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water damage macbook air

50L

50L

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 2, 2014
141
4
Hi guys,

A friend of mine has a waterdamaged macbook air, 2012.

after 2 weeks of drying the machine is starting up for around 15 minutes and then shuts off. I guess he has to replace the logicboard and it's better for him to sell the machine for parts only, but I wanted to try macrumors first.


what we are going to do :

try and boot the machine from another HDD so we can make sure it's not the ssd

any other options? tryouts?
 
I

Ian.C

macrumors regular
Mar 6, 2008
136
14
Lancashire, UK
drying out a water damaged macbook is only one part of the process.

you need to strip it down and take the logic board out and clean it properly with acohol, and look for any corrosion that might have happened.

it might be able to be saved... not sure though you need to do this as soon as the water hits the macbook.

theres a good chance because the water obviously went through the keyboard, the keyboard and trackpad will need replacing straight off.

good luck

Ian
 
K

kjmff5

macrumors regular
Mar 27, 2011
225
40
This exact situation happened with me. I have a 2012 13" MBA. I spilled water on the top right corner of the keyboard and slightly below it. I Initially took it to the shop thinking the logic board would need to be replaced. He said likely just the keyboard. He took it apart, gave it a good clean, and powered it back up and wala, it worked, no replacements needed. Good thing took, everything is expensive to replace, and time intensive.

Hopefully yours isn't too bad either!
 
T

TrylNarrer

macrumors newbie
Dec 19, 2014
14
0
There is a guy in eBay offering a repair for significantly less than the cost of a new logic board ($220 vs Apple's $750). Money back if he can't fix it. He has my MbA with a coffee spill right now. I could report back here, I'm sure mine will be like a worst case scenario.
 
50L

50L

macrumors regular
Original poster
Mar 2, 2014
141
4
TrylNarrer said:
There is a guy in eBay offering a repair for significantly less than the cost of a new logic board ($220 vs Apple's $750). Money back if he can't fix it. He has my MbA with a coffee spill right now. I could report back here, I'm sure mine will be like a worst case scenario.
Click to expand...

please let me know any updates :D
 
T

TrylNarrer

macrumors newbie
Dec 19, 2014
14
0
50L said:
please let me know any updates :D
Click to expand...


He tells me the logic board is fixed (hooray!), but that the coffee also took out the main power switch. The computer boots automatically if you disconnect and reconnect the battery, but that's not a good long-term plan for an Air. I'm now back in waiting mode until he obtains and installs a new keyboard assembly (I was going to be dubious about the keyboard anyway, since that probably got the worst of it). I'm still at $300 less than the Apple cost (not sure if their $750 blanket would have covered the keyboard).

More as I know it, and when I get my baby back.
 
T

TRC-WA

macrumors regular
Sep 26, 2014
199
0
kjmff5 said:
This exact situation happened with me. I have a 2012 13" MBA. I spilled water on the top right corner of the keyboard and slightly below it. I Initially took it to the shop thinking the logic board would need to be replaced. He said likely just the keyboard. He took it apart, gave it a good clean, and powered it back up and wala, it worked, no replacements needed. Good thing took, everything is expensive to replace, and time intensive.

Hopefully yours isn't too bad either!
Click to expand...

Same thing with my Air... it got hit with a splash of coke in Nov 2013... sticky keys and dimmed backlight in spots were the issue.

Repair shop replaced keyboard and cleaned logicboard... cost me $400.

Air worked great for the next 14 months till I sold it the other day for $500 after upgrading to the Pro.
 
V

Vanilla Face

macrumors 6502
Aug 11, 2013
471
150
TrylNarrer said:
There is a guy in eBay offering a repair for significantly less than the cost of a new logic board ($220 vs Apple's $750). Money back if he can't fix it. He has my MbA with a coffee spill right now. I could report back here, I'm sure mine will be like a worst case scenario.
Click to expand...

50L said:
please let me know any updates :D
Click to expand...

asoksevil said:
Please do post feedback. I got a water damaged Air.
Click to expand...

I used a guy on eBay to repair my Mac Mini's logic board. It has been working great ever since. It's been slightly over a year since the repair. It might be the same guy. http://stores.ebay.com/L2-Laptop-Repair

What I'd recommend is take it to the Apple Store and let them diagnose it for you for free. That way you know the logic board needs to be repair before sending it out to any companies such as this one.
 
T

TrylNarrer

macrumors newbie
Dec 19, 2014
14
0
asoksevil said:
Please do post feedback. I got a water damaged Air.
Click to expand...

I received it last Saturday, and have just finished running it through all of the paces--it's operating perfectly normally, with all ports functioning properly (I don't have a Thunderbolt drive, but my Firewire and HDMI adapters worked). The first time I booted it up, it restarted all of the apps that were running when my cat knocked the coffee cup onto the keyboard on September 26 of last year, and for some reason, iTunes didn't populate the main pane with my Library info, but quitting and restarting brought that right back. (I'm assuming he used the Guest account for all of the checkout he was doing). Updating the OS to 10.9.5 made it even FASTER than it was before the spill.

Now I just have to decide on whether to install Yosemite.

The eBay seller's name is "hondodh". Two big thumbs up!
 
Last edited:
T

TrylNarrer

macrumors newbie
Dec 19, 2014
14
0
Vanilla Face said:
What I'd recommend is take it to the Apple Store and let them diagnose it for you for free. That way you know the logic board needs to be repair before sending it out to any companies such as this one.
Click to expand...

I would second that. I got my diagnosis from Apple, and was in the midst of saving my pennies to pay for the repair there when I spotted the eBay ad. hondodh offers your money back if he can't fix it (I'd still have to pay postage both ways), and to me the gamble was worth it.
 
J

JediAmy

macrumors newbie
Feb 22, 2015
1
0
TrylNarrer said:
I received it last Saturday, and have just finished running it through all of the paces--it's operating perfectly normally, with all ports functioning properly (I don't have a Thunderbolt drive, but my Firewire and HDMI adapters worked). The first time I booted it up, it restarted all of the apps that were running when my cat knocked the coffee cup onto the keyboard on September 26 of last year, and for some reason, iTunes didn't populate the main pane with my Library info, but quitting and restarting brought that right back. (I'm assuming he used the Guest account for all of the checkout he was doing). Updating the OS to 10.9.5 made it even FASTER than it was before the spill.

Now I just have to decide on whether to install Yosemite.

The eBay seller's name is "hondodh". Two big thumbs up!
Click to expand...

TrylNarrer- would you mind posting a link to Hondodh's page? I searched for him on eBay, but couldn't find him. :( I have a water damaged MacBook Air that I tried to revive (drying out, etc) but it appears to be dead. I definitely want to contact him.
 
Willo34

Willo34

macrumors regular
Feb 5, 2015
247
42
Netherlands
Ultra sonic treatement

I had damage to my Mac Air 13 inch 2008 model a few weeks ago. Luckily my neighbour is a repair shop haha. They had a 'bath' which apparentely uses ultra sonic something to dry and clean it. With help from YouTube video's I managed (with some help:)) to fix it myself. Very surprised to see it works again! Ordering the logic board seperately saved me a lot of money. I did get lucky though. Not only with my neighbor but also that i could order it online here in NL at a place which sells occasion Apple products and they had a few Logic Boards left over
http://www.ikfix.nl/logic-board-macbook-air-13-inch-2008-occasion/nl/product/1843/?CPI=0
If they sell this stuff in The Netherlands you would expect to be able to find it in the US or UK etc.
Anyway thought i'd share the story, might be off use to someone on here at some point.
 
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