouring it in, it dident dammage it! honnist to god that was the truth, the laptop still works to this day!

My cousin spilled a Pepsi on his HP and it ruined HD and sound card

I’ve heard that if you take your keyboard and throw it in the freezer you can knock off all the liquid once it is frozen. Laptops usually can handle a little bit of a spill in the keyboard but you’ve got to move fast and be careful; pull the battery fast and get that keyboard out.

Things are called different names in other places of the world buddy.

lol at sucking coffee out of the carpet hahahahaha

insurance is brilant i killed my laptop with coffee and claimed for $100 excess they gave me a brand new laptop insted of fixing my year old laptop. so thats the best option

I did that in my old Toshiba laptop and well the, the keys got all mixed up. for example. the D was typing as a Z and the T as a V and M as a Q well you get the idea what it was doing. Other then that the laptop was fine, well it turned into a server. hooked a monitor to it, and a keyboard and mouse and shut the lid and put the monitor on top of it. It made a nice server.

Simple. Keep an extra keyboard handy :P

Actually, I have a couple keys missing from my notebook. I can’t get them back on, but I rarely drink in front of a notebook anyways, so I should be safe

lol at sucking coffee out of the carpet hahahahaha

insurance is brilant i killed my laptop with coffee and claimed for $100 excess they gave me a brand new laptop insted of fixing my year old laptop. so thats the best option

I spilled rootbeer on my desktop’s keyboard and now the Z key is sticky. Still works great though, and now im much more careful when im drinking soda around my pc

there’s some problem with the audio syncing =\

lol that sucks u messed up your vid card

Ha, I remember I spilled soda and pasta on my old computers keyboard. Went out nd bought another one, nothing much though.

I spilled rootbeer on my desktop’s keyboard and now the Z key is sticky. Still works great though, and now im much more careful when im drinking soda around my pc

there’s some problem with the audio syncing =\

Drawing intake air through the keyboard is about the dumbest thing i’ve ever heard. Keyborads already collect crap. In our house those fans would be loaded up with cat fur in no time!

lol that sucks u messed up your vid card

Ha, I remember I spilled soda and pasta on my old computers keyboard. Went out nd bought another one, nothing much though.

Drawing intake air through the keyboard is about the dumbest thing i’ve ever heard. Keyborads already collect crap. In our house those fans would be loaded up with cat fur in no time!

I had a water cooler blow inside my system drying it every component and putting it back togeather and every thing was fine :)
Most keyboards can be disacembled so you can clean it, a moist hanky is good for soda.

I had a water cooler blow inside my system drying it every component and putting it back togeather and every thing was fine :)
Most keyboards can be disacembled so you can clean it, a moist hanky is good for soda.

WRAP THE COMPUTER IN PLASTIC WRAP. DUH!!! lol

WRAP THE COMPUTER IN PLASTIC WRAP. DUH!!! lol

Really – any programmer knows that the solution is in the algorithm.

If you place the hot coffee directly into the programmer it very rarely touches your keyboard. If, like me, you live on the web and on coffee – you have to develop extraordinary testing capabilities to define the path the coffee travels as it enters the office, all the way to your waiting coffee receptors in your tired brain.

Any other solution that involves the coffee to deviate from its clearly defined path is a bug and should be ruthlessly eliminated from your daily routine. Coffee – keystroke – coffee – keystroke – coffee – keystroke – coffee – oh damn! Where is that super absorbent cloth when you need it?

I spilled ALOT of water on my Logitech G15 awhile back, After it dried for weeks some buttons would type twice like pressing TAB would also type `. So it was damaged, but I got a new G15. I still have the damaged one though, It still looks NEW, everything works, ButtonLED & LCD works, just a few buttons. is there anyway to fix it?

My wife spilled a can of coke onto my macbook pro (15″). I immediately turned it off and took out the battery and removed the RAM. and let it sit upside down for two days. I even went as far as to open the top on it. End of story, total loss and no repair avail from Apple and not a waranty replaceable thing. Needless to say my 17″ MB Pro now has the keyboard skin, it’s better than nothing.

oh and FYI wat the majority of the damage was is that the capacitors leaked and other things corroded on the mobo. So it would be best to disasemble it and immediately get it dry.

I spilled ALOT of water on my Logitech G15 awhile back, After it dried for weeks some buttons would type twice like pressing TAB would also type `. So it was damaged, but I got a new G15. I still have the damaged one though, It still looks NEW, everything works, ButtonLED & LCD works, just a few buttons. is there anyway to fix it?

My wife spilled a can of coke onto my macbook pro (15″). I immediately turned it off and took out the battery and removed the RAM. and let it sit upside down for two days. I even went as far as to open the top on it. End of story, total loss and no repair avail from Apple and not a waranty replaceable thing. Needless to say my 17″ MB Pro now has the keyboard skin, it’s better than nothing.

oh and FYI wat the majority of the damage was is that the capacitors leaked and other things corroded on the mobo. So it would be best to disasemble it and immediately get it dry.

i use invisible shield i love it

the best way to fix it is by buying LOJACK with your warrenty

my causin spill a cup of orange juice on his toshiba laptop, it’s still working but the keyboard is dead so he just bought the keybord extension.

i Spilled juice on my new hp Pailionv dv9500 nothing ever happened it work good my keybored was ok and my hole laptop

I spilled orange juice over my all new Dell XPS laptop and it totally fried the keyboard :(

my little nephew spilled pepsi on my compaq presario 2100 keyboard and 3 letters Q,W,and E got damaged. Everything else works perfectly. Is there something i can do to fix that?

My cousin spilled coke on his laptop and it was fine. he sold it to me too. it has a cracked screen and works still. im selling it now though, go to my channel if interested.

nice video chris

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