Spilled coffee, water, wine or beer on your laptop? Don't power it on. Don't put it in rice. Bring it straight to us — corrosion starts within hours and the first 24 hours decide whether the board survives. Free emergency diagnosis.
These five steps in the first ten minutes can be the difference between a $250 board clean and a $2,500 replacement laptop. Stop reading and do them in order.
Hold the power button down for a full 10 seconds. Don't try to save your work, don't shut down through the Start menu — just force it off. Every second the laptop has power, liquid is creating shorts across the motherboard.
Unplug the charger. Unplug any USB devices, external drives, headphones. If the battery comes out (most older laptops, business-class models like Latitude/ThinkPad/ProBook), remove it. If it's an ultrabook or sealed model, don't try to force it.
Open the lid into an upside-down V shape and rest it on a clean dry towel. This drains liquid downward away from the keyboard and motherboard. Leave it like that — don't shake, don't blow on it, don't use a hairdryer (heat damages plastics and pushes residue into smaller gaps).
This is the most stubborn myth in tech. Rice doesn't pull moisture out of a sealed laptop chassis — it just lets corrosion sit for longer while you wait. Worse, rice dust can get inside the laptop and clog fans. Skip it.
This is how borderline-saveable boards become unsaveable. Liquid creates conductive bridges between components — applying power can permanently short out the CPU, GPU or memory chips. Wait until we've cleaned it.
Once those five steps are done — call us. We'll fit you in the same day where we can.
It's not just "let it dry and hope". A proper liquid damage repair is a hands-on, board-level job. We pull the laptop apart fully, get eyes on every contaminated surface, clean it with the right chemistry, and replace any component the liquid actually destroyed.
Most "we tried to dry it" laptops we see have already corroded under the keyboard, around the trackpad ribbon and on the charging board. We can usually still save them — but the longer it sits, the more parts you need to replace.
If the motherboard itself is beyond economical repair, we'll tell you straight, recover your data, and help you get back up and running on another machine. No expensive false hope.
Call for Same-Day Diagnosis →Every screw out, top case removed, board exposed. We document where the liquid travelled so the quote is accurate and nothing is missed.
Isopropyl alcohol clean for light contamination; ultrasonic bath for heavier sugar/salt residue. Removes the corrosion-causing residue, not just visible liquid.
Where tracks or pads are already corroded, we treat the affected area, re-tin contacts, and re-flow connections where viable.
Keyboard, trackpad, battery, charging board, daughter-boards, ribbon cables — whatever the liquid killed gets replaced with a tested working part.
Indicative pricing only — every spill is different and the only way to be exact is a hands-on diagnosis. All prices include GST and labour.
| Service | What's Included | Typical Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Diagnosis only | Disassembly, board inspection, written report | $120 (waived if you proceed) |
| Light contamination clean | IPA clean, reassembly, full test | $250–$350 |
| Heavy contamination clean | Ultrasonic bath, corrosion treatment, test | $350–$500 |
| Clean + component replacement | Plus keyboard / battery / charging board | $450–$700 |
| Motherboard component-level repair | Chip-level work where viable | From $500 (quoted case-by-case) |
| Data recovery only (laptop dead) | Drive imaging & file extraction | See data recovery |
Fixed-price quote always confirmed in writing before paid work starts. If we can't economically save it, we'll recover your data and help you plan a replacement.
Corrosion doesn't wait for you to drive over after work. Here's roughly what's happening inside a wet laptop:
A laptop brought in within 24 hours of a spill usually comes back to life with a clean and minimal part replacement. A laptop brought in two weeks later is often a write-off — even if it's been "working fine".
Most makes, most models. Sealed ultrabooks, business laptops, gaming machines, MacBooks — we've cleaned them all.
If any of these sound like you, we've fixed it before:
From your panicked phone call to a working laptop in your hands — here's exactly what we do.
Call us or drop the laptop in. We prioritise wet laptops because time matters. If you can't get to us same-day, we'll talk you through stabilising it on the phone.
Full disassembly, board inspection, photo documentation of contamination. Fixed-price written quote covering clean + any parts. We don't quote until we've actually opened it — guesses help nobody.
IPA or ultrasonic clean, corrosion treatment, component replacement as needed. Then reassembly and full test: keyboard, trackpad, ports, screen, battery, charging, Wi-Fi, fan, thermals.
You collect a fully-tested laptop with a written warranty record. If it turns out it's not economically repairable, we recover your data and only charge for the diagnosis and recovery.
Speed matters with liquid damage. Local, fast and honest beats sending it interstate every time.
Wet laptops jump the queue. Bring it in today, we'll have it stripped and diagnosed before close of business where possible.
No mailing your laptop to a Brisbane lab. Drop in, get it back fast, talk face-to-face with the tech doing the work.
Proper IPA and ultrasonic processes, not "let it dry and reassemble". Treats the residue, not just the visible liquid.
If the board doesn't survive, we pull and image the drive — your files are almost always recoverable even when the laptop isn't.
Itemised diagnosis and quote suitable for accidental damage / contents claims. Happy to liaise with assessors.
If it's not worth fixing, we say so up front — recover your data, help you plan a replacement instead of running up false-hope quotes.
If liquid damage isn't the whole story, we cover the rest too.
Drop in from anywhere — we cover every suburb in the region.
Quick answers to what panicked Townsville customers ask after a spill.
Hold the power button down for 10 seconds to force it off. Unplug the charger. If the battery is removable, take it out. Tip the laptop upside-down on a towel so liquid drains away from the motherboard. Do NOT power it back on to 'test if it works' — that's how short circuits kill boards. Then call us on 0408 777 938 and get it in for diagnosis the same day if possible. The first 24 hours matter more than anything else.
Yes. The liquid evaporates but the residue (sugar, salt, minerals) stays on the board and starts corroding tracks and components. Corrosion can take days, weeks or months to kill the laptop. We recommend bringing it in for a board inspection and clean — much cheaper than waiting for the random failures to start.
Diagnosis alone is $120 (and waived if you proceed with a quoted repair). Most full repairs land between $250–$700, depending on what was hit. A simple ultrasonic clean of a lightly-affected board is at the low end. Replacement of damaged components (keyboard, battery, trackpad, charging board) bumps it up. Motherboard component replacement (chip-level) is at the high end. We give a fixed-price quote in writing before any paid work starts.
Almost always, yes. The hard drive or SSD is usually fine even when the motherboard is fried — liquid rarely reaches inside a sealed drive. We can pull the drive, image it, and either recover files for you or put it back into a working laptop. See our data recovery page for details. We also handle soldered-SSD MacBooks separately — that requires more specialised work.
Most home contents and accidental damage policies cover laptop spills — check yours. We provide an itemised diagnosis report and quote that insurers accept, and if you need a 'beyond economical repair' declaration for a claim, we can write one. We're happy to liaise with assessors if that helps.
A lot. Plain water is the most forgiving. Coffee, tea, soft drink, wine and beer all leave conductive sugar/salt residue and are much more aggressive. Salt water (think pool or beach) is the worst — it corrodes immediately. Whatever you spilled, time is the biggest factor. Faster in = better outcome.
Diagnosis usually same-day or next morning. A board clean and component-level repair takes 2–5 business days end-to-end. If we need to source rare parts (specific keyboard, motherboard daughter-board, charging port) it can stretch to 7–10 days. We'll be straight with you about timing at quote stage.
Wet laptops are time-sensitive. Call us now, drop in this afternoon, and give the board the best possible chance.
Mon–Fri 8am–5pm · After hours by arrangement · All Townsville suburbs