Spilled water on laptop and now screen shows flashing lines?

John C

New member
Last night I accidentally spilled water on my laptop. Most of it landed on the screen, which trickled down under the screen casing. Some of it also spilled on the keyboard and speaker, but I am not concerned about that because my laptop (Thinkpad T510) has a spill proof keyboard. I immediately did shut down the computer by holding down the power button. I then pulled out all cords as well as the battery. After drying the laptop of all visible water, I tried sliding some cloth underneath the screen casing. I found some water, but not all of it. After letting it sit for about 30 minutes, I (stupidly) tried turning it on because everything looked dried. It turned on, but only 5 seconds into the loading screen, the screen went haywire on me, flashing horizontal lines and becoming distorted.

At this point I shut it down again and put it about 6 inches from a fan to dry overnight. Today I tried it again and got the same results. Do you think this is a problem with the screen itself or did an internal component get damaged? There are no water blotches on the screen. Should I keep letting it dry or is this simply a lost cause?

Thanks for all the help!
The laptop is a university-issued computer. I would bring it to tech services for repair, but I am just trying to figure out if this something I can do myself.
 
Water+electricity. What do you think happened? Something shorted out or fried. 1 rule with water: Take the battery out and unplug it and take the whole laptop apart. There is NO possible way you can be sure where the water went without opening the case up. All a fan or hair dryer does is blow the water in deeper.

It needs to go to a shop now. Maybe have to buy another.
 
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