I have no idea where to get one, but the 3rd party trackpad seems like a good decision. There is no point spending $1200 just to maintain the warranty.
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A few drops of water sprayed onto my 15-inch MBP
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I have no idea where to get one, but the 3rd party trackpad seems like a good decision. There is no point spending $1200 just to maintain the warranty.
fresh water as in pure 100% water
Except, tap water is far from pure water. There are all sorts of substances in it that facilitate conduction
Of course it would be crazy to pay that.
If I were you I'd shut the mac down and just put it in your airing cupboard/somewhere warm and dry for a few more days. I actually had the same thing happen to my MBP, just a little water on the trackpad and it went very strange - I think a tiny amount had worked its way into the crack around the edge of the pad, and was probably conducting signals or confusing the capacitive pad in some way. This went on for at least two or three days until it had finally dried enough to get back to normal - this was at least a year ago and it's been absolutely perfect ever since.
So don't give up - I expect there's just a little more water than you thought and some has worked its way back into the wrong area - there's still a chance it will dry and things will return to normal.
Cool. Thanks. Yeah, I think that's the way to go. I'll let it dry out another few days, or a week, and if it still acts up, I'll replace the trackpad. Glad to hear yours cleared itself up!
Right, let's stick to useful tips, like: "Did you try cooking it in rice?"
or "Did you skip your One to One MBP swimming session?"
Accidental damage, water (even humidity), and theft are pretty much the only things that will happen to your computer.
You can't make money offering insurance if it actually covers stuff.
If you can, get important items covered through your home/auto insurer.
Hey there - my MBP seems to be fine and it's been a couple of weeks now. I don't know if that means my machine is completely out of the woods at this point, and that there was no long-term water damage and no corrosion that might kick in at a later stage but I'm certainly hoping so!
However since my little incident occurred, I read so many horror stories about the amount of damage the tiniest amount of water can cause to our rather expensive laptops that I decided to buy laptop insurance. There is a pretty hefty deductible but it's a whole lot less than the amount Apple would charge to have all the components replaced. I've also invested in a Moshi ClearGuard to protect the keyboard - though it does seem a little flimsy and doesn't cover the trackpad or the loudspeaker areas.
Furthermore, I decided to avoid taking my laptop anywhere I don't absolutely need to (if I'm at a client's, I'll just use their equipment as much as possible). Not that that's any kind of a guarantee and there will always be times I will need to carry it around somewhere but I figure it's that much less risk.
I'm sorry to hear your trackpad has been acting up, hopefully allowing it to dry for an extra few days as others have suggested will take care of the problem permanently. Please do let us know if that works out for you. Good luck!
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Are you saying humidity could cause water damage? We are talking lots of humidity then, right?
Wow. I signed up for an account here a couple of weeks ago when I started this thread because I was so freaked out I'd have to send my brand new machine to be repaired - and yeah I know, you don't get it and couldn't care less but that's not the point right now. Thankfully, most of the replies were friendly and reassuring. Even the first couple of attempts at humor may not have helped in any way, but at least they didn't seem mean-spirited. Your messages, on the other hand, do come across as mean-spirited.
Trackpad Issues persist after drying
Few days back I got tears (don't ask) on my MBP trackpad, I wiped them at the time but for last two days the track pad is acting erratic. Cursor moving on its own, regular clicks pulling up secondary menus and the central area is nearly completely unresponsive. Driving me insane.
I was hoping that it might just take a few hours to completely dry out but now I'm worried that the salt or whatever else is in tears has left residue under the trackpad, screwing it up.
Any opinions? Should I just be patient with the drying? Or do you reckon I need to bring her in for expert help?
Sincere responses appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Few days back I got tears (don't ask) on my MBP trackpad, I wiped them at the time but for last two days the track pad is acting erratic. Cursor moving on its own, regular clicks pulling up secondary menus and the central area is nearly completely unresponsive. Driving me insane.
I was hoping that it might just take a few hours to completely dry out but now I'm worried that the salt or whatever else is in tears has left residue under the trackpad, screwing it up.
Any opinions? Should I just be patient with the drying? Or do you reckon I need to bring her in for expert help?
Sincere responses appreciated. Thanks in advance.
Just out of curiosity, when you say "on the trackpad", do you mean in the cracks or just atop the trackpad nowhere near the edges? I'm guessing it's the prior... but frankly I can't believe how fragile these machines are. I love Apple's products, but with the prices they're charging, they should definitely be working on something to prevent a few drops of liquid potentially leading to so much damage.
I've heard people say turn it off, flip it upside down and wait for the liquid to completely dry out/evaporate, this may take up to a few days. But frankly I have no direct experience with this myself. Best of luck, hope the problem takes care of itself.
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Hi , I know this is a really old thread but can I ask what you eventually did to get the water out ? Did you turn it upside down ? Let it dry couple days.. etc. ? Right now, I also got some water into my trackpad and it's not working properly, same issues. I've already let it dry for a couple of hours but still the same .
The track pad will be affected for a few days at least. I did not use my computer for a week, maybe 2, and everything has been fine (years later). The worst thing you can do is use the computer while it is drying out, since that is how other components can get exposed to the water and short out. Many users also pack the computer (in the closed position) in rice to speed up the drying. I did this on another computer that had severe water damage, and that also is functioning fine years later. Good luck!
I've had plenty of spillages happen with my old 2007 Macbook Pro and it's still running just fine as my backup computer (thou one of the Torx screws holding the topcase in place got stripped and I might have to get a Dremel set to get it off)...
The only damage that happened to it after the half dozen various spillages it had to go trough was that the backlight broke, but that was probably after I used some tapwater to flush out some cola that had made some keys stick. The actual keys were just fine after all the spillages and the backlight was literally the only thing that didn't work (thou it was just the part at the middle that didn't work). I eventually decided to replace it and got a broken machine to use as a donor and sold off a number of the parts I didn't need (charger, RAM, the HDD and the optical drive) and paid off the machine in full.
As for my external keyboard (full size wired aluminium keyboard) that I use at home, whenever it gets a bit too dirty for my tastes, I just rinse it under a tap and let it dry for a couple of days. I've done this probably a dozen times over the last couple of years and it still works like a charm.
While my stories about my current backup computer and external keyboard might make some people have their hair stand out on end, I do try to be a lot more careful with my current machine (an early 2011 Macbook Pro). The keyboard isn't separated from the internals inside of an easily replaceable "top case" and I think it even uses the keyboard for ventilation. This means that when you had to have a pretty massive spill for the fluid to reach the motherboard on the old pre-unibody machine, the "post unibody" machine is a tad more sensitive.
In other words: If you spill a small amount of anything that isn't corrosive (like sea water) or sticky when dried up (like cola), you should be fine if you turn the machine upside down with the lid open and let it dry for a day or two.
The only damage that happened to it after the half dozen various spillages it had to go trough was that the backlight broke, but that was probably after I used some tapwater to flush out some cola that had made some keys stick. The actual keys were just fine after all the spillages and the backlight was literally the only thing that didn't work (thou it was just the part at the middle that didn't work). I eventually decided to replace it and got a broken machine to use as a donor and sold off a number of the parts I didn't need (charger, RAM, the HDD and the optical drive) and paid off the machine in full.
As for my external keyboard (full size wired aluminium keyboard) that I use at home, whenever it gets a bit too dirty for my tastes, I just rinse it under a tap and let it dry for a couple of days. I've done this probably a dozen times over the last couple of years and it still works like a charm.
While my stories about my current backup computer and external keyboard might make some people have their hair stand out on end, I do try to be a lot more careful with my current machine (an early 2011 Macbook Pro). The keyboard isn't separated from the internals inside of an easily replaceable "top case" and I think it even uses the keyboard for ventilation. This means that when you had to have a pretty massive spill for the fluid to reach the motherboard on the old pre-unibody machine, the "post unibody" machine is a tad more sensitive.
In other words: If you spill a small amount of anything that isn't corrosive (like sea water) or sticky when dried up (like cola), you should be fine if you turn the machine upside down with the lid open and let it dry for a day or two.