A drink over the keyboard is one of the most common ways laptops die — but it doesn't have to end that way. What you do in the first few minutes matters far more than what was spilled. Here's the exact sequence we recommend.
1. Power off — immediately
Hold the power button until the machine is fully off. Don't save your work, don't shut down gracefully — just cut the power. Liquid conducts electricity, and it's the combination of liquid and live current that kills components. A wet but unpowered board is very saveable.
2. Unplug everything and disconnect the charger
Remove the charger, USB devices, and anything else connected. If your laptop has a removable battery (rare these days), take it out. Whatever you do, do not plug the charger back in "just to see if it still works" — that single test destroys more spilled-on laptops than the spill itself.
3. Turn it upside down and let it drain
Open the lid into a tent shape and place the machine keyboard-down on a towel. This lets liquid drain out the way it came in, rather than settling onto the logic board. Dab visible liquid with a lint-free cloth. Don't use a hairdryer — heat drives moisture deeper and can warp components.
4. Get it professionally cleaned — even if it seems fine
This is the step most people skip. Sugary drinks, coffee and wine leave conductive, corrosive residue that keeps eating the board for weeks after the spill. A laptop that "survived" often dies a month later from corrosion that professional ultrasonic cleaning would have removed. The earlier a machine reaches us, the higher the success rate — we treat liquid damage as a priority repair for exactly this reason.
About the rice myth
Rice does not fix laptops. It absorbs almost no moisture from inside a sealed chassis, does nothing about corrosion or residue, and the days spent waiting are days corrosion spreads. Skip the rice; get the board cleaned.
What we do at the workshop
We disassemble the machine, assess how far the liquid travelled, ultrasonically clean affected boards, replace any components the liquid has damaged, and stress-test before returning it. If the machine isn't economical to repair, we'll tell you honestly — and we can almost always recover your data either way. If you've just had a spill anywhere in Brentford or West London, book a priority drop-off or collection and keep the machine powered off until it reaches us.