Solved! Spilled a bit of water on the outside of my laptop.

AtlasUltimate

Commendable
Feb 17, 2016
2
0
1,510
I recently spilled about half a glass of water near my laptop and some of it may have gone in the vent. After about a day of drying it turned on fine, so I turned it back off and plugged it in to charge. I attempted to turn it on the next day only to be met with 3ish seconds of the power light on, and then turn back off. I don't really mind having to get a new laptop, but I do want to recover the hard drive if at all possible.
 
Solution
Well, just leaving it sit for a day would not have let it dry enough. You really need to open it up, pull the battery and anything that is attached to it. Unplug the charger and leave it for a few days. Someplace safe, warm and dry.

Once that is done, put it back together and try again. Worst case, if it is already damaged due to turning it on to soon, you should still be able to pull the drive and attach it to another computer and take the data from it. But start with letting it really dry out and see how it goes.
Well, just leaving it sit for a day would not have let it dry enough. You really need to open it up, pull the battery and anything that is attached to it. Unplug the charger and leave it for a few days. Someplace safe, warm and dry.

Once that is done, put it back together and try again. Worst case, if it is already damaged due to turning it on to soon, you should still be able to pull the drive and attach it to another computer and take the data from it. But start with letting it really dry out and see how it goes.
 
Solution