How to Clean Coffee Spill on a Laptop

There are a few things you can do to absorb the liquid and clean off the coffee from your laptop computer if you've had a spill.

If you spill coffee or any other liquid on your computer, the very first thing you need to do is turn it off as quickly as you can and disconnect all power sources, including (and especially) the battery.  Having any power made available to the circuits of your computer while they are wet can irreparably damage the laptop.

Next, use highly absorbent material to clean up all of the liquid you can see. Anything around or on the computer should be cleaned so that you will not accidentally spill more into the computer’s case when you move it.

Inspect your keyboard and clean out any liquid you’re able to before flipping the computer over. 

Clean Spill You Can't See

Now that you've cleaned the coffee spill on the laptop's surface, you need to make sure you don't have any other liquid that you can't see:

• Flip the computer over to expose the screws that hold the computer’s case together.
• Take the screws out and lift the bottom half of the case straight up and off of the computer.  Please remember that at this point, you should be in a static-free environment.
• Disconnect and remove the hard drive, along with any data cards and motherboard cards (RAM, etc.) so they make no connection with the motherboard.
• Once you’ve gotten everything removable off of the computer’s shell, you’ll need to clean each component individually with water to remove any residue left by the liquid.
• After you’ve cleaned everything, pat each part dry with a highly absorbent rag or other material and allow the components to dry thoroughly before reassembling the computer and applying power. 

Now you know how to clean a coffee spill on a laptop and hopefully your computer will be able to work despite the spill.