Spill Stories
I promised a couple of spill stories today and I’ll get to them in a minute. First I wanted to answer some of the questions that popped up in the comments.
Does one lose the system guarantee when one removes the keyboard to clean it?
Removing the keyboard in itself does not violate your warranty. At the same time, spills are not covered by our standard warranty. If you spill on your system, it is likely that you would be responsible for any repair charges. On the other hand, you might also think that if you have to pay repair charges anyway, it might be worth trying to clean it yourself. In all cases, use common sense. If you’re unsure of what you’re doing, give our tech support a call.
The drain holes are too small to be useful. They must be a marketing thing…
We walk a fine line with the size of the drain holes. If they are too small, then they don’t work effectively. If they are too big, dirt and dust get inside the system. To help with this, our Roll Cage has built in reservoirs. They are designed to handle more liquid faster, so that the spilled liquid has more time to drain. Here is a picture with one of the reservoirs outlined in red:
We’ve had interesting things spilled in our notebooks. In office environments, coffee is common, as you would expect.
We also have a lot of K-12 students using these notebooks. One of our business partners who does warranty work for us shared with me that the most common spill he sees in K-12 is wine spills — specifically red wine. When mom and dad are helping with Junior’s homework, it seems that they are downing a glass or three and dumping the remains on the notebooks. It leads me to wonder as to the quality of the help Junior actually receives.
There is a fairly legendary story in our service and support department where a guy called up to get his laptop serviced. He didn’t mention that his cat sprayed all over it in an attempt to mark its territory. Upon arrival at the service depot, they figured out pretty quickly that this wasn’t a run of the mill spill and the notebook was returned unrepaired in a biohazard bag.
College age students generally spill beer into their systems. Sometimes coffee. It all depends on whether they’re up late writing papers or using their systems as music machines at parties.
From listening to customer stories, I’ve determined that company executives generally spill black coffee while worker bees generally spill coffee with milk and sugar. Computer coders generally spill Mountain Dew. Housewives, tea.
If you do spill on your ThinkPad, what you do next will directly affect the extent of the damage.
- First, don’t panic. The natural inclination is to reach over and turn the system over as quickly as possible. This is the worst thing you can do because it can spread the spill around.
- Reach over to the power button and hold it down to turn your system off. Don’t do a normal shutdown. Just turn it off. Then unplug the power from the system.
- Wait a few seconds to allow the drainage holes to do their job and allow as much liquid as possible to drain from the system.
- Pick the system up, keeping it level. Once you have lifted it high enough, briskly turn the system upside down so that the keyboard is facing down. Allow the system to drain as much liquid as possible. Give it a gentle shake or two and let it sit that way for a few minutes.
- Call Lenovo support and ask what to do next. If you are the DIY type keep reading, but if you have any doubts whatsoever, give us a call.
- Take the keyboard off and determine the extent of the spill that has seeped into the system. You can also rinse the keyboard you removed using distilled water and use a hair dryer to thoroughly dry the system.
- I’ve personally heard accounts of people taking their keyboards off their systems and running them through the top rack of the dishwasher when they have really sticky spills. The water jets are able to clean the crevices better. Lenovo absolutely does not support this, but if you are faced with having to replace a keyboard anyway, what have you got to lose? Use the top rack because the heating element gets too hot and you don’t want a pile of goo at the bottom of your dishwasher. And for Pete’s sake, don’t think you can run your entire system through the dishwasher.
Feel free to share your own stories if you have them.
Lenovo Meet the Modder Dean Liou
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 2
Lenovo Meet the modder- Chris Blarsky Dairy 1
Lenovo H320 desktop
February 16th, 2007 2:30 pm
Should the battery be removed as soon as possible along with unplugging and stuff?
February 16th, 2007 5:41 pm
Adam — Yes. I should have mentioned that.
February 16th, 2007 7:47 pm
That info about the reservoirs is really quite interesting. Thanks for pointing that out!
February 17th, 2007 10:40 am
A dishwasher safe ThinkPad!!! Now that would be a marketing coup, don’t you think???
February 17th, 2007 5:50 pm
Are spills covered under the accidental damage / Thinkpad protection warranty if purchased?
February 19th, 2007 9:09 am
I don’t understand why some people like to eat and drink while using a thinkpad. I restricted myself to eat and drink at least 1 metre away from my thinkpads! Why can’t they just control themselves to eat and drink away from the thinkpads? While eating and typing on the keyboard causes the keyboard keys to turn sticky and dirty which i believed no one will ever like this.
Next time, try to eat and drink and spill everything on your bed…
February 20th, 2007 2:53 pm
JL — Yes they generally are. Interestingly enough though, according to our terms and conditions, flood damage is not. Here’s more if you’re interested in what is covered and what is not. When there is a conflict in what I write and what is in the document, the document always has the final say. http://www.pc.ibm.com/us/acces....._legal.pdf
NS — It is funny how you end up taking a lot of things for granted. If I had spilled my coffee in my bed, I’d be upset for a week. Spilling on a ThinkPad doesn’t really phase me any longer.
March 23rd, 2007 12:09 pm
My X60 feel thirsty at today morning, he drink a cup of Japanese green tea.
Although the anti-spill keyboard and drain holes really done their job very well, but my cup of tea spill it near the CPU fan area, the tea just directly entered into my machine instead of keyboard.
Finally, I go to service center to have a check. I no luck at all, replacement of Motherboard is a must, it cost me about 700USD(in fact, it’s HKD $2000).
I will not drink or eat something near my ThinkPad any more~
April 9th, 2007 2:00 pm
What happens if you have something like a V100 which doesnt have drain holes. Would you suggest turning it upside down straight away?
April 9th, 2007 10:32 pm
Alexis — For Lenovo 3000, do everything except Step #3 in the order listed.
May 28th, 2007 11:57 pm
How long before I should turn on my Lenovo T60 P I opened the top and reoved the keybpard and cleaned the red wine out. I spilled it close to the LCD.
Thanks
Harry
May 29th, 2007 3:38 am
Harry — Generally 24 hours is sufficient, but if you want to help things along a bit, use a hair dryer on no heat to help increase airflow and evaporation through the system while you have the keyboard off. Our lawyers will make me say that you’re doing this at your own risk, of course.
July 9th, 2007 12:14 pm
Hi Matt, I’m about to buy my first Thinkpad and I have some not so standard questions/special needs questions – is it possible for us to converse via email? I’ve filled in my correct address.
I’m only asking here because I haven’t had too much luck finding out what I need from Lenovo South Africa yet.
Thanks in advance!
July 15th, 2007 11:12 pm
I spilled a little amount of coke. The major was on the palm rest and the touch pad. So i opened the palm rest and cleaned below which was very nominal. But now i see that the left button does not work. Interestingly the mouse button on the key board which has the same functionality of the touch pad button (left button) also does not work. If I swap the functionality of the touch pad button then the right button on the key pad does not work. So I have for the time being disabled the touch pad buttons, and both the buttons on th key pad are working.
I’m confused now what is the problem. Is it a temporary issues or I need to change my palm rest completely to solve.
July 23rd, 2007 2:50 am
I just spilled about 200mL of water all over my Thinkpad T43 on the keyboard, close to the LCD. After staring at it in complete shock for about 5 sec, it powered off by itself. My first instinct (and action) was to pull the power cord out, grabbed my laptop and turned it upside down until all water was drained. I pulled out my battery (covered in water) and my CD Drive (covered in water). It is now sitting next to me drying peacefully ( I have not dared to try turn it back on) …I am waiting to see what happens next. Wish me luck ppl *sighs*
July 30th, 2007 9:42 am
What if there is some dust in the keyboard that you want to get rid of. I have lifted 1 key (right shift) and am unable to place this one back (it is not broken; the mechanism is just not very easy, i guess). Is there a way to place this key back or should I – as the IBM helpdesk suggests – just replace the whole keyboard?
October 10th, 2007 2:47 pm
I spilled tea on my lenovo T61 near hinge where the monitor connects, I immediately wipped up any excess and i don’t think any got in my key board, but I now have a creepy stain on my screen!! what do i do?
October 10th, 2007 3:38 pm
laura – I might suggest looking at David Hill’s post on keeping your ThinkPad clean: http://lenovoblogs.com/designmatters/?p=121
November 8th, 2007 4:27 pm
I spilled a TINY bit of hot chocolate on my T60 (actually my roommate did) and how my space bar is sticking. Everything else is completely fine (thank god) but are there any suggestions as to what I can do to unstick my sticky space bar? I am not sure how to remove my keyboard. Thanks!
(I would also like to add Hot Chocolate to the list of beverages that college kids can spill on their computers)
December 5th, 2007 3:00 pm
I spilled about 200mL of diet coke on my T61 keyboard. It was plugged to power, but my first reaction (the very next second) was to turn it upside down immediately. I actually never heard of the drainage holes before… The only effect this had is a few sticky keys that are getting better with time (it happened 2 days ago), but mostly the middle (scrolling) button of the trackpoint navigator seems to blink form scrolling to non scrolling . The only way to make it stop is to turn the trackpoint off… please somebody help me, the trackpoint actually is one of the biggest reason i bought a thinkpad…
January 20th, 2008 12:23 pm
Some water got spilled on my T60p when it was upside down (actually it was heating up a lot so Iturned it upside down … it actually helped).
What should I do?
March 30th, 2008 12:43 am
I also spilled wine next to (underneath) on my 2 month old Lenovo R61i
Freaked, it was working but my duma$$ turned it over to wipe it BEFORE I unplugged it and it shorted and went off (REMEMBER, ALWAYS UNPLUG RIGHT AWAY)
So I unplugged, removed battery, wiped.
Then I unscrewed it all and removed the back enough to use air compressed cleaner to dry.
Finally powered up 24 hours later.
*Whew*
The thought of trying to return the damn thing…
P.s. The screws in the bottom of the laptop are a mind&^%$, I have saved 7 which need to be put in, but they don’t fit anywhere (shoulda made a map when I removed them). Screws in the bottom are like 3 sizes, some fit in all, some in none
April 23rd, 2008 10:02 pm
I accidentally spilled an entire cappuccino (no lid) on my t43p last week. The laptop shorted in less than 2 seconds.. the laptop was toast. I ordered a T61.. I’m glad to hear about these holes…
June 27th, 2008 7:46 pm
Why is it seemingly impossible to manufacture actual spill-proof laptops? just don’t leave blank metal contacts; isolate them, cover them, whatever.
spills are so common, you should offer free spill recovery. that’d to wonders to counter the X61 tablet bezel disaster.
September 11th, 2008 11:41 am
I spilled a dark beer on my T21 in 2003. I was having a screeen cable issue anyway and sent it back to get this taken care of before my 3 year ran out. Upon arrival, the tech’s said I had spilled on it and voided the warranty and I needed a new main board and i/o board at the cost of 800USD+ I had them send it back to me without doing repairs. To this day I use that 8 year old machine as a test IIS/SQL server. The screen no longer works but the box is still rock solid.
October 29th, 2008 5:21 pm
i spilled half a cup of water on the top left portion (speaker) of my T61. the monitor went off immediately, and i acted on my instinct to get a towel to wipe it off (don’t do that!)…but as soon as i turned around, i smelled something funky and the system shut down. so then i unplugged it, took out the battery, and stood in front of my computer blowdrying it in shock for like half an hour. i was convinced that my motherboard was fried. but minimal hope motivated me to take out the hd, cd drive, palmrest, and keyboard to allow max air flow. so, 36hrs later, i put everything back together and now it works (passed all PC doc tests). i think i was really lucky. so don’t panic and do the right things!
November 30th, 2008 10:06 am
Hi,
Been a loyal ThinkPad guy for over a decade now. My latest one (May 08) is an R61. And I spilled Green Tea on the keyboard, on the mousepad and all over the keyboard. Was on a Skype call with my son in Chicago and as I unplugged the camera and started to lift my laptop, the system just powered off. It was on power, was charging. Turned my laptop upside down to drain the liquid on the floor. Blowdried my top of the laptop keyboard, removed the battery (wet) and cleaned it with paper towels. it all seems dry now, but when I connect it back on mains, it is just not powering back. Here in India, Lenovo Service works only 9 to 6 on a 5-day system. so, waiting to take it to Lenovo service tomm. Meawhile, any suggestions? Very very worried.
The flip/Bright side: Got a sunday off after a long, long time!!!
AVIS
December 17th, 2008 7:33 pm
OK spilt a cup of coffee (pannakin, black) on to my t43. its toast. will not even start the boot sequence. I hate to loose it. any suggestion on a debugging procedure? not the details but say the most common 80% of the things i can do. I’m not totally useless, BSEE, and a analog circuit designer.
December 22nd, 2008 6:25 am
My kid has thrown up on the keyboard of my Lenovo 3000 N200, i removed the keys and cleaned underneath and put them back on. Everything works fine now except the keyboard itself. What do I do?
January 14th, 2009 3:18 pm
Just a few days ago, a bowl of sticky bean soup has been thrown over my x61t keyboards. I turned it off immediately and after 2 days i clean the dried mucilage with cotton swabs, the machine could be turned on and off normally expect that, some of the keys are totally mess up and no use. Shall I now take my whole key board off to clean it? Since removing the pop-off keys now seems totally not working…
January 27th, 2009 7:39 pm
I called tech support when I spilled a few drops of cranberry juice on the keyboard of my T61. I am only having problems with the arrow keys being a little sticky. I have not yet done anything to clean them because I didn’t know what to do…that’s why I called tech support. The tech support person basically told me that if anything ever happens to my computer that it will not be covered because they will assume it is related to the spill. I asked if he meant that my warranty was basically voided and he replied yes. However, in the same conversation, he told me that since it had been over a week ago, if nothing bad had happened then I should be okay. This does not make sense to me. It seems like there are plenty of problems that could happen with a computer that would not be related to the spill. I wish now I had not called. I’m wondering if he wrote anything in my records about the spill incident. It is comforting to know you have a 3 year warranty even if you never have to use it.
April 20th, 2009 3:34 am
I think I may have some water spilled onto the keyboard since it doesn’t work unless I either tip it over and type in a bunch of keys, resultin in letters being entered. BTW, I have the password on my pc.
It happened after I took a baath and haven’t dried off completely. It has been a day since it happened (the initial day, it did nothin but after tip it over and pressin key, some letters are bein entered into the password section w/ no indicition of stoppin)
I haven’t tried the tups stated above, but I guess I will
May 1st, 2009 3:57 pm
I am so sad about spilling champagne on my thinkpad. I love it dearly.
However being in Africa with very poor service it has now been 4 months without it
Yes, I shed a tear each time the tell me there are no replacements for the arrow keys
June 26th, 2009 5:43 am
Once I spilled half a cup of coffee beside my X60 some 3 years ago. Some fell on the keyboard but then i think a lot has got into the heat vent.
I didnt know what to do and just let it run and stand it on its sides to let the drain back out. The computer was still running, then i suddenly figured i’d better turn it off. I was on a business trip, and it never came back on during the trip.
Heartbroken with my brand new laptop (2 months old only), I just let the dead machine standing there near the window and let the breezes dry it out. 3 days later I said enough, so I am planning to just end this thing, and to take out the harddrives and ram and sell them. But I figured I might give it one more try. Bam, it came back on. It is still working now, perfectly. Just with a twist of coffee scent every time I lift the screen up.
August 12th, 2009 10:12 am
I had a recent fright when my custom ordered 10 month old Lenovo X61T MV/MT Tablet (The X series tablets had been my dream laptop since 2004)
I spilled roughly 8 fluid ounces of filtered water from a large mouth sports bottle onto the top left corner of the keyboard while it was running. After the 1 second “Oh S#!*” moment, I pulled the power plug and tried draining out the laptop of all water while holding the power button. Unfortunately i was too busy draining my tablet (Draining water from a corner of the laptop, not upside down!) to realize the computer was frozen up and not responding to holding the power button. 10 seconds later after enough water had dripped out, I pulled the 8-cell battery and went to work drying the tablet with bathroom towels.
Fortunately it was one of the hottest days of summer that day, and the sun was just heating up my car. I put the laptop in the car for about 2 hours before getting impatient and powering on. Unfortunately only the battery light came on and the fan whirled up, nothing else would start, but the power off cycle did happen when holding the power.
I then left it in my car the rest of that day with the sunroof shade open in 100 degree heat. The end of the day i pulled the ram cover and the hard drive along with the top cover for the power and volume control buttons and the stylus to allow for more airflow. Flipped the tablet over and let it continue to dry for another hour before i left work. I left it again in the car the next day (this time with the shade closed). That night, rhoughly 36 hours after the spill, My tablet powered up as if nothing happened other than a forced vista shutdown notice.
Thank you so much for your attention to details. I knew owning a Lenovo T or X series laptop was like owning a fully loaded Volvo, this incident further proves this.
I have met many remote engineers for my industry who were issued Lenovo T series for work and swear by their durability. Years without a single need for repairs!
September 19th, 2009 9:27 am
I spilled mixed-fruit juice on keyboard of lenovo 3000 N200 laptop. The juice gets sticky when dried. now after cleaning it twice, i see SHIFT key is always pressed. What should I do?
Do I need to clean the entired keyboard?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
October 24th, 2009 8:08 pm
I tested out the drain holes in my X300 this week with nearly 16oz of water and ice. I powered it off and pulled the battery and power cable loose and kept it as level as I could on my way to the sink. Water was still pouring out of the drain holes as I went. I mopped up all that I could and left it sitting flat in the sink to finish draining until I got out of my meeting. I took the keyboard off and mopped up the few drops I could see that fell as I was removing it. Did you know that there are 9 (yes, NINE) screws holding the palm rest on???
My hairdryer is wall-mounted, so instead, I put it in the microwave to dry out on a microfiber towel. No, I didn’t turn the mocrowave on – I have one of those over-the-cooktop microwaves with a light built into the bottom of it. When the light is on, it slightly warms up the inside of the microwave. Did it help? Dunno, but at least it was warmer than the room air, and it’s working now!
The keyboard is really, really clean now… While it was off and I could get at everything easily, I picked all the lint out. I could have built an entire dust bunny with what I got out from under the mouse buttons alone! And I just thought I was keeping it clean.
Love the drain holes – I’m a big fan of them now!
January 5th, 2010 9:33 pm
Speed in drying is essential. If you can dry it in less than an hour, you greatly reduce the chances of corrosion which will absolutely toast your keyboard forever. Ideas such as a blow dryer pointed at the keyboard (probably on “air only” or “low”) are a good way to evaporate the water quickly.
July 10th, 2010 9:29 am
I spilled beer on my laptop last night 7/9/10 and I immediately grabbed a paper towel to wipe it up. I used the “dust remover” areosol can to dry it up. The computer froze up and turned itself off. I turned the computer on its side and let it sit there all night. This morning 7/10/10 when I woke up and turned it on, it was working just fine. I don’t think I damaged anything, but if I did, it sure isn’t obvious.
July 10th, 2010 8:19 pm
Guy – turning it on its side may not have been the best idea. Looking at the way the drain system works, the goals here are to keep the keyboard flat, either upside down or rightside up but flat (you also want to turn it off ASAP). Because you waited long enough for it to dry before turning it on, you don’t have any immediate damage, but you may be at risk for long term corrosion.
I would take off the keyboard and touchpad at some point in the near future and see what you can see. If you don’t see any stickiness, all is well, but if you do, clean it up with some 91% isopropyl alcohol (grocery store should have it). Maye sure to unplug the power and take the battery out first, of course.