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2Southern

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 11, 2009
45
0
Being a VERY clumsy person, i spilled apple juice on my laptop. But then right away i disconnected the power and started to dab & dry with a blow drier. I managed to get everything working as usual (Whew)…but there is a few hiccups here and there.
#1) my screen wouldn’t adjust brightness even though the transparent box shows up when i press the F1/F2 keys (it tells me that i’m adjusting the brightness, but nothing is actually happening) and
#2) when starting up or when i wake it up from sleep, there are these lumpy gray areas on the bottom of my screen and some weird noise…but oddly it disappears after 1-2 seconds.

Thank you so much!!
 

Ivan P

macrumors 68030
Jan 17, 2008
2,692
4
Home
typical water damage.
Apple will know if you take it to them - gonna have to get a new one to solve the problem.

Or pay Apple to fix it - even though the warranty is now void it's not like they'll refuse to repair it, they just won't do it for free.
Though it'll probably cost more then a new machine to get it fixed (Apple charges an arm and a leg for repairs). A new machine may be the only new answer.
 

2Southern

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 11, 2009
45
0
typical water damage.
Apple will know if you take it to them - gonna have to get a new one to solve the problem.

so the logic board is damaged? I do know that the juice made its way to the logic board, i opened the back of the macbook (a small amount).
thats means it could "die" any time now? damn... it is not even 6 months old :/
 

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,485
1,571
East Coast
Sorry for your accident, but I think you're probably out of luck. Had it been just water, you'd probably be OK after everything dried out.

But since it was apple juice, the sugars probably remained on your Logic Board, even after drying out. Sugar tends to burn and turn gooey when heated, which would make even more of a mess.

Have you taken it to Apple yet? What did they say?

I doubt they would fix it for you, nor would you want to pay for it since a new computer would be cheaper than the repair costs.

Have you taken it apart yourself to see what it looks like internally? If you have nothing to lose (meaning Apple won't repair it), you might want to take it apart and salvage the undamaged components like the hard drive, DVD drive, RAM, keyboard/trackpad, Airport card, BT module, etc. Then, perhaps you could run distilled water over the parts of the logic board to rinse away the sugar.* Then after letting it dry for a good duration, put it all back together and seeing if it works.

* - if anyone with more knowledge than me thinks this is a bad idea, please say so. I'm no expert on this. I'm guessing that if no one will fix it, rinsing it would be worth a shot.

At the very least, those parts could be worth something.

Good Luck!
 

2Southern

macrumors member
Original poster
Aug 11, 2009
45
0
i only took the back of the macbook off.
I saw the logic board, the fan, the superdrive etc. there were some small drops visible wich i cleaned up. but i do not know what is on the other (uper) side.
Apple said that they can not say for sure if they can fix it, but that they will charge for repairs...

here is a picture (the marked areas are the spots where the juice residue's were)
20100106-mgcn6art5qx5xnsniwa7237ejc.jpg



i am thinking the problem was caused by some screen connector (brightness t problem) but i gues i am wrong...

so the logic board is damaged for sure?
 

Wehrwolf

macrumors 6502
May 21, 2009
324
19
The thing with liquid damage is that it's just so variable in terms of the severity and effects, and some problems stemming from the initial spill may not show up until much later. Just about any professional repair shop, Apple or independent, will tell you that you would need a logic board replacement (At the very least. If apple juice got into other components, those would need to be replaced too). That would really be the only way to ensure a proper repair.
 

ImpostorOak

macrumors member
Dec 27, 2009
86
43
You'd think apple juice, of all things, wouldn't do that much damage to a Mac :p

Okay, so I admit that was pretty lame.
 

aery

macrumors member
Nov 27, 2009
70
1
Canada
You'd think apple juice, of all things, wouldn't do that much damage to a Mac :p

haha, that's totally what I thought too when I read the thread title! :p Apple juice - wow.

Seriously though, that sucks. Lesson learned anyway, I bet you won't drink anything around it or any future macs now hmm?
 

addaminsane

macrumors member
Apr 23, 2009
43
0
Midwest
lol when i read Apple juice before viewing the thread i thought that this post was going to be about some app or product made by Apple. I read spilt as split....
 
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