Soggy Computers

Virgina Postrel’s laptop just got soaked and appears to be dead.

I’m something of a computer geek, and several friends have come to me with just this problem. I know what to do about this, but the knowledge is apparently useless: everybody first tries turning the computer on to see if it will work. This usually fries something.

So, for anybody who hasn’t yet soaked their computer, here’s what you do:

First, rescue the computer. If the computer is in the water, speed matters. The hard drive is sealed, but the seal is not intended to keep out water when the unit is submerged. If water gets into the housing with the disk platters, the disk is essentially ruined. If it’s in water, shut off the power before touching the wet computer.

Second, disconnect all power, including the line power and the battery. Water isn’t much of a problem, but water plus electricity is bad news.

Third, and this is the part that feels so wrong, you have to wash the computer. Pure water won’t hurt your computer by itself. Leaky roof, spilled beverage, or dropped into the pool, it’s what’s mixed with the water that causes all the trouble.

Go to the local grocery store and get a few gallons of pure water. That’s distilled or deionized water, not some sort of mineral water from special wells or something. You want water and nothing else.

Also get a spray bottle if you can.

Open up your computer and expose all the circuit boards. Now use the spray bottle to clean everything in sight with pure water. If the spill is something really nasty, you can hose it off with tap water first, but then wash away the tap water with distilled water.

You might want to try some contact cleaner also, but make sure the chemicals are safe to use on the materials in a computer. What works on your car’s battery will not be good for your laptop.

Fourth, dry it off. A hair drier or heat lamp will also help. So might a warming tray in an oven, but make sure it doesn’t get too hot for your computer’s parts. Let it get thoroughly heat soaked. It has to dry a long time so that all the water trapped inside small areas evaporates.

Now put it back together and see if it works.