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Dead unibody MacBook after spill, take apart looks clean inside

I

InfoTime

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jul 17, 2002
501
265
A client of mine spilled a Diet Coke on her unibody white MacBook. I got the machine weeks after the event and after Apple told her it'd be $750 to repair. The machine would not power up or show any signs of life.

I took it apart thinking I'd find gunk on the parts and start by cleaning it up. So, I completely disassembled it only to find nothing gross inside. In fact I found no evidence of a spill. I did not take the top case apart - the keyboard and trackpad are still attached. So it appears that the spill was probably contained within the top case and didn't leak down onto the logic board.

I'm thinking about replacing the top case as I'm pretty sure that's screwed up. But, short of ordering one, reassembling everything and trying to see if that fixes it, is there some way to further troubleshoot?
 
InfoTime said:
A client of mine spilled a Diet Coke on her unibody white MacBook.
Click to expand...

What is a unibody white MacBook? It's either white or an unibody. If it's the white one then the kb is very easy to replace, if it's the unibody one you have to almost completely remove everything to replace the top cover. As for the damage it could be and easy fix or a dead logic board. When the spill happened did you remove power and shut it down immediately?
 
Reflow said:
What is a unibody white MacBook? It's either white or an unibody.
Click to expand...

It's the white MacBook Apple has been selling for the past 2 years. By Apple's description, it's a "white unibody" MacBook. The current white MacBook design is very different from the previous polycarbonate MacBook design.
 
i spilled vine in mine and took everything apart and dipped in alcohol 95% or more(motherboard and keyboard and fan) and cleaned it with a toothbrush ,let it dry and put it back, is been 4 months now and everything works fine.
try that.
 
chrisperro said:
i spilled vine in mine and took everything apart and dipped in alcohol 95% or more(motherboard and keyboard and fan) and cleaned it with a toothbrush ,let it dry and put it back, is been 4 months now and everything works fine.
try that.
Click to expand...

Was it turned off when you spilt it? I spilt water onto my MBP and nothing happened, luckily it was turned off (the battery was dead so it entered deep sleep mode).
 
Legion93 said:
Was it turned off when you spilt it? I spilt water onto my MBP and nothing happened, luckily it was turned off (the battery was dead so it entered deep sleep mode).
Click to expand...
it was on at the time and die right after the spill and after a few days i decided the alcohol solution.
The motherboard was cover in wine and i actually use an electric toothbrush to clean it.
 
chrisperro said:
i spilled vine in mine and took everything apart and dipped in alcohol 95% or more(motherboard and keyboard and fan) and cleaned it with a toothbrush ,let it dry and put it back, is been 4 months now and everything works fine.
try that.
Click to expand...
Is yours the white unibody MacBook? Did you see wine on the motherboard?
 
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