Mac Book Fried- ANy hope?

Mr. Incognito

I have a Mac Book that is barely two years old and a mate dropped beer on it while it was on and fried the mother board.

Is it worth selling for parts or would it cost a fortune to repair it, the computer store I went to said to throw it in the bin which I find hard to believe.

Anyone know?

stimpson

If it was switched on while this happened it is probably toast. The beer will cause a short between components on the motherboard. If that happens and you immediately switch off and remove the battery then you may have some hope of recovery.

If the logic board is toast then it's probably uneconomical to repair.

barryj

The problem with a spill - is you've no idea what components are affected, unless you can test them. It could be just the logic board, it could also be memory/disk/battery/etc.

You could get an estimate for a replacing the logicboard from one of the Apple repair places like CompuB, Mactivate, etc. I'd imagine including labour and parts you'd be well above the current value of the machine - but give someone a call to determine.

You may be able to flog the screen if you can find someone who needs one, but I doubt you'd have too many takers for other beer flavoured bits.

Probably a longshot, but you could try checking if your house insurance policy covers accidental damage.

- barry

Liameter

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

(This is "barn door" advice but maybe someone else will read it before they have an "accident".)

stimpson

Liameter wrote: »

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

(This is "barn door" advice but maybe someone else will read it before they have an "accident".)

Good advice, but the best I've seen is to quicky submerge the device in vodka. It will force the water out and alcohol is non conductive. Once it has had a good soak take it out and leave to dry, then replace the batteries.

Liameter

I bet you heard that down the pub from someone who is familiar with alcohol? Unfortunately, alcohol is miscible in water and vodka contains water. I don't hold out much hope for this method but, if you must try it, use windscreen de-icer liquid. It's a much cheaper mix of alcohol and water than vodka!

stimpson

My bad. It was denatured alcohol (95% alcohol)

Drinking the vodka is a far better idea.

Some other suggestions:

http://www.catalogs.com/info/electronics/how-to-save-a-wet-cell-phone.html