Liquid Spill Repair

Shut it down immediately — hold the power button until it's fully off, don't wait for a proper shutdown. Unplug the charger. If the battery is removable, take it out. Turn the machine upside down like a tent so the liquid drains out rather than further in, and leave it that way.

Then, most importantly: do not switch it back on to see if it still works. Do not plug it in to charge. Electricity plus liquid is what actually kills these machines — the spill itself is survivable, powering it up wet often isn't.

Don't put it in rice. It does nothing useful, it delays proper cleaning, and it leaves starch dust inside the machine. The clock that matters is how long before someone opens it up and cleans the board.

The liquid isn't the enemy for long — it evaporates. What it leaves behind is the problem. Sugars, salts and minerals stay on the circuit board and draw moisture out of the air, quietly conducting where they shouldn't and corroding solder joints and component legs.

This is why a laptop can survive a spill, work perfectly for two weeks, and then die. The damage was progressing the whole time. It's also why a machine cleaned within a day or two usually survives, and the same machine cleaned a month later often doesn't.

So the single biggest factor in what your repair costs is how quickly it reaches a bench. Same day is excellent. A week is workable. Two months of "it seemed fine" is where it gets expensive.

Clean water is the kindest — it leaves few deposits and, caught quickly, often does no lasting harm. Coffee, soda, juice, beer and wine are far worse: sugar is sticky and hygroscopic, and it goes on doing damage indefinitely. Salt water and lake water are the most aggressive of all, and around here we see our share.

The process is the same in principle: strip the machine down, remove the board, and clean it properly — an ultrasonic bath or a full isopropyl clean depending on severity, then careful work under magnification on corroded areas and connectors.

Afterwards we test component by component. Sometimes everything survives. Sometimes the keyboard or trackpad has to be replaced because liquid pooled there. Occasionally the board is beyond saving, and we'll tell you that as soon as we know rather than billing you toward a dead end.

We won't pretend this is a routine repair with a guaranteed outcome. Caught within a day or two, a clean-water spill on a laptop usually comes back fully. A sugary drink left for weeks frequently doesn't. Most cases sit somewhere in between, and we can't know which until the board is open and clean.

What we can promise is that you'll get a straight assessment early and won't be billed for hope. And if the machine can't be saved, your drive is almost always fine — we'll recover your files and get them onto whatever replaces it.