Purchased a water damaged Macbook - what to do next?

crazyderk

Hey guys,

I've been in I.T for a couple of years now and one day I hope to maybe start my own small business part time and do some repair work!

so for the moment, practice, practice, practice.

I found a good deal yesterday on a Mid 2009 Macbook a1342 I believe is the model No
it came with 4gb ram and 500Gb Hard drive, that's all I know for the moment.

I was told a couple of months ago some water - up to 30 ml spilled over the keyboard, immediatley it was turned upside down and allowed to dry, but since then it wont power up. (no life nothing dead) the couple who sold it to me said they left it off and just hoped for the best but after 2 months they decided to sell it as they couldn't afford to repair it.

I took it home last night and had a quick poke around and this is what I know so far

I don't think it was water when I took out the battery + Hard drive, there was some liquid just under the line beside the track pad and it looked more like a cola as it was brown in color and the fact that it was still a little wet had me concerned.

The good news so far is that the hard drive seems to be working fine, I plugged it into an external adapter and all of the data came up on it, I figure I'll be a good samaratan and call the people I bought it off and ask them do they want a copy! (could do with the good Karma as well )

The charger is fine when it was plugged in the amber light comes on, I left it chargeing overnight and it turned to green signifying the battery is getting power and charging up.

I tried the whole press command option p and r and the power button
and the other combination is shift option command and the power button.

But that's as far as I've gotten so far, I figure my next step is to strip it down completely and maybe try and try or clean the individual parts from liquid, whats the best way of doing this? just leave them to dry or get some alcoholic swabs or something?

I guess I'm looking at replacing the logic board, which I've no problem in doing myself bar its a lot of money and I don't want to sink 200 euro into something unless I'm sure that's it

Finally has anyone any suggestions on which way to proceed next or which way to narrow it down?

If it help I've a 13" Macbook Pro to perhaps test some parts, but ideally I'd like to leave that out as If I break that I'm really up sh*t creek)

All help will be greatly appreciated

Thanks

D

Kinetic^

Strip it completely down, clean all the parts using an alcohol based solution. I'd use something like a soft brush/toothbrush on the logic board. Leave it to dry for about 48 hours.

If you're going to be opening your own business you'll soon realise that taking punts on stuff like this will most likely cost you money in the long run.

Liameter

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

crazyderk

Cheers guys, I was thinking cotton swabs and some alcoholic rub or something to clean off the board and letting it dry for 48 hours.

Any idea where to get these materials cheap?

Liameter

Windscreen de-icer in an aerosol is just Isopropyl Alcohol and water. You do need the water. 48 hours is probably insufficient time. It can take weeks.

Actually, you really need an ultrasonic tank to clean it properly (underneath the I.C.s).

crazyderk

So I've stripped the machine down, I was expecting to see damage to the logic board and surprise surprise it looks perfect, this has me more confused now, I rubbed parts down with some rubbing alcohol, My plan is to leave it stripped down in the hot press for the next 2 days.

Anyone any suggestions or other ideas on what I can do?

crazyderk

Put it back together and still dead, so I'm looking at either a new logic board or a new top case, I'll be keeping an eye out on adverts and ebay

thehomeofDob

Get a shallow container, that the logic board will fit in. Fill it with isopropyl alcohol and leave it sit in it for a few hours. Use the brush to clean off any additional corrosion. Use compressed air to push out remaining alcohol from underneath IC's and leave to dry. Repeat the compressed air after 24-48 hours.
We have a fairly high success rate in work with getting liquid damage boards back up and running - but as always, there can't be any guarantee with how long the board will last.