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Help! Did my fiance kill my Macbook?

Jschultz

Jschultz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
880
13
Chicago, IL
Attached is a picture, re-enacting the situation



My macbook was sitting on the coffee table like so, when she knocked over a can of coke. She described the splash and steady spreading coke as going all over and around the macbook. When I came home to check it out, the rear vents were cake in dried coke. I assume that the spreading/streaming coke somehow entered into my vents and onto my mainboard, thus frying it. As of right now, it will not turn on. Battery is still charging fine though. Any ideas? She has offered to buy me a new one (well, it's our money, so I guess I'm helpinig buy a new one too?) which is fine and dandy, but we're going back to the Apple store anyways. Think it'll be a waste to sent it out? I'm almost postive they'd crack her open and say "yep, voided warranty due to user negligence." Thoughts?
 
Satori

Satori

macrumors 6502a
Jun 22, 2006
761
6
London
Sounds like a bad one... Was it switched off at the time? Make sure you give it a few days before trying to switch it on again.
 
K

Keebler

macrumors 68030
Jun 20, 2005
2,960
207
Canada
wow. that sucks. look at the refurb prices. might save you some there.

as for the fiancee doing it and i know she didn't mean it, but if it were me, i'd be writing a list of things she could do to make up for it :)

and it'd be a looooooooooong list...and a very specific one at that :) lol
 
iToaster

iToaster

macrumors 68000
May 3, 2007
1,742
0
In front of my MacBook Pro
It's dead if it got in the vents. You've ruined irreplaceable components (ehm, coke + processor = bad), so Apple will definitely notice that combined with coke residue, and will charge you insane amounts of money to fix it for you. Thus, it would be better to just buy a new one than fuss with the broken one.
 
sushi

sushi

Moderator emeritus
Jul 19, 2002
15,639
3
キャンプスワ&#
Jschultz said:
My macbook was sitting on the coffee table like so, when she knocked over a can of coke. She described the splash and steady spreading coke as going all over and around the macbook. When I came home to check it out, the rear vents were cake in dried coke. I assume that the spreading/streaming coke somehow entered into my vents and onto my mainboard, thus frying it. As of right now, it will not turn on. Battery is still charging fine though. Any ideas? She has offered to buy me a new one (well, it's our money, so I guess I'm helpinig buy a new one too?) which is fine and dandy, but we're going back to the Apple store anyways. Think it'll be a waste to sent it out? I'm almost postive they'd crack her open and say "yep, voided warranty due to user negligence." Thoughts?
Click to expand...
I think it is safe to say that it is probably ruined.

If you are the adventurous type and want to fix it, you can open it up and wash out the coke residue. Then let it dry a couple of days before trying to turn it on again.

My guess is that you will need a new logic board. You can get one from eBay.

You may have messed up other items as well. Shorts can really reek havoc on electrical components as I am sure you know. The problem with this type of situation, is that you won't know what is bad until you start replacing parts and testing which can be very time consuming.

In this situation, it is sometimes best to cut your losses and just get a new replacement, and of course do not have open drinks near the computer.
 
O

operator207

macrumors 6502
Jul 24, 2007
487
0
See if your homeowners or Renter insurance will cover it. Mine did. Got $2600 for a Powerbook that "just stopped working" in Dec 2007. Bought me a brand new mbp Penryn. Mine was not accidental, and I do not know if it would have paid out if it was, but it would not hurt to try. My rates went up 12 a month, but in 30+ years I will have made up the different in cost of a new laptop.
 
Jschultz

Jschultz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
880
13
Chicago, IL
Well, she ended up buying me a shiny new iMac, which I wanted anyways. We're going to try to sell the macbook for parts. Maybe I'll get lucky and recoup some of the costs.
 
A

aceguitarslingr

macrumors newbie
Jun 30, 2006
23
0
Don't Despair!

I spilled a full vase of water over my week old Vaio FE31Z (yeah I know, sorry, it works for me). It looked terrible, wouldn't switch on, etc. I called my IT guy and he also said it would most likely be dead. Alas, not being able to bear the pain of going to buy exactly the same computer again, I tried it one more time before going to the shop. Been using it for about a year now.

Give it a few days and hope.

Ace
 
Consultant

Consultant

macrumors G5
Jun 27, 2007
13,314
34
The MB is probably fried due to liquid damage.

However, your harddrive and your data MIGHT be ok and probably can be recovered.
 
Jschultz

Jschultz

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 14, 2005
880
13
Chicago, IL
Yeah, I gave it a go, attempting to turn it on again. No luck.

I'm going to try and pop out the HDD and see if I can rescue some data.

Does anyone know if the iMac uses the same RAM as the Macbook?
 
M

mosx

macrumors 65816
Mar 3, 2007
1,465
3
It amazes me how many "HELP! I SPILLED .... ON MY MACBOOK!" threads there are here.

Is it really that hard to keep liquids away from your Mac? haha. I don't even let bottled water around my Mac or HP.
 
E

esaias

macrumors member
Jun 11, 2007
33
0
You could try taking the machine apart and wash everything with distilled water. I have saved a couple cell phones, Technics turntable, Pioneer DJ-mixer and a guitar tube amp this way :p (none of the these were my property.) Sadly it has already been some time since the accident has happened, the washing should have been made right away because coke is very sour.

and yet again the one thing that keeps amazing me pops up again. Right after a accindent with liquids, people try to turn the equipment on! Oh for crying out loud, never ever ever EVER do that, its the is the most certain way of killing the machine. Maybe there should be a sticky thread in here about what to do in case of liquids damage.

-Tomi
 
G

GUILTIE

macrumors regular
Jan 2, 2008
167
49
Jschultz said:
Yeah, I gave it a go, attempting to turn it on again. No luck.

I'm going to try and pop out the HDD and see if I can rescue some data.

Does anyone know if the iMac uses the same RAM as the Macbook?
Click to expand...

I'm pretty sure all of Apple's computers (maybe not Mac Pro) use the same RAM.
 
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