I spilled about 200ml of water into my desktop PCs keyboard. Like, it was pouring out when I lifted it off the table 😂😱
I unplugged it and tried to get as much water out by allowing it to pour out and stuck tissues into nooks to soak up the access liquid. I tried opening the case but couldn't make my way inside. So I left it out to dry for now almost 24 hours.
So there isn't much that I can still do with a budget of 0€. No alcohol soak or nothing.
I was just wondering if it was possible for dried residue to short out the keyboard and damage my PC?
UPDATE
It works. am typing this on said keyboard right now. weeeeee
26 Jun 2026 20:58
I've done that -- if it was
just water, and not a sticky/sweet drink or juice, your chances for a full recovery are good, if you thoroughly dry it out. Tap water, depending on where you live, might have some minerals that could cause trouble but if it was clean you might not have shorted anything out.
If you can't take it fully apart (which would be best), let it dry even longer if you can, but first hold it upside-down firmly and shake vigorously for a minute or so ... if there's still any water in there, more should come out that way. Then let it dry for another day. If there was already gunk inside the keyboard, the water may have shifted it around, and made some of it adhere to moving parts, so you might want to use a can of compressed air to blow around and under each and every key.
26 Jun 2026 21:28
I've seen some keyboards take full immersion and keep working after drying up. I've seen others break or partially break after a bit of coffee spillage.
Sincerely just depends on how the keyboard was constructed and a bit of luck.
Just dry it off as best you can, then let dry on one side in full sun for a day, flip and let dry on the other side the next day. Plugin and try on day 3.
26 Jun 2026 21:32
With water you're generally fine. Might take a day or two. Put it in front of a fan or vent or something if you're feeling extra cautious.
Edit: no, it's very unlikely that it can causeway damage to your PC
26 Jun 2026 22:11
If it was just plain water the chances are very good it will work just fine if you can dry it completely. Pure water is non-conductive.
If it had additives like flavoring or sweetener there might be some trouble because those could leave a conductive residue. Even in that case the chances are slim that a malfunctioning keyboard would damage your PC. The most likely outcome is that it sends extraneous characters or some keys don't respond.
26 Jun 2026 22:12
Managed to get it open. Didn't consider some hidden screws holding it together. It appears dry (at least one benefit of this feckin heatwave!
)
So I'll clean out the gunk that has accumulated over the years, put it back to gether and hopefully it'll work
26 Jun 2026 22:50
Lemmy
Related topics
