Would you know what to do if you spilled something on your laptop or cell phone? Should you unplug the device, remove the battery, or simply wipe the offending liquid off? Below is a guide that should help you to answer these questions so that you can save your electronics should something spill on them.

If you happen to spill something on your laptop, cell phone, or other electronic device, one of the first things that you should do is to unplug your device. After your device has been unplugged or if it wasn’t plugged in to begin with, you should then remove it’s battery so that there is no electricity going into it, which could cause something to short out, as well as other problems.

Then, you should either turn the device upside down, in order to prevent any liquid from getting further into it and then use a towel to clean up the liquid and dry off your device.

After doing this, if the liquid you spilled is sticky or may cause more harm than water, you may want to consider opening up your device, if you’re able to, and then use a cloth dampened with regular water, in order to clean off any of the liquid that may have gotten into your device. If you didn’t spill anything that requires rinsing, you may still want to consider opening your device up and checking to see if any water got into it that would need to be wiped up.

Once you’ve cleaned up the spill and checked to be sure that it isn’t inside of your device, you should allow the device, still without any power, to dry for a while before trying to use it again.

Another tip for someone who has spilled water on a smaller device, such as a cell phone, would be to place the phone into a bowl of dry rice, in order to try and draw out any moisture that may be in the device.

For more information about how to save your electronics from spills, I would suggest that you check out this article from Engadget, as well as this article from eHow, on how to save your laptop from a spill, and this article, also from eHow, on how to save a cell phone from a spill.