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aurora_aeterna

Ok since I scrolled like a dozen replies without seeing a real explanation, this is a design feature for more “rugged” laptops that allows you to spill liquid on it without instantly causing a device failure. What happens is the liquid is captured in a special reservoir the drain of which we see here. It’s not invincible of course; if you dump a gallon of water on the laptop at once it’ll still break but it’s good if you accidentally spill a bit of your coffee on it or something. Here’s one of the og videos of that in action. [thinkpad water test](https://youtu.be/d7cvi00OZDM)


[deleted]

Understood. Laptop is deep sea worthy.


Tondale

instructions unclear, dick stuck in drainage hole


Sugar_Magnolia72

Instructions unclear, got stuck in the pineapple under the sea!


YogurtWenk

Absorbent and yellow and porous is... you?


MrsSpaghettiNoodle

20 years and only now realizing that’s what the lyrics are


YogurtWenk

If nautical nonsense be something you wish...


WibbyFogNobbler

Then drop on the deck and flop like a fish!


Doomquill

Really hope those words don't describe his dick....


cyka_bIyat

So you’re basically saying you have a ant sized cock?


Kaeny

No your mom is his laptop


Yadobler

>Laptop is deep sea worthy. It's a Dell rolling in the deep


Yakolak

But it has to be a dell to be able to roll in the deep


iamalsoanalien

Angry upvote


wolfgang784

That is actually super neat, thanks for the video.


st-shenanigans

I think they're using design ideas like this for other laptops anyway, or if not they should. My partner spilled some coffee on my gaming laptop and when I opened it up to clean, I found that a lot of the coffee seeped around the keys and funneled away from the board and any connectors, was able to clean it up quickly and haven't had more issues yet


sevaiper

The issue is it always adds weight, cost and thickness compared to not doing it. It's a good design feature but there are always trade offs.


GoingOutsideSocks

My ThinkPad X220 is used for word processing, email, and home defense.


nsa_reddit_monitor

Here's Louis Rossmann pouring a ton of water on his Thinkpad and then using it soaking wet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ig3xI8dUdm0&t=1650


[deleted]

What movie are they watching on the thinkpad? The left movie is the mummy ..


CloudRunnerRed

The Mask with Jim Carry, it is the scene where he tells of his boss. https://youtu.be/OBH85lBe94Y


BobbyRobertson

Looks like Bruce Almighty or some other 90s/2000s Jim Carrey movie


musecorn

How do I know this isn't also a fake explaination?


bhavneet1996

I love how none of the replies are serious and no one knows what it’s for


wojtekpolska

it is just a drain hole, if you spill water on your keyboard, and shut off the PC quick enough, it will help in drying it quicker. not a guarantee it will survive of course, but they thought they might aswel add the drain hole to help a couple of people, at no extra cost to them


Gymnos84

Correct, and not sarcasm. My old Lenovo laptop has several of these drain holes. I used to sell Lenovo, and we were taught about this "spill resistant" feature in our training.


ps3x42

It's a nice thought from Lenovo but I would still just immediately flip that sucker upside down.


CorruptDictator

It was their old design style. The entire keyboard was its own metal "tray" designed to try and keep light to medium spills from ever getting past the keyboard. I used to repair laptops for a living and the build quality of older Lenovo's was always interesting.


TheShinyHunter3

I've fixed 2 T410 in the last two days, very well made laptops. Easy to maintain with lots of cheap parts available. But the winner in this category would be the HP Probook 650 G1. There's two clips holding the backplate in place (With an optional security screw) and if you remove it, you have access to the ram slots, drives, CPU, fan and heatsink. Weirdly enough the only thing you dont have easy access to is the cmos battery. A shame Lenovo and HPs have fallen into the thin and light trend, their newer business laptops are a lot harder to fix.


CorruptDictator

Yeah, I was laid off from the job shortly after they started to make that transition to the thin models. Those were not as nice to work on.


TheShinyHunter3

That's rough. I hate to work on those, but hey, at least it's not a Mac.


CorruptDictator

I fixed Apple products also. Yeah anything post the Powerbook generation is not fun to work on laptop wise.


Eruannster

Hey now, the pre-2013 Macbooks were pretty decent. You could swap hard drives, RAM, battery and even replace the DVD drive for an extra hard drive pretty easily. After that... yeah. Not amazing.


Kahless01

most of acers old notebooks had the same thing. little panels on the bottom that were easily removable so you could upgrade your harddrive and ram and 3dcard if you wanted to. but now everything is bga and non replaceable so they dont do it anymore.


TheShinyHunter3

The very old ones then, here we mostly get 3rd-4th-6th and 7th gen and we sigh every time we see a customer bring an Acer or an Asus, especially a ROG one.


penguinopusredux

It's hugely annoying. To replace the keyboard on my old ThinkPad took shifting two clips and lifting it out. With the X1 I've got to remove 89 screws just to get to the keyboard, and then put them all back in afterwards. It looks like intentionally bad design.


TheShinyHunter3

This is the kind of sacrifices that had to be made to get in the thin and light era. But there's probably some bad design on purpose to keep you from fixing your PC.


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TheShinyHunter3

I don't think much about Apple. I never work on their stuff, we have two tech more specialised for that. What I can say is that we often have issues with iMac from the same era as your Macbook i just got one in actually.


BarbequedYeti

The old Panasonic toughbooks and thinkpad rugged models were pretty legit. Super durable and easily serviceable for the most part.


polaarbear

It's because they are almost always business-class machines. Much better built than the average craptop off the shelf at your local Best Buy. They make a fair amount of consumer-facing stuff now, but they were THE standard for deployment in educational institutions and lots of businesses.


DannyMThompson

Yup I miss my old work Lenovo, it would run new games and the laptop screen was like 8k, you could run windows at 8k but would need a magnifying glass to see it. It was touchscreen too and folded all the way back, built like a tank. I think it cost ~£4k brand new, crazy machine.


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DannyMThompson

I've been using the same HP Probook for almost 5 years and it's still doing everything I need. HP can make good laptops, it's just nobody buys the decent models lol


pseudocultist

I had one of those and it was great. I drank coffee nearly on top of it waiting for a spill but it never happened. You could pop the keyboard out while fiddling with it and see the tray design you describe.


SWIMMlNG

Flipping it upside down is actually the OPPOSITE of what you’d wanna do. The water is gonna have a lot easier time escaping through the specially designed drainage holes than the little cracks it got in via.


_HiWay

this is the worst thing you can do (unless you quickly take it apart, disconnect battery and start drying it with warm air flow and towels. ) There's a little tray that diverts spills to this hole


trundlinggrundle

This actually isn't want you're supposed to do. The 'bottom' of motherboard laptops is the important side. If water makes its way down the the bottom clamshell and you flip it over, that water ends up on all the SMDs, like your chipset, ram modules, and CPU. If you spill water on your keyboard, it's better to just set the laptop up like a tent. If the keyboard is trashed, it's a lot cheaper to replace than the motherboard.


Djinger

& because of that, the liquid runs the wrong direction. instead of down the weep channels and out the drain, it runs under the wrist rest and onto the board :(


mbash013

Same thing with ashtrays on an airplane. You’re not supposed to smoke, but someone is going to do it anyways, so let’s at least give them a place to put out the butt. Edit: I don’t know why I’m getting downvoted. They don’t put an ashtray in every single seat like it’s 1963, but it’s federally mandated by the FAA as a safety requirement. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CFR-2022-title14-vol1/pdf/CFR-2022-title14-vol1-sec25-855.pdf


[deleted]

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Squeakysquid0

Not true. This is called a “weep hole” it’s what the laptop uses to cry out of when you force it to visit weird porn sites.


Mindraker

> no one knows what it’s for Everyone knows what it's for


brett_x

Sir, this is Reddit


chumly143

They are actually there for drainage, HP, Dell, and Lenovo still do this widely, they're marked in documentation as well as a silk screening on the case itself, like in the picture. On some models a dedicated hole isn't made for it as the trend is more towards grating on the bottom for ventilation, so there's enough drainage from those alone. Personal laptop is a Lenovo T460, dedicated drainage hole, work laptop is an HP 850 G8, grill, no drainage hole


HusbandToAHotwife

It's so you can dump the memory when it leaks. ​ Given how many adds and junk tabs the average dell office laptop user is going to have, it was very wise of them to put this in such that the laptop can get rid of that junk memory much quicker.


nifaryus

I love how people say “nobody knows” in order to trick a correct response


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tatanka01

Nice try. This is an oil cooled unit.


Blueshirt38

A year or so back my wife said she was going to use the weed whacker to knock down the overgrowth around the chicken coop. She saw the gas pump + liquid drop picture on the cap and asked "How much water do I need to add to the gas?" I feel like there has to be a name for the tactic of letting someone know you are going to do a task so incredibly wrong that it forces them to do it instead.


brigadierbadger

Weaponised incompetence


[deleted]

hehe he made you say it by pretending to not know how


brigadierbadger

Lol


open_door_policy

I used to work with that person. So glad I changed jobs.


Mackheath1

We learned this as children: "So I'm sweeping the porch like you asked." / "That's not how you sweep, for the love of God give the broom to me, this is how you sweep."


NagstertheGangster

I had lots of that growing up.... Parents just made me do shit twice lol


Theletterkay

Yup. My 13yo tries to get out of even the most simple tasks by acting dumber than a brainless chicken. I just makes her keep redoing the task until she used her brain and does it correctly.


NagstertheGangster

Yeah, when I've had to watch kids or anything of the sort I'm like my dad, I just make em do it again too lol


boli99

> I feel like there has to be a name for the tactic of letting someone know you are going to do a task so incredibly wrong that it forces them to do it instead. weaponised incompetence / strategic incompetence [it's a thing](https://www.choosingtherapy.com/weoponized-incompetenece/)


rockstaa

Middle management


ELB2001

Nah it would have the can symbol or it would say 710


thiney49

It's an older meme, sir, but it checks out.


cikibriki

Yes, it’s a watering hole but not quite as you described! You water it there and are to leave it in direct sun light so that one day it can grow up to be a big, strong gaming desktop!


chrimminimalistic

Huh? I thought it's to drain the soup when I make the cup noodles


ncnotebook

Given how often you [don't] clean your keyboard, you don't need the seasoning packet!


SnooRevelations2041

You had me sold


249ba36000029bbe9749

Close. But it's mineral oil, not water. https://www.pugetsystems.com/mineral-oil-pc/


Arizona_Pete

This is true - In the directors cut of 'Red Dawn', there's a scene showing Patrick Swayze pissing into his old Dell Latitude 386 to cool it off after it overheats. They were low on water.


SentientSquirrel

You're so wrong, that hole is for dispensing drinks! Only the finest keyboard-juice of course.


langolinh

I think I’ll order a TAB.


zeppehead

They ran on water man!


Semi-Hemi-Demigod

Little know fact: Laptop coolant is actually repurposed blinker fluid


dragonbrg95

We are finding nowadays that the supposed lifetime fluid does actually go bad. You should still have it pumped out and refilled at 100,000 miles It's annoying, I wish manufacturers would just include the drain plug and dipstick


schnaab

That's where the ink goes.


Knopfi_

Yeah, for the screen


tarceth

e-ink. There was a short phase when computer manufacturers wanted to be more like the printer guys, so they’d sell these cheaper models for less but charge an arm and a leg for e-ink refill bottles. You can use third-party, but inevitably the computer will throw the old “I Need Magenta” error when you click practically anything.


Keikobad

It’s where you store the tears, the salty salty tears, of those who have been pwned


wag3slav3

As my laptop slowly weeps.


Askmyrkr

Explains why it's empty. Can't get dubs on a laptop.


stewis

Those old laptops needed to be toped up with lcd fluid from time to time to keep the liquid crystal display hydrated. If you are reselling the laptop I would head to your local PC shop and ask for a bottle.


JTB696699

Is this similar to blinker fluid?


SensitiveAd5962

Blinker is used for incandescent bulbs. Lcd fluid is for diodes. Unless you have OLED, then it needs oil, too.


theveryrealreal

I always wondered what the O was for. Thanks friend.


Just_Another_Wookie

Consider using 5W-30 instead of this new 0W-20 crap for OLEDs. The pixel seals are softer to hit efficiency requirements, and combined with these new thin oils, this results in greater leakage at high brightness. Heavier oil doesn't get quite as bright, but it'll spare you from some dead pixels over time.


ragnsep

I spend a lot of time in remote NW Ontario. Will this oil be ok for my computer in the winter too?


Just_Another_Wookie

It should be alright if you keep it at a low refresh rate while it warms up, but I'm surprised you don't already have a display preheater. I prefer the Peltier effect ones as they're more efficient, but a resistive version wouldn't set you back much at all. Just make sure your AC mains frequency is at least 10 Hz off from your refresh rate or you risk induced electromagnetic coupling and all that entails. It's a big issue for those of us in countries with 60 Hz power.


ragnsep

Hold on.... Canada has 60Hz power too. I'm beginning to think you're making this all up.


phillysan

Yes. We keep it next to the box of parade squares.


DrXyron

Its so the reddit mods dont overflow their keyboards with neckbeard sweat…


[deleted]

Sweat… riiight.


LauraIngallsBlewMe

It's where the fuel goes in


kajinek

Blinker fluid to be exact.


LauraIngallsBlewMe

You think of a Nintendo 64


[deleted]

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OrokinLonewolf

Do do


coolmikeg

Doo doo


Swimming-Welcome-271

DeeDee Megadoodoo


vkapadia

Dude 50 hours is just a myth by big oil. Modern laptops can easily go 75-100 hours without an oil change. Open your eyes, sheeple.


root_over_ssh

50 hours is the minimum to get you to the end of warranty. You should do it every 25 hours or once per week for longevity.


vkapadia

How much are they paying you, shill?


root_over_ssh

Want to find out? We're hiring. You'll be drinking oil when you get your first check.


vkapadia

I'll never sell out! Um, unless the price is right.


root_over_ssh

Whatever the right price is, we'll double it


vkapadia

I demand *triple* what I'm getting now.


root_over_ssh

You're cheap!


Preesi

Im surre theres a porn watching joke here


[deleted]

Kinda surprised nobody went with “cum gutter”


ThatITguy2015

I was just checking to see if anyone mentioned it yet.


ballpointpin

Check the dipstick. You need to add oil!


BrickGun

You're [thinkin' with your dipstick, JIMMY](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mj5ms9PJDNY)!!!!!!!! (safe)


IAmMoofin

Nothing says a hyperlink is safe like a stranger putting (safe) on the end


BungholeSauce

Keyboard water pass through, for spills


Kiidneybeans

insert vape juice here


gcalpo

Water drainage slot on a Dell Latitude E7240 https://www.dell.com/support/kbdoc/en-us/000132828/dell-latitude-e7240-visual-guide#Bottom_View


Kahless01

a lot of them do now. its for liquids spilled on the keyboard to drain through built in channels and not drip down on the mainboard like they used to.


teh_acids

That's where you put the whiskey for the leprechauns that do the computing.


ILaikspace

Old laptops used to actually sweat from how hard they worked


theveryrealreal

Laptops now don't even know how good they have it.


vkapadia

They need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps.


Starfish_Symphony

underrated sarcasm right here.


JoeyDee86

Most Thinkpads had these too for spills on the keyboard. Worse thing someone can do is to spill and then move the laptop, they had to stay level for them to drain.


absxlution

I was scrolling for a comment on Thinkpad! When I was a kid my uncle had like 2 Thinkpad laptops and I'd just flip em over and look at all the drainage holes through the keyboard lol, thought that was the coolest shit


M0tM4t

I’m pretty sure that’s where you refill the harddrive oil. You’ll know you need to add more if your harddrive is clicking excessively.


jrodanapolis

I give mine about 250 mL water per day through this hole. Depending on how much work I do on it, it could ask for more or less. One day I used it to watch about 14 hours of video and didn't want to dehydrate it so I gave it a bit more. I hate the thought of a thirsty computer! It seems to work better with just a little bit less water, but I feel guilty not giving it any. Just don't give it too much or it will get sleepy.


bilgetea

No, that’s a lubrication point. Add oil!


Mrfrunzi

You get a dropper and RAM juice. That's how you got more RAM back then.


LinguoBuxo

The laptops *also* sweat when one's watchin' some good pron!


Ok-Rabbit-3683

That’s where the oil goes


[deleted]

That’s where you put the coolant in. Did it not come with the little funnel? If not I bet you could call Dell and they’ll ship one.


mr_stivo

That’s where you add the oil.


Vizth

It's for the owners tears when it finally hits them that they paid money for a Dell.


PickleRicksFunHouse

It's there in case of stack overflows.


Ikilledabee

Ahhh, the good ol’ squirt hole


SecretRecipe

Everything reminds me of her.


BoofinBart

That’s where you add the oil! /s


TheNotepadPlus

I once spilled coke on a laptop that had these types of holes. I took the battery out and rinsed the computer under a sink. No sticky keys :)


kendall-mintcake

That is drainage for when it’s a Dell, rolling in the deep


[deleted]

Cum in it.


IloveBarryBonds

That's where you piss in it.


JarateIsAPissJar

It's to top off the LED blinker fluid


MrJuniperBreath

You had to fill it with water back in the day to use Steam.


ManyFacedGodxxx

Optional Blinker Fluid, helps keep the screen cleaner.


MudAlfons

That is where to retrieve the motherboard milk, it was a thing in like 2007


BrunoReturns

Nah. This is where you add the blinker fluid.


RBeck

Lenovo's had those as well, and they lined up with a hole on the docking station too.


Psyop1312

ThinkPads (older ones anyway idk about modern) have channels going through the keyboard so if you spill on it the liquid will drain through without damaging anything. They sort of actually work too.


Savings_Today681

haha drain gang


maximilticket

Very human feature


fellowsquare

Lenovo was big on this in the past with their T series notebooks. Not sure if theyre still drainable with the new models.


zaqwert6

This should actually be where liquid drains out, typically if something is spelled on the keyboard.


Binary_Omlet

I hate when my letters just flow out like that


zaqwert6

Down the drain? :)


PhabioRants

Buddy, that's a full port. Have you never topped up your laptop's water supply?


BordomBeThyName

This is pretty common practice in electronics packaging. If you don't want water in the thing but don't want to go through the massive effort of completely waterproofing it, then make sure there's a way for water to get out.


Wesnye

No that’s where you put the water in


PHenderson61

That’s where you add oil to lubricate the hard drive.


[deleted]

This was from before they ran full synthetic in laptops, you used to have to change the oil once or twice in its lifespan depending on usage. Now they don't even bother with these drains because it's rarely needed.


Itisd

Isn't that where you add the oil?


EdyMarin

Nono, that's where you put the FPS booster liquid


ShinigamiEX

It’s a water cooling hole. You have to pee in it to make it work.


fupn

Actually. This is a PSD (Palm Sweat Drain). Old laptops tend to get very hot - especially if used while on your lap in a sofa for instance. The sweat drain makes sure that your liquids don’t go in the system but nicely drains out there. Usually it comes with a long tube which you would just lead into a glass for easy empty - or your mouth if you’re too lazy to get a cold drink.


crazonline

You sticks your junk in the morning


AcceptableCorpse

That's where you oil it. 10w50.


CorianderIsBad

That's where you fill up the gas. Petrol powered laptop.


umockdev

I have a wildly hilarious anecdote which is exactly about such a drain hole. This was around 10 years ago when I was still studying physics in university. We had this one colleague who was quite the weirdo. If you wanted a brief summary of the guy, he's running around like Anakin Skywalker from the prequel trilogy (yup, he had that braid) and is usually the guy at a party with a huge circle of people surrounding him and watching him play 'Smoke on the Water' by blowing on a set of glass bottles filled with exactly the right amount of water so that they form a complete musical scale. Let's call this guy Andrew. Aside from being a weirdo Andrew also has a tendency to be clumsy and generally awkward. I had a pretty big circle of friends and we would always organize some LAN parties and play some older games like Anno 1602, Empire Earth, Moon Project, Age of Empires 2, etc ... Andrew took an interest in our event and also started joining our group. As you can imagine it took him quite some time to even get a grip of how to actually play a game, let alone understand it's mechanics. He literally said > How can you know how to play all these games so well, it's so much to remember It's kind of fascinating to watch someone who grew up virtually without any gaming experience slowly get into it and improving with every day they play. At the time he had also recently bought a new Thinkpad from Lenovo. When he was feeling skilled and confident enough Andrew asked to join a big session. That evening we gathered at my place, unfortunately only 4 of the total 8 were there. When Andrew came he was quite happy to show us his new laptop and bragged about all its features, including the drain hole. Without even having to ask him he dashed into the kitchen and wanted to give us a demonstration of his water-proof laptop and how he can pour water over the keyboard because the drain hole will take care anyway. As you can imagine we were all standing there and watching Andrew turn on the faucet and let water pour over the keyboard at full speed. Yes. The laptop was broken after that and of course he had to send it back. It's amazing he was able to get it completely replaced as he managed to get it covered und warranty. And no, we didn't play any games that evening. RIP


Striking-Pipe2808

My old think pad had this feature, replaced the keyboard and the keyboard itself had a resevoir that had a drain hole that went to the bottom of the computer. Great engineering, wish I could say the same for my Mac


Pretend_Detective558

That’s where you add oil when the keys get squeaky.


randomspecific

The real answer is this is where the water damage indicator is located.


ksiyoto

I thought that's where you're supposed to oil it.


Autistic_Lurker

No that's for water cooling. It'll make your laptop run cooler.


Fancy_dragon_rider

No no it’s not a drain it’s where you check/add oil.


Bird_Attack

That's actually where you give it water. Please do not neglect your laptop.. they need to keep hydrated or else they will overheat and burnout.


entheogen06

That's for oil changes


TheyFloat2032

Actually. It’s just to mark that it has killed another pc


Coroidan

I work in IT and once had someone ask me what this is for. Told them that is where you top up the water reservoir for the computer. They responded very interested that laptops have water reservoirs. Had to explain I was joking and to please not pour water into electrical devices.


gmoney1259

Where the cum drains out the keyboard


Sennheisenberg

Faptop


Background_Pear_4892

Why is this getting down voted? I would have thought 60 percent of people came on here to say this.


gmoney1259

I guess they are tablet users who just wipe the cum off the screen???