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Does this look like water damage?

K

keltbrat

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 13, 2008
24
1
The light on my charger went out and it won't charge, but if i keep it connected, it holds the charge and i can see the lightning bolt icon through the battery icon.

I took it (jump+ an Apple Premium Reseller,) and they claim it is caused by water damage. I find this very strange as
my macbook is 6 months old and i take the best care of it. I live alone and never have liquids near it and i don't take it out of the house often, but when i do it's always with me.

I've tried the usual, reset SMC, checked the connection for anything in there that shouldn't be etc. I know it looks like WD but i'm completley confused how it might have happened.. i live in Canada and a friend of mine suggested it might be caused by moving between very cold tempratures to indoor warm temps and it could be humidity.

if it is WD, what part is that that it shows? i would have thought water damage would have affected the working of the keys?

They want to charge me C$800 for a new logic board

Everything else works like normal on the mac, btw

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Though I certainly believe that you didn’t get it wet, that really does look suspiciously like water or liquid.
And because it’s white, it looks like residue from like soda.
This is just my observation though looking at the pic.
I’m sure someone else with more experience than I will chime in.

Good luck though.
 
Left in a car: No, never
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Foggydog said:
Though I certainly believe that you didn’t get it wet, that really does look suspiciously like water or liquid.
And because it’s white, it looks like residue from like soda.
This is just my observation though looking at the pic.
I’m sure someone else with more experience than I will chime in.

Good luck though.
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i agree, it does certainly look like it, but i assure you, i've never had liquid near it, and as it is so expensive, i never let it out of my sight.
 
I also agree that it looks like water damage.

I'm not sure where you are located but it is possible that the Macbook's temperature dropped enough that condensation formed inside the machine as the interior would not warm as quickly as the aluminum exterior. Turning it on before all interior moisture has dissipated could cause the damage shown in the picture.

There also appears to be some sort of white residue left over from the evaporation process.

As far as I know, authorized Apple repair centers do not perform board level repairs.

I assume you are in Toronto since you mentioned Jump+, which I believe, is on College Street.
 
Audit13 said:
I also agree that it looks like water damage.

I'm not sure where you are located but it is possible that the Macbook's temperature dropped enough that condensation formed inside the machine as the interior would not warm as quickly as the aluminum exterior. Turning it on before all interior moisture has dissipated could cause the damage shown in the picture.

There also appears to be some sort of white residue left over from the evaporation process.

As far as I know, authorized Apple repair centers do not perform board level repairs.

I assume you are in Toronto since you mentioned Jump+, which I believe, is on College Street.
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I'm in Fredericton, NB Canada. And i have had it out a few times over the last few weeks. but just on brief journeys so it has not been out in the cold for long, just car to destination.
 
Clearly appears to be water damage and corrosion. When you purchased it from Best Buy was it an open box item or supposedly new in the original sealed Apple Box? Customers have been known to damage an electronic item and return it to Best Buy where it sometimes is resold as new.
 
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chscag said:
Clearly appears to be water damage and corrosion. When you purchased it from Best Buy was it an open box item or supposedly new in the original sealed Apple Box? Customers have been known to damage an electronic item and return it to Best Buy where it sometimes is resold as new.
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New box. Sealed.
 
keltbrat said:
I'm in Fredericton, NB Canada. And i have had it out a few times over the last few weeks. but just on brief journeys so it has not been out in the cold for long, just car to destination.
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If it was purchased with a credit card, perhaps the credit card covers this sort of damage?

If not, I highly recommend looking into have the board professionally cleaned and tested to determine exactly which parts need to be repaired.

I've had three Macbook Airs repaired after some pretty nasty spills.
 
Audit13 said:
If it was purchased with a credit card, perhaps the credit card covers this sort of damage?

If not, I highly recommend looking into have the board professionally cleaned and tested to determine exactly which parts need to be repaired.

I've had three Macbook Airs repaired after some pretty nasty spills.
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I'll try that.. as i said.. everything else is working perfectly. thanks.
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Audit13 said:
I didn't know that. I have been to the Jump store on College Street a few times and never know it was a chain.

My apologies to the OP for assuming their location is Toronto.
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Haha.. No apologies necessary.
 
One thing that often gets damaged with liquid exposure is the battery so it's probably a good idea to get a new battery; however, since the battery is glued to the upper casing, it will take some effort to remove and replace it.
 
Audit13 said:
One thing that often gets damaged with liquid exposure is the battery so it's probably a good idea to get a new battery; however, since the battery is glued to the upper casing, it will take some effort to remove and replace it.
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They said at jump+ that it was the wire leading to the battery that was damaged/corroded and so i would need a brand new logic board
 
I don't think Apple repair centers are authorised to perform board-level repairs which may be why authorised repair centers always replace rather than repair.

I have had liquid-damaged Macbook Airs repaired by having the tech replace components on the original board. Much cheaper than replacing the entire board.

Edit: since the unit in question is an Air, the battery is not glued in place. It is held in place by screws which makes battery replacement an easy job.
 
Audit13 said:
I don't think Apple repair centers are authorised to perform board-level repairs which may be why authorised repair centers always replace rather than repair.

I have had liquid-damaged Macbook Airs repaired by having the tech replace components on the original board. Much cheaper than replacing the entire board.

Edit: since the unit in question is an Air, the battery is not glued in place. It is held in place by screws which makes battery replacement an easy job.
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Thank you, that is very interesting.. i'll look into that.
 
Do the fans spin at a normal speed or are they running at full speed all the time? If not, this is a good sign.

It's also possible that only the magsafe2 IO board is damaged and can also be easily replaced by the end user.

The fact that the battery doesn't fully charge is a good indication the battery is damaged.

If you are handy, I recommend removing as much as you can and clean all dirty areas with pure isopropyl alcohol, reassemble, and hope for the best.
 
Audit13 said:
Do the fans spin at a normal speed or are they running at full speed all the time? If not, this is a good sign.

It's also possible that only the magsafe2 IO board is damaged and can also be easily replaced by the end user.

The fact that the battery doesn't fully charge is a good indication the battery is damaged.

If you are handy, I recommend removing as much as you can and clean all dirty areas with pure isopropyl alcohol, reassemble, and hope for the best.
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The fans are fine. I'm unsure what the magsafe2 IO board even is. :-(

I've had this the exact same thing (doesn't charge, but holds charge) happen with another macbook, but resetting SMC fixed that one.

could it just be the wire leading to the battery from logic board needs replacing? After all, they did say at jump that was what was corroded.

I'm not that handy, to be honest.
 
Audit13 said:
The only cable connecting the battery to the logic board is the multi-pin cable coming from the battery itself.

These are instuctions for disassembling the 2015 MBA (same instructions apply to all MBAs from 2013 to 2017): https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Early+2015+I-O+Board+Replacement/40695

Take note of the battery cable in step 3 and the IO board in step 16.
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Thanks for all your help, Audit.

i'm not sure i'd trust myself to try that, but i could ask some who would be proficient in this kind of thing. i'm sure it would be cheaper than a C$800 logic board replacement.
 
Have you checked other authorised resellers or just Apple themselves, i think that 800$ for a new logic board is quite a lot i had the entire lower case (trackpad,logic board,ssd) on my mbpr13 replaced for around 600$.
 
Gesturthor said:
Have you checked other authorised resellers or just Apple themselves, i think that 800$ for a new logic board is quite a lot i had the entire lower case (trackpad,logic board,ssd) on my mbpr13 replaced for around 600$.
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That's $800 Canadian dollars. I'm in the process of checking out other avenues... I live in a very small city, only one authorised Apple reseller.
 
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