Solved! Water damage on Asus Q525UA

[wjdgone]

Last night when I was not around my (open) laptop, my water bottle had tipped over all over my keyboard. I found out a few mins after, during which my friends had dried out the surface and tried turning it on from sleep mode. I know the first rule is to never turn it back on when wet, but I was not there when they did. It turned on fine, so I quickly backed up a few important files and turned it off, flipped it upside down, and left it to dry on a couple of paper towels for the rest of the night. I have a few questions regarding my next steps:

1. When I turned my laptop off, I kinda panicked and put it on sleep mode. It's still on sleep mode, but I'm too scared to turn it back on to power it back off again. It's been about 9 hours since the spill, do I leave it in sleep mode?

2. I think my chances are on the better side because it was working fine after the spill before I turned it off. But I want to know if I still should check for corrosion and water damage. My laptop is not on warrenty, and I'm not about to shell out a couple hundred to fix something that may not really need fixing. I'm going to leave it upside down for about 24 hours, but before powering on, should I take it apart and try to clean the motherboard with isopropyl alcohol? I'll probably turn the laptop on so that I can turn it off again properly if I do. Any advice if I should mess with this?

My laptop is an Asus Q525UA, if that matters. Thanks in advance.

 

[webworkings]

If it has been powered on this whole time you need to cut the power now. You will be lucky if nothing is damaged from just it having power.

What you need to do is...

1. Completely power it off. Pull the charger cord and pull out the battery.

2. Disconnect anything connected to the laptop.

3. Put it somewhere safe, warm (not over warm) and dry. Leave it there, open (physically) to dry for a couple days at least (if not longer). Yes, I said days. It needs more time because you don't know how much liquid they actually spilled on it, and it has been sitting in there for quite a while.

4. Once a couple (or more) days have passed, then try putting it back together and starting it up.

If you are lucky, it will be fine. If not, and any moisture got into any areas that say get power, well, then you are talking either a tech working on it, or a whole new laptop.

NOTE: Please remember you kept saying you 'turned it off' but you actually didn't. You put it into sleep. That isn't turning it off. Off = no power. They are very different and only the version without power is considered 'off' and is the only way to prevent problems. Putting a laptop to 'sleep' (or a tablet or phone for that matter) allows them to still get power and if any liquid and power meet, well that is never good.

Always turn off a device (turn off as in powered off and disconnected from all power sources) when it has come in contact with any liquids.

 

[wjdgone]

If it has been powered on this whole time you need to cut the power now. You will be lucky if nothing is damaged from just it having power.

What you need to do is...

1. Completely power it off. Pull the charger cord and pull out the battery.

2. Disconnect anything connected to the laptop.

3. Put it somewhere safe, warm (not over warm) and dry. Leave it there, open (physically) to dry for a couple days at least (if not longer). Yes, I said days. It needs more time because you don't know how much liquid they actually spilled on it, and it has been sitting in there for quite a while.

4. Once a couple (or more) days have passed, then try putting it back together and starting it up.

If you are lucky, it will be fine. If not, and any moisture got into any areas that say get power, well, then you are talking either a tech working on it, or a whole new laptop.

NOTE: Please remember you kept saying you 'turned it off' but you actually didn't. You put it into sleep. That isn't turning it off. Off = no power. They are very different and only the version without power is considered 'off' and is the only way to prevent problems. Putting a laptop to 'sleep' (or a tablet or phone for that matter) allows them to still get power and if any liquid and power meet, well that is never good.

Always turn off a device (turn off as in powered off and disconnected from all power sources) when it has come in contact with any liquids.

The laptop is built such that I can't take the battery out without opening the chassis, and I'm not sure I want to do that when its on sleep.

I realize that I should have hit "shut down" and not "sleep", and I regret that. But I didn't want to do more damage by turning it back on. At this point though, it's been about 12 hrs since the spill and I think the damage that would be done has already happened.

 

[webworkings]

Actually, no. It could still cause damage if there is any moisture in there at all. What may not show now, could actually show later. You would be surprised how long a small amount of moisture can stay in a device.

That is the thing, all it takes is a drop in the wrong place and the damage is done.

It is your device, I can't tell you what you have to do with it. However, I stand by the instructions given.

I hope it turns out well.