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macbook crisis!


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So I'm a huge idiot, last night I knocked over a glass of watered-down gatorade and spilled some (about 1-2 oz worth) on my macbook ;). I immediately ran to the kitchen to grab paper towels and clean everything up, disconnected the power and battery, wiped everything down and let it sit upside down overnight to get the liquid out of the internals. The computer itself didn't spark or anything but it shut off fairly quickly right before I disconnected power. I haven't tried booting it back up yet, I wanted to wait ~24 hours or so (it's only been about 9 hours so far).

 

My questions:

 

1. Is there anything else I can/should do to help minimize the damage?

 

2. My battery was on its way out even before the spill. Should I just go get a new battery and not bother trying to work with the old one? I live about 15 minutes from an apple store so I can stop there on my lunch break today.

 

3. What are my chances of everything being okay? The laptop is out of warranty (not that it matters for spills anyway) but I really don't want to have to buy another macbook :)

 

Lesson learned, don't leave drinks near your expensive and essential electronics.

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nightmare dude, i feel for ya. back in the day, i tripped on the stairs and dropped my 6-day old PowerBook G4 12'' down them, while it was open and running. it survived but the casing split.

 

anyway, one thing to consider - do you have home & contents insurance? not sure where you are but here in the uk such accidental damage is usually covered for things like laptops. you may have an excess on your policy (say, £50 or £100) which means you pay the first £50/£100 of whatever repairs / replacements are necessary, but it might be a good way to get a new macbook ;)

 

EDIT: or, looking at your sig, steal your gf's one :)

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anyway, one thing to consider - do you have home & contents insurance?

nope, but it's the first thing i'm getting when I get my new home in a few months :)

EDIT: or, looking at your sig, steal your gf's one ;)

she needs it for school and I need mine for work, I hate fighting her for it.

 

I guess there's not much else I can do right now but wait until I'm sure everything has dried.

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Good luck. My old Tosh Satellite took a marinating in half a can of Stella a couple of years ago, did the same as you (turned upside down, left it for a while). The internals were fine, but a couple of the keys stickyed up, so I put in a new kb assembly and it was good (or bad) as new.

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If you're confident in what you're doing, you can actually totally disassemble the macbook, clean all the components with ethanol, make sure it all dries out completely, and reassemble it. That has a fair chance of fixing it, so long as nothing has actually fried.

 

In my experience, electronics are sturdier than we're led to beleive....

 

good luck!

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If you're confident in what you're doing, you can actually totally disassemble the macbook, clean all the components with ethanol, make sure it all dries out completely, and reassemble it. That has a fair chance of fixing it, so long as nothing has actually fried.

 

In my experience, electronics are sturdier than we're led to beleive....

 

good luck!

How easy or hard is this and do you think it's worth it? I've done some work myself before like installing graphic cards, memory, etc. but nothing more than the basics really.

 

For a little more detail on the spill it was 1-2oz on the left side of my keyboard (by the asdf row, etc.). That's also the side all the ports (usb, fw, power, etc.) are on. I had the power cable and an external USB drive plugged in. I think I got to everything quickly but I can't be sure.

 

Also what would be the best procedure when I do restart? Just turn it on from battery power, AC power with the battery disconnected, AC power with the battery connected? Should I try with my old battery or a new one first?

 

Thanks for all the help so far guys.

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if your battery has had 'issues' before might be best to avoid that initialy.

The only "issue" I had before this is lower battery life because i've used the thing so much. I'm lucky to get 60-75 minutes on my current battery, down from over 3 hours per charge when I first got it. I was due for a new one soon anyway which is why I'm headed to the apple store in about an hour :D

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update: bought a new battery yesterday, but I decided to take apart the whole computer and wipe it down with iso alcohol and distilled water just in case. There were a few noticeable spots of what looked like salt/sugar deposits so I got all those cleaned out. My office is a mess of laptop parts and little screws right now, until everything dries and I put it back together later today. Crossing my stinky fingers...

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Wow, that's bad news bro. But hey, at least it wasn't coke. I spilled some of that on my old Toshiba Satellite and the thing was 100% FUBAR after about 3 months even though I cleaned/wiped it out. I brought it to a technician but it was too late. He suspected that some of the coke had glued to the keys and slowly dripped into the case due to heat (so yeah, make sure you clean those keys right!).

 

Remember to discharge any static you may have on you before touching any of the internal components. This is done easily by touching a large metal object like a heater, oven, etc. You should also tighten the screws only gently. Failure to do so may lead to a broken case. I also tighten the screws following a star pattern (you know, like when you tighten the bolts on a tire) to avoid skewing/slanting the case.

 

I really hope everything turns out well!

 

hecker

 

EDIT: You can buy a rubber coating thingy for your macbook keyboard. I think I'm gonna grab me one of these since a lot of people tend to place their drinks dangerously close to my macbook when they come to my office.

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Thanks for the advice hecker :D

EDIT: You can buy a rubber coating thingy for your macbook keyboard. I think I'm gonna grab me one of these since a lot of people tend to place their drinks dangerously close to my macbook when they come to my office.

my new rule is that drinks stay on a different surface from my laptop at all times, but I might pick this up anyway, thanks

 

edit: my next computer is so gonna be a desktop. hopefully my laptop can last until i can afford an imac next year, i'll give the laptop to my mom to replace her aging dell centrino piece of {censored}. :P

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Here is what I would do if a sugary liquid gets in a laptop

 

1: remove the power, battery and hdd, optical drive too if possible (though tha isn't such a concern because it is generally reasonablly cheap to replace) deal with those seperately

2: add plenty of water, having things wet is far less of a concern than having dried on gunk

3: dismantle and clean everything while it is still wet

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update: my macbook turns on when the battery is in, but not when it's just AC power. It also won't charge the battery. The adapter itself is fine, lights up when connected to the macbook and everything, but no charge is going to the computer or the battery. I narrowed the problem down to the DC-in board, which connects the power adapter to the logic board. The part was $20 + shipping so I'm going to install it when it gets here later this week. Hopefully I'll get battery charging back and not a logic board replacement :)

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Bummer, I hope the DC-In board fixes it. I would be so upset if a spill broke my Macbook, $1300 out the window basically.

 

I had a full solo cup (the red 'party' ones you see in movies) of water, and i knocked the whole thing over on my Inspiron E1505 keyboard a few months after I got it. I had that thing off in a matter of seconds by ripping the battery out. I then flipped it over, waited about 2 hours, and it worked fine.

 

Whats cool about dell keyboards is that they have edges to them which allow the keyboard insert to hold a small amount of water so in a spill internals will be safe. My macbook doesn't have that, so I keep water away from it.

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Good luck with the DC board, i fried the keyboard of my macbook, the spill wasn't even that much, all keys in the asdf row from the f to the ' stopped working. Had to buy a new one, took quite a while to get it down here in central america, but it's working just fine :blink:

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bumpin this thread for an update

 

I got the dc-in board on friday and quickly installed it. The magsafe still doesn't charge the battery, so it's either my power adapter or the logic board, and I really doubt it's the adapter. My options now are:

 

- buy an external battery charger for my macbook ($150). This would let me keep using my macbook, but on battery power only, and I don't know how good of an idea it is to keep using a laptop with messed up power management.

 

- sell my macbook (i can probably get $300-500 for everything if I ebay it) and buy a used or refurbished macbook. I get another computer but I'm putting out an additional $400-800 after I get my sale money, and if I buy used who knows where it's been.

 

- sell my macbook and get a new mac mini + monitor. Same cost as the macbook but everything would be new. but it's a mac mini.

 

- buy a new logic board and fix my macbook ($600). seems like a dumb option when I can get a new computer but it's there.

 

I'm not sure what to do. any suggestions?

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