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Once again you’ve set out to enjoy another day in tropical paradise only to notice that your laptop has stopped functioning properly. Either the keys on the keyboard have stopped working or your laptop simply does not power on. What’s going on?
One word; humidity. Humidity refers to the amount of vapor in the air. This vapor can cause accelerated corrosion and internal damage to electronics which are sensitive to humid conditions. So how do we fix this issue?
There are several things we need to get this job done:
- Ziplock Bag
- Rice
- Dry Sock
- Patience
Ziplock Bag
A ziplock bag is necessary to create an air tight environment for the laptop. In this environment the vapor can be removed from the interior of the laptop over a period of about 24 hours.
But how do we remove the humidity from within the laptop? Rice.
Rice
A hygroscopic material, rice absorbs moisture from the air. When dry rice is exposed to humid air the rice grains will absorb the water thereby drying the air.
How do we properly use rice to absorb the humidity? A dry sock.
Dry Sock
Since the rice must be dry in order to effectively absorb the humidity it needs to itself be placed within a dry environment.
A dry sock not only accomplishes this but is porous which allows the wet air to pass through to the rice to be absorbed.
Patience
This brings us to the final and most important step necessary for our repair. It will take at least 24 hours before enough moisture is absorbed to make the laptop, depending on the extent of the damage, useable once more.
Action Steps
These are the steps needed to start the repair:
- Place the laptop face up within the ziplock bag.
- Pour rice into the sock and tie the mouth of it closed.
- Placed the sock on top of the laptop and zip the bag closed.
- Wait at least 24 hours before removing the laptop from the bag.
Possible Issues
If you were unable to power on the laptop but now can you may find that the damage to the keyboard has still rendered your device unusable. Laptop keyboards are extremely sensitive to humidity and once damaged they can only be replaced.
In this case, you can find and order a replacement keyboard on Ebay and have it installed by a technician at your local computer repair shop.
In order to find the right keyboard you must locate the laptop model number, usually located underneath your device, and type it along with “replacement keyboard” into Ebay search in order to find the correct keyboard model.
It’s best to procure your own replacement keyboard as computer repair shops are unlikely to have the model you need on hand. If the repair shop has to order a keyboard it may result in a higher repair bill and waiting period.
Prevention
A wise man once said an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of rice. You can protect your device by following the steps above before any damage is done.
Because your device is still functioning you would not have to wait 24 hours before removing it from the bag.
You can place the laptop within the bag at night while sleeping to make sure that any humidity is absorbed and not given a chance to do any further damage.
