HELP! Firewire Port/Cat/Salad Dressing Disaster

[nevynnoir]

I fell asleep with a container of salad dressing and my Macbook Pro beside me, and my cat saw that as a perfect opportunity to try out my new salad dressing.

The salad dressing got spilled all over the keyboard, but worse yet, somehow got into all the ports. I awoke to the firewire port on my Macbook sparking and the disgusting smell of burnt salad dressing.

I've tried to clean it out the best I possibly could, but I'm scared to try to turn it on again. All the ports look relatively normal, except for the firewire port which looks charred and burnt. I have no idea what I should do next....Or if it's even safe to attempt to use it when it's in this condition and I would very much appreciate any help or advice anyone can give me. (aside from not to fall asleep with salad dressing and a cat who loves it)

Thanks

 

[AppleUSA]

Worlds best facebook status "I fell asleep with a container of salad dressing and my Macbook Pro beside me, and my cat..."

On a second note, I would try powering on after everything has been cleaned & had sufficient time to dry.

 

[yjchua95]

I fell asleep with a container of salad dressing and my Macbook Pro beside me, and my cat saw that as a perfect opportunity to try out my new salad dressing.

The salad dressing got spilled all over the keyboard, but worse yet, somehow got into all the ports. I awoke to the firewire port on my Macbook sparking and the disgusting smell of burnt salad dressing.

I've tried to clean it out the best I possibly could, but I'm scared to try to turn it on again. All the ports look relatively normal, except for the firewire port which looks charred and burnt. I have no idea what I should do next....Or if it's even safe to attempt to use it when it's in this condition and I would very much appreciate any help or advice anyone can give me. (aside from not to fall asleep with salad dressing and a cat who loves it)

Thanks

Just to get any moisture out of your MBP, I suggest you dunk it in a container of uncooked rice grains overnight. Rice grains absorb moisture very well.

 

[DeltaMac]

...
On a second note, I would try powering on after everything has been cleaned & had sufficient time to dry.

Sounds bad...My opinion is that the normal "open it up and let it dry out" just won't accomplish much, because of the various ingredients in the salad dressing. If the dressing included either oil or vinegar, that will likely go everywhere inside. If it spreads to the heat sinks (the processor area on the logic board), then it's really likely that the heat sink compound will need to be redone. The laptop needs to be completely disassembled, and carefully cleaned with alcohol. Big job - and the contamination is likely acidic enough to leave lots of damage.

 

[Fishrrman]

Well... once you have your NEW MacBook, try to take better care of it next time....

 

[nevynnoir]

Well... once you have your NEW MacBook, try to take better care of it next time....

Wow that's not so optimistic. Thanks wise guy.

And to everyone else with valuable, helpful info, thanks very much. I did manage to clean a lot of the insides myself, the main issue is really just getting the remaining gunk out of the firewire port. I am going to attempt to turn it on once I have finished the rest of the cleaning, since it's already been a few days since the "incident" Either way, I have new ram and a ssd drive coming from Amazon today, so if I have to get a new laptop, at least I can save some money there.

 

[iWeekend]

Here because of the award winning title.





On a helpful note, some hobby shops (scale airplanes/cars type) might have extremely small tools available that could get into the tiny spaces you are now faced with cleaning.

 

[Barney63]

A glass fibre (fiber for you yanks lol) brush might work in the FW port.
http://www.amazon.com/SE-7616SB-Fib...=1396989846&sr=8-3&keywords=glass+fiber+brush

Barney

 

[MattSepeta]

This thread isn't as awesome as the title lead me to believe!

Use some cotton swabs then set it on some dry rice overnight in a tupperware!

Best luck,

 

[Stinkysteve]

I hope this works out for the best, keep us informed.

 

[thundersteele]

Haha best title ever

I would try to clean the ports as good as possible - try Q-tips and cleaning alcohol maybe. Then it should be reasonable safe to power it on.

 

[Sun Baked]

Haha best title ever

I would try to clean the ports as good as possible - try Q-tips and cleaning alcohol maybe. Then it should be reasonable safe to power it on.

Exactly, at dinner time -- when putting salad dressing on the cat -- I can see it quickly going downhill from there.

 

[Idefix]

Best title ever!

Sadly, nevynnoir hasn't been back on the forums since posting this. I would dearly love to hear how this turned out!

 

[macunwired]

Liquid damage cleaning

If the salad dressing reached the logic board, it needs to be cleaned. And if the salad dressing is an oily variety (likely), the board will need to be professionally cleaned and possibly soaked to get any oil residue out from under the chips. The few salad dressing laptops I have worked on have been the worst.

Don't try to turn the computer on before having it professionally cleaned (if there is residue on the board it could short and cause even more damage), don't trust rice (especially when the liquid is not just water), and clean it/get it cleaned ASAP.