Hello my laptop just died today and I'm 99% it's due to water/moisture damage :)

[Rubbereon]

Has anyone else experience something similar? Did you fix it yourself?

I plan on trying to fix the laptop myself because I know exactly what the problem is thanks to both the fact it died in very specific circumstances and because it still turns on (it's just a black screen though and no, I can't access the bios either) the symptoms help narrow it down to either motherboard failure (99% sure) or ram stick failure (maybe?). I got a spare ram, so honestly that would save me so much time and money if the problem was the ram, but like there's no way it's the ram.

For context, I tried to clean the bottom side of the laptop which started to turn really gross and yellow with grime because I sweat a lot on my legs when this thing heats up like crazy. The problem also affects my hands, so any game controller, any mouse and keyboard I ever use end up looking like they were covered in black mold and it's only helps a little bit that I clean and wash my hands, but the issue is that no matter what it's gradual, so unless I go to the bathroom and shower those electronics in hot water and hand soap once every 3 months, they'll end up looking extremely gross. Been a problem for 15 years and I'm still looking for a solution to this problem. Even the chair I use has this grime covering the handles because of course I grab it with my hands. 

Anyway, after finishing cleaning it up I made sure no water got into the laptop. I was very careful, I didn't literally douse it like I do for my wired peripherals, so I dunno how it happened. It also worked perfectly fine for like 15 minutes after the fact, but after I put it into sleep mode and left it plugged, it shut off while I wasn't looking and now here we are.

Keep in mind I always clean my hands after coming out of the toilets or doing most other things, so now I feel like I have to go back there just to clean my hands and nothing else, I think I'll start wearing plastic gloves ngl (and a wooden plate expressly for use with the laptop, so the whole underside of the laptop getting gross and yucky doesn't ever happen again). 

Anyways, that was my irl update i guess.

[stellarfieldanomaly]

I can't say I have much experience specifically repairing water damage, but I did do laptop repair once upon a time. If you're getting a black screen on start-up, you might want to try connecting to an external display to see if it's actually a mb/ram issue or just a screen issue.

Also for future cleaning of any electronics I would really recommend you get some 70% isopropyl alcohol, it doesn't damage electronics and it evaporates very quickly so it's extremely unlikely to bead up and short out components. Obviously don't drench the device in it, but I use it for cleaning screens etc on non-water tight devices or with an old toothbrush for internal cleaning.

[pepper]

I was going to give pretty much the same advice as StellarFieldAnamoly. Checking with an external monitor may save you some headache if its just a display issue, but if it is a shorted mobo or something of that nature, oof.

And yes, in the future definitely use as high concentrate of isopropyl alcohol you can get! You can buy 90% IPA at drug stores, using that with cotton swabs/ q-tips would be the best way to clean most electronics. I work in a cleanroom and 100% IPA is the go-to for cleaning most residue off of things that need to be like, really clean.

[torquuato]

accidentally spilt soup on my last laptop about 2 months into 2020 lockdown (i had gotten it march 2020). screen immediately stopped working and i spent the next 2-3(?) years with a dodgy laptop that had a faulty screen. after diagnosing it we found out everything else worked thankfully so i literally just had it connected to a monitor all the time and essentially used it as a pc  . when school started again, i borrowed my mum's laptop bcs she barely used it and used that for another year or 2. eventually, i got another laptop and i have learnt to be a lot more careful.

so uh... idk how much that actually helped but that was my experience with moisture (soop) damage on laptops.