I spilt...coffee...on my...MBP :(

[suleiman]

I can't believe I was so careless. I was at starbucks, and wasn't even going to order a drink because my regular drink (white chocolate mocha no whip with a dash of raspberry) wasn't available. But I thought, what the hey, I need to stay up to study for finals, opted to get a mocha with raspberry instead and when the woman gave me my drink in the usual paper cup with a cover I detected some whipped cream and asked to have my drink made again.

 

To which she obliged. And for which I requested a mug with no cover instead of a paper cup with a cover. Foolhardiness has a knack for finding me, and I left my MacBook Pro situated on top of my briefcase with naught but a hair’s drop away from tipping over. The usual "this will only take a sec," and fractions of a second later my machine had tipped over and dominoed onto some study books which tipped over the cup and painted my screen in mocha.

 

Far more casually than aught befitting a man facing the loss of his one true love, I dashed over to grab a swab of napkins which frustratingly insisted on filtering out single file. Racing back I fought vigorously

 

After a reboot my iSight’s light flickered on and off, then in different hues of green. Attempting to activate it in PhotoBooth initiated the camera but eventually crashed the application—leaving behind the dreaded indicator light in its wake. I wondered how I would explain this to my fiancé, she had grown oh so fond of the funky effects I could now use in iChat.

 

Then just as quickly as I had painfully severed iSight functionality from my list of necessities, the display screen zapped away like a transition in a bad sci-fi movie. Not only had my MacBook Pro been wounded, it had been killed in action. I fought back the tears.

 

Some questions still linger: I have AppleCare and spills are apparently not covered, but do they stick by this rule and can they truly tell when it’s happened? I also removed the RAM and Battery and unscrewed just enough casing to split open the sides for some ventilation. I’ve had a blow dryer pumping into the Logic Board for a good couple hours, but does a sudden shutdown mean it’s time to find out about proper burial rights for a laptop?

 

I just don’t know. Why, oh why, cruel word, would you take away my nearest and dearest possession?

 

FYI, I blogged about this here: suleiman.hadithuna.com

[mifki]

That Sucks, The gods seem not to like you and your MBP. Well something always happens for a resaon, maybe ur getting a new one for XMAS

[suleiman]

I'm on it right now. Seems the iSight has been fritz. I'm going to leave it on for the night and we'll see where that takes us. Though I highly doubt the iSight shall ever work again. :'(

[mifki]

Hmm, id recommend not leavng it on. Pull it aPART and leave the parts ona dry lint free cloth in a dry place. let it dry for a day or two, then try the isight

[consolation]

my regular drink (white chocolate mocha no whip with a dash of raspberry)

 

Dude, that's sick... maybe your MB spilled the drink on itself to stop you pouring that abomination down your throat.

[milesce]

Last spring I had a similar occurance.

 

Setting: me, hard at work on my back deck next to the woods, macbook pro humming away, cup of coffee.

 

The children, running outside.

 

Child bumps into my arm (which had a cup of coffee attached to the end).

 

Coffee flies, right into the keyboard. All of it.

 

The kids vanished in a puff of smoke, because they knew the situation had just become dangerous. I quickly flipped the MBP over and watched as coffee poured out. Oh dear God.

 

Wiped it down, waited 24 hours as it hung upside down, drying.

 

Worked perfectly after that, with the exception of the arrow keys no longer functioning.

 

Nice thing was, when I took it in to the Apple Store to the keyboard replaced, I told them what had happened, assuming I'd be paying through the nose for a new keyboard, logic board, etc.

 

I get a call two hours later -- we repaired your laptop (new keyboard, motherboard etc) and found liquid damage. You know liquid damage isn't covered by applecare? I said, yes, I know. They said, well, we're only going to cover it just this once. If it EVER HAPPENS AGAIN, then we'll have to charge you.

 

I thanked them, and picked up my laptop, which was returned as good as new, free of charge.

[U.C.]

This is a standard repair procedure, for Water Damaged phones, adapted by me to computers. I would recommend you follow that, then return it for a service if required. It will require you to open your MBP up. But it will

1) Leave it spotless, before coffee spill

2) Covered under warranty

 

Water damage is permanent if your LCD is affected. There is no way at all to repair water damage from an LCD. Your battery life will be terrible as the LCD will be shorting itself all the time. Additionally the backlight is a chemical, it degrades with moisture.

 

If you phone gets wet, do the following;

 

1. Immediately take out all power sources

2. Make sure you review the repair guide for your device; it will tell you how to take it apart without damaging anything.

3. Take apart your handset, separate the FEY layers. FEY layers are the individual the mB(Circuit) layers.

4. Immerse the FEY layers in 80%(recommended0 rubbing alcohol or higher. Higher the better. Leave in alchohol for around an hour, to remove any present corrosion and remaining water/liquid. Shake the FEY layers in the solution, it will break up corrosion, and ensure there are no short circuits.

5. Get a Cutip and Swab the FEY layers and all contacts. There is no need to worry about getting the LED’s wet.

6. Let the FEY layers sit for 2 minutes. Reswab with a Cutip sweeping everything.

7. If you want to return the unit for warranty, STOP here. Just Blow Dry everything lightly and assemble the device back together.

8. Put all FEY layers under a hot Blow Drier covering all areas for atleast 20 mins.

9. Take FEY layers out, let cool for 3 minutes.

10. Now other small components, can be immersed in alcohol. Use your common sense here. If the alcohol has a high %, then you can immerse, nearly everything. Other wise, just swab/wipe as in the next step.

11. If too big just lightly swab with alcohol wet Cutip/cotton.

12. Make sure there are no stains, of any kind on anything, also if returning for Warranty remove all traces, of stuck cotton and dirt. The unit must be uniformly clean.

13. Remove all traces of moisture by Blow Drying.

14. Assemble Device back together. If unsure, and you have warranty, return it for repair.

15. Switch On device, Verify working condition.

[suleiman]

hmmm....well i'm on it right now and everything *seems* to be working hunky dory. My only concern is that something is shorting or on the fritz and I just don't know about it.

 

My experience with electronics leads me to believe that if it's shorted I would know about it by now, but the PC isn't exhibiting any signs of ill effects to the logic board, display, or hard drive.

 

Even the iSight now works. And the arrow keys.

 

[DiaboliK]

the logicboard killer in coffee is cream and sugar... the more of it the more corrosive. and vice versa. the faster you get it dried off the better. there is cleaner that you can also spray on to clean, pcb board cleaner.

Edited December 12, 2006 by DiaboliK

[U.C.]

Nice

[Zealot]

the Applecare told me they only cover decaf.

 

sorry about that

[suleiman]

lol..nice crack Zealot.

 

Yeah my MBP is working again no worries for about a day now. I guess I should go count my blessings.

 

My only worry is I was going to be bringing it in for an issue with the display that periodically springs up whenever I bring the computer out of suspend mode (the screen gets bars going top to bottom and is unresponsive). I hope the AppleCare folks don't try and cop out and say the problem was caused by the spill.

[sHARD>>]

A few comments:

 

1) White chocolate mocha no whip with a dash of raspberry ain't coffee (damn your fake "coffee" confections Starbucks!)

2) For gods sake, in the future, let it dry before using it! You may have gotten lucky this time, but trying to turn a wet machine on is what kills it most often.

3) Moo

[McSkywalker]

1) White chocolate mocha no whip with a dash of raspberry ain't coffee (damn your fake "coffee" confections Starbucks!)

Absolutely agreed. It's like using strawberry toohpaste.

[GBK.Xscape]

haha i came into a close encounter with that suleiman has been going through, i spilled cranrasberry juice all over my desk and a lil touch the little hair like things that cover th superdrive. i was freaking out becuase i had just got this and i knew my dad would kill me i f i broke it. i have had numerous broken ipods that should never had been covered by applecare and sure enough they were fixed. most of the time if you just go in and try and tell them the truth it wont be as bad as you think. my firend had a broken ipod screen and he took it the genius bar and they wouldnt fix it. so he paid the shipping fees to send it in to get it chekced out at the headquarters(wherever that is) and it came back fixed. i have also had to go back when someone else was working to get them to fix it. some guys are nice and some arent, really depends on their day.

[trav1085]

This is why I don't have a Mac laptop (not only because their too expensive) but as Dell has a accidental spill protection. Which I haven't used but is handy if I spill something on my laptop.