Cola Spills on Laptop Keyboards – What to Do

Although not directly related to legal research, this post is related to technology and a phenomena I am surprised, in retrospect, did not happen to me earlier. Last week, I spilled a glass of cola on my keyboard and sort of panicked. Set out below is what I learned after the fact that I should have done in response to the spill. In case this information might benefit someone else, read on if interested.

I compiled the ideas below from various Internet searches after the fact; if someone knows of better techniques, please comment.

1) First step, once the spill occurs, immediately unplug the A/C power.

2) Next step, invert the laptop into an “A” frame-type pyramid. This allows liquid to drip down away from underneath the keyboard; this also prevents liquid from being “sucked up” underneath the laptop (in my case, the laptop was on a smooth table and I had not realized how much liquid was underneath it).

3) Pop the battery out or do a hard shutdown. The operating system will not like this but the integrated circuits and electronic hardware will be less likely to short circuit.

4) Next, take out the hard disk drive, CD-ROM drive and any other peripherals that can be easily removed.

Ideally, steps 1 to 4 above should occur in a matter of seconds (it did not for me).

5) Mop off the laptop with paper towels.

6) Next, and this step is not likely recommended by your laptop manufacturer, consider blow drying your laptop with cool air to dry up some of the liquid.

7) Finally, do not be impatient; wait at least 24 hours before trying to re-boot it (I didn’t).

My first mistake was to panic and run around looking for paper towels, leaving the laptop in the “on” mode soaking up all of the liquid.

My laptop did reboot the next day, albeit grudgingly, but the keys were very sticky and not realistically usable, so I sent it off to Dell for a cleaning (or keyboard replacement).