What is the best way to remedy spilling liquid on an electronic device?

[Annie-Xmas]

Please respond quickly!

[MannyL]

Originally Posted by Annie-Xmas

Please respond quickly!

remove power from device and remove any batteries.

post back what the device was so we can help further

[Annie-Xmas]

Portable DVD player

[Waverly]

You need to immediately bring it into the bathtub with you and rinse it out thoroughly.

[ForumBot]

Remove the battery and whatever else easily slides off and drop it all in together in a bag of rice. The rice will help absorb moisture trapped in the device. Think silica gel, only grains of rice are too large to slip into the frame and wiggle around where they shouldn't be.

It's typically suggested to leave the components alone for 3-5 days, but two has always been plenty for me, and I once dropped my phone in the toilet four times (yes, in a row. Shame me.)

edit: AND FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, DON'T TURN IT ON FOR AT LEAST TWO DAYS. The parts may corrode a little bit from exposure to water, but an electrical signal will almost certainly short out your circuit board.

[gotpasswords]

So, we have a portable DVD player with an unknown liquid in it.

If it's water, you can probably leave the thing alone (stand it on end so it can drain out) for a few days and it will dry out and probably survive.

If it was anything else, it's probably fatal. Carbonated beverages, especially colas, will corrode the internals, and anything with sugar in it will leave sticky goo.

The good news is that portable DVD players have gotten cheap - the basic ones are now under $100.

[Zambini57]

I've heard that soaking a wet cell phone in alcohol will save it. It will displace the water, dissolve any gunk and then dry quickly without leaving any corrosive residue.

No gaurantee it would work on a DVD player, but it might serve as a last resort before you throw it out.

[Napier]

Soaking in alcohol is an improvement for many devices. Alcohol is miscible with water, and you can use it to wash the water out. The alcohol dries more quickly, and is less harmful to most electronics than water in the meantime.

With a DVD player or anything else that has precision mechanical parts, I would worry that changing the lubricant in the bearings or redistributing the lubricant onto optical surfaces would be a bigger problem.