Question Possible water damage

[justathrowaway]

So yesterday (as a nice Christmas present) I happened to spill not a small amount of water on my laptop. Thing is it was shut off at the time so I tried drying it as much as possible. Fast forward about an hour and (because the room is quite warm) I stupidly decided to test it and it worked well until the * symbol started being continuously pressed. Then I shut it down for about an hour and a half to two hours later when I again turned it on but this time it was to charge my phone (currently as I'm not at home I have no charging brick and only usb c to usb c and a usb a to usb c cables) and miraculously the * symbol problem was fixed. About an hour and a half later it shut itself off (didn't pay attention to it at the time and only noticed it shut down after my phone stopped charging) and this time it wouldn't turn on. It was warm to the touch and (this could be just me) I thought I could feel vibrations and some very insignificant amount of air being blown out. Again could be just me and the warmth was probably because it was on about 5 minutes ago and the room temperature was high enough for the laptop to not cool down this quickly. Ij the end I waited until today and the situation is still the same. Plugged or unplugged it has 0 reaction.
Data could be salvageable as the ssd was likely unaffected but I'd have to get home and put it in my pc to test that which is a 7-8 hour drive and it's the holidays.

Now question is - is it possible it was the charging cable/port that got damaged (the laptop was mostly wet around the chasis and I can't say how much water got in the keyboard and the water was spilled right around that area. The time it took for the laptop to shut down is less than how long I'd expect the battery to last while charging a phone but I kinda want the hope that it's not too serious) or is it definitely the motherboard (there is no burnt smell on either of them as far as I could tell but I'm also sick so again might be just me). I have no screwdriver on hand so I can't open it to check either (at least not today)

 

[Fix_that_Glitch]

So yesterday (as a nice Christmas present) I happened to spill not a small amount of water on my laptop. Thing is it was shut off at the time so I tried drying it as much as possible. Fast forward about an hour and (because the room is quite warm) I stupidly decided to test it and it worked well until the * symbol started being continuously pressed. Then I shut it down for about an hour and a half to two hours later when I again turned it on but this time it was to charge my phone (currently as I'm not at home I have no charging brick and only usb c to usb c and a usb a to usb c cables) and miraculously the * symbol problem was fixed. About an hour and a half later it shut itself off (didn't pay attention to it at the time and only noticed it shut down after my phone stopped charging) and this time it wouldn't turn on. It was warm to the touch and (this could be just me) I thought I could feel vibrations and some very insignificant amount of air being blown out. Again could be just me and the warmth was probably because it was on about 5 minutes ago and the room temperature was high enough for the laptop to not cool down this quickly. Ij the end I waited until today and the situation is still the same. Plugged or unplugged it has 0 reaction.
Data could be salvageable as the ssd was likely unaffected but I'd have to get home and put it in my pc to test that which is a 7-8 hour drive and it's the holidays.

Now question is - is it possible it was the charging cable/port that got damaged (the laptop was mostly wet around the chasis and I can't say how much water got in the keyboard and the water was spilled right around that area. The time it took for the laptop to shut down is less than how long I'd expect the battery to last while charging a phone but I kinda want the hope that it's not too serious) or is it definitely the motherboard (there is no burnt smell on either of them as far as I could tell but I'm also sick so again might be just me). I have no screwdriver on hand so I can't open it to check either (at least not today)

I would open it up as much as as possible and remove the battery if you can. You could use a blow dryer, on cool not hot and try that for a fix.

 

[justathrowaway]

I would open it up as much as as possible and remove the battery if you can. You could use a blow dryer, on cool not hot and try that for a fix.

I don't have a screwdriver on hand and over 12 hours have passed since then so I have doubts that a blow dryer would do much... Battery is also not removable without opening the laptop's chasis

 

[DSzymborski]

Internal water in a laptop can easily be there for days. 12 hours is nothing.

And yes, you're at the point that will involve opening the laptop's chassis.

 

[justathrowaway]

Internal water in a laptop can easily be there for days. 12 hours is nothing.

And yes, you're at the point that will involve opening the laptop's chassis.

Seems like I'll have to find something to open it up with.
That said do you think there's a chance for it?

 

[DSzymborski]

Seems like I'll have to find something to open it up with.
That said do you think there's a chance for it?

It's usually a good idea to have screwdrivers at your house because of how useful they are in emergencies or when things break.

As for the laptop, I would be pessimistic. Unfortunately, the decision to turn on the laptop was a very poor one, which greatly reduced the chances of the laptop being salvageable. It should never have been turned on until the chassis was opened and cleaned thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol; the water itself doesn't cause the problems, it's the trace conductive elements in the water. And even then, it should have been dried for a few days to ensure that any water in a nook and cranny was dried.

 

[justathrowaway]

It's usually a good idea to have screwdrivers at your house because of how useful they are in emergencies or when things break.

As for the laptop, I would be pessimistic. Unfortunately, the decision to turn on the laptop was a very poor one, which greatly reduced the chances of the laptop being salvageable. It should never have been turned on until the chassis was opened and cleaned thoroughly with isopropyl alcohol; the water itself doesn't cause the problems, it's the trace conductive elements in the water. And even then, it should have been dried for a few days to ensure that any water in a nook and cranny was dried.

I do know that it was a very dumb decision but I'd figured that the laptop could've been dry enough.
I also have screwdrivers at my house but I'm currently not at home because of the holidays. It's also why I'm using the laptop in the first place. Unfortunate as it may be I'll just have to leave it to dry for a few days