(About 5 minutes ago) Was drinking water and about a sip of it spilled onto the left side of my keyboard. The computer didn't seem affected by it, but I panicked and turned off the laptop. It is upside down, shut off. I don't know what to do. Did the water spread to other areas of the laptop? Does the rice actually work or make it worse? Just need answers because it is a 4 month old laptop. Freaking out.
Spilled water on my MacBook Air
Guest
Macbooks are more susceptible to liquid damage, but plain water has less conductivity to short out the motherboard. Some of the liquid stays on top where you can wipe it off, and the rest gets in between the keys onto the motherboard.
Rice is for sealed devices like iphones.
Many Thinkpads by Lenovo have spill trays.
If it stays upside down until the water dries, and did not get into the HDD or leave residues on the motherboard, it will be OK. You know that after a couple of days depending on how much you spilled.
I don't particularly like Macbooks. It's not that they are bad; it is the profit margins to Apple I don't like. They have the same CPU, HDD, DRAM, and electronics as laptops half their cost. They use a better audio ic, a top notch battery sealed inside to be replaced at a higher cost eventually, and a very good LCD and pretty good keyboard, but OSX is limited function for simple users.
Add: Turn off and upside down is correct. De-ionized water does not affect much, but most people don't drink deionized water and it has residues that are conductive with humidity. You can't do much about it typically. Let it sit upside down and open clamshell a couple of days and hope it is OK. It usually is with tap water.
Andy L
Rice doesn't work. You might be ok.
Contact TekDry.com. They can dry electronics in 30 minutes without taking it apart. They have a store in Colorado and they can take devices through the mail too. They don't charge unless it works (but I believe mail-in orders lose the shipping cost). They saved my boss' iPhone 5 twice. Last fall he fell in a lake and got the phone to them 6 days later. Then a few weeks ago he put it through the washing machine and they fixed it again. Both times in about 30 minutes. I know they had recently saved another Apple laptop and can dry tablets too.
Don't put it in rice. You'll likely do more harm by the particles getting into your phone and I haven't heard of it ever working (just losing lots of precious time).
Craig B
Water does not break electronics when they are turned off. It only ruins them when they are turned on and they short out. From what I see your computer is fine. To be on the safe side just wipe it down and wait around 24hrs before turning it back on(water naturally evaporates into the air).
Daniel
I have a very new MacBook, and I've dropped it and spilled water on the keyboard. I spilled the water like 2 months ago, in the same place. I bet it will be fine as long as you wipe the water off now.
Annora