Is a sleeping laptop more likely to be damaged by water than if it were shut down?

Question

I’ve always wondered if shutdown is “more safe” than sleep when it comes to water damage for a laptop.

For instance, if my drink spills on my laptop while it is off, I would expect damage to be minimal once it has been allowed to dry off completely. What about sleep mode? I tend to shut off my computer more often with the objective of being more safe. Should a spill occur, there are more components with power running through them in sleep mode versus off.

Then there’s the more obvious problem: A laptop in sleep mode is probably likely to get kicked out of sleep mode during the spill, since the water might be “interpreted” as a mouse movement or a keyboard key pressed.

Answer 1

For instance, if my drink spills on my laptop while it is off, I would expect damage to be minimal once it has been allowed to dry off completely. What about sleep mode? I tend to shut off my computer more often with the objective of being more safe. Should a spill occur, there are more components with power running through them in sleep mode versus off.

What you are saying is pretty much a spot on assessment. If your computer is in “sleep” mode it still has some power running through it. So if water spills, the chances of it shorting something out right away are higher than if the system is shutdown completely.

That said, a shutdown machine—in and of itself—still has it’s own risks. If the laptop has a full charged batter in it, the spit could trigger the power on/off button and start the machine up while liquid is running through the system. This is why many people advise immediately pulling the battery out of a system when a spill happens. Heck, even it was running only on AC power, that power on/off button could still come into play.

Also, even if the power on/off button is not triggered, there is a risk of the battery itself being shorted out in the spill. And when that happens, all bets are off.

So when all is said and done, a “sleeping” laptop is slightly more of a risk than a completely shutdown laptop. But a completely shutdown laptop is still at risk if it still has a charged battery installed.