Tragedy - liquid + macbook = R.I.P? :(

RacoonQueen

Picture the scene. RacoonQueen who has been around computers her whole life and has it drummed into her not to drink over the computer. Sitting with a nice hot and sugary cup of tea in my hand. Far enough away from the laptop to prevent any accidents or disasters, as has always been practiced. Suddenly, hot and sugary tea ends up everywhere. I say everywhere it all landed on the computer, a bit on my iphone(he is safe) and some about 4 metres up the wall

No idea what actually happened, wasn't that near computer or drinking over it etc The question is can my baby be saved? Worst thing is, I took out a credit union loan to buy it and only paid off the ****ing loan last week. :mad:

Sad Professor

If you haven't already - turn it off, turn it upside down (in an open position) and leave it in the hot press to dry for several days at least. Do not attempt to switch it on before then. And pray.

challengemaster

putting it in a large box of rice is also a good idea... but definately let it dry out for a few days before turning it on.

Apart from that.... "No Mr.Repair man, I've no idea how it could have gotten any moisture damage"

conor.hogan.2

That happened to my macbook - it eventually turned on and worked perfectly but it needed to be plugged in at all times and held no charge whatsoever, luckily it was covered under the house insurance.

You could be lucky if it didnt go in through the fans at the back you could be lucky and it could be fine - but dry it out as much as possible and leave it for several hours to dry.

alan4cult

Dont try to turn it on, you may fry the motherboard.
It happened to me and i just had to get the keyboard replaced.

GarRo247

let it dry out for a week before you try to turn it on, leave the battery out of it while its drying if you can. if it doesn't work after that most repair shops can replace a few chips and sort it out, expect to pay between €150 to €200. If your going for a repair let us know your area and we can recommend somewhere near you.

Dr.Sanchez

GarRo247 wrote: »

if it doesn't work after that most repair shops can replace a few chips and sort it out, expect to pay between €150 to €200. If your going for a repair let us know your area and we can recommend somewhere near you.

Are you mad...?!

Nozebleed

get your hair dryer out asap

whiterebel

Nozebleed wrote: »

get your hair dryer out asap

Hairdryer not good at all. Gently does it, as previously advised in nice warm airing cupboard.

conor.hogan.2

True I would hair dryer an old nokia - not a laptop.

GarRo247

00Blaine00 wrote: »

Are you mad...?!

I hope im not mad, something similar happened to me and i checked about 5 different places and the best price i got was €120 everywhere else was around 150 or 180

GarRo247

Nozebleed wrote: »

get your hair dryer out asap

There is a lot of things in a laptop that could be damaged by the heat of a hair dryer

Sad Professor

GarRo247 wrote: »

I hope im not mad, something similar happened to me and i checked about 5 different places and the best price i got was €120 everywhere else was around 150 or 180

You must have been lucky and the damage was minor. If the liquid got into your logic board you'd be talking €700.

GarRo247

Sad Professor wrote: »

You must have been lucky and the damage was minor. If the liquid got into your logic board you'd be talking €700.

I thought he said i was mad as in that was too high a price to be paying lol, it might not be worth repairing so.

RacoonQueen

hmmm...on reflection I think I'll just go and buy a new one and hope to be able to make some sort of claim on the house insurance. The tea also went all over the screen so that'll probably be in shocking condition anyway. :rolleyes:

was.deevey

If its not been turned on it'll be saveable most likely if its taken apart and cleaned .. keyboard might be buggered but you can pick them up on ebay for $20 refurb.

I just did a clean up on a alcoholic laptop last week with no ill effects once it was swabbed out with isopropyl and left dry out for an hour or so.

If you are paying someone to do it though 150 - 180 sounds about right as the whole thing would need to be stripped cleaned and put back together, about 4-8 hours work total + keyboard if thats dead.

Good luck with the accidental damage claim, most times they will pay up without any issues though... (might even let you keep the laptop to try to save later).

RacoonQueen

Crisis more or less averted. It IS covered on the house insurance, just have to pay the first €200 on it(and lose the no claims next year) but it would most likely cost more than that to get it fixed and screen replaced etc

whiterebel

RacoonQueen wrote: »

Crisis more or less averted. It IS covered on the house insurance, just have to pay the first €200 on it(and lose the no claims next year) but it would most likely cost more than that to get it fixed and screen replaced etc

Nice 13" MBP on the refurb store today for €979.....

conor.hogan.2

Just a heads up - my house insurer replaced the laptop straight from Apple and wouldn't give me the price in cash and got the exact same model (base level for base level)

CutWeldDrive

Like someone mentioned above, the only proper way to trya nd get this working again is totally strip down and clean all internal componants of the macbook, very time consuming,

you can pic up refurbished logic boards from the far east for about 200 euro but 9 times out of 10 these will be kack and will pack it in after a few months.

i personally deal direct with the US for all my apple parts. work our 30-40% cheaper if you don't get caught for custon duty so get all my parts over there.

screen is approx 70 euro
logic board 350 euro
and keyboard 50 euro

all parts new.. than you have to take into accound the superdrive may be damaged too so add another 100 euro and dc logic board is 70..

you will soon find not worth repairing..

Liameter

See http://www.glodark.com/spilt_liquid.htm

yer man!

Spilled a bit of white wine in the keyboard the last day and laptop seems to be working as good as ever, just wondering did anyone spill something and have the device working ok and then all of a sudden not. Everything's still fine, I immediately wiped any wine off the keyboard and there's no smell or anything.

CutWeldDrive

the problem with it working afterwards is that even though it's still working it's possible that the wine or any liquid will cause the electronic parts to corrode over time. this will cause shorts in the logic board and eventaully stop working..

i've an ass load of logic board that have had liquid spilt on them here.. i'd say 80% of them work but only work 90% of them time.. ie.. poswes up and every thing works but not off battery.. or won't charge, or no sound etc etc..

all these boards are a result of liquid being spilt on the macbook and it was working afterwards but over time developed faults..

you might be lucky that it's only the keyboard thats affected and htese can be replaced pretty easily. but it logic board gets wet.. you best stripping the whole machine, cleaning with a good electronics cleaner and hoping for the best. because at that it's not garenteeded if anything else happend..

there are liquid indicators ( little white dots) that turn red when in contact with liquid inside the macbooks.. and once one of these is red or partically red the warranty is void.