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Help! Spilled *beer* on Macbook!

A

ajagor92

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 29, 2007
14
0
Atlanta, Ga, USA
So about an hour ago I spilled beer on my precious Black Macbook. Wiped it off within 5 seconds, powered down, removed battery, and blow-dried on a cool setting.

Everything works fine at the moment. It was about a quarter bottle on the left side of the keyboard.

I'm not sure if it even leaked much into the computer. I blotted and wiped and everything with a clean cloth as well as blow dried.

What should I worry about? Is it going to break on me in like 4 months because of this?
 
Turn it off NOW! Let it sit for at least 2 more days. Then it should be fine.
 
Turn it off. NOW.

Keep it off for at least a few days, and go inside and make SURE there is not a DROP of liquid. If anything is sticky, wash it with water and let it try completely.

Don't turn it back on for at least three days. if you keep running it, and there's anything inside, you'll destroy it.
 
robert.j.strain said:
Turn it off NOW! Let it sit for at least 2 more days. Then it should be fine.
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Agreed. It needs more time to dry out and sober up. :p

Metuas said:
If anything is sticky, wash it with water and let it try completely.
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Disagreed. With the exception of the exterior case, don't wash your computer with water: it can leave impurities behind which can short circuit the electronics.

...Perhaps I misunderstood and you were referring to the outside case, but you should never use water to clean the inside of a computer.
 
sit it upside down in a sunny spot inside and after a couple of days see if it boots up. you way want to take the case off and clean the inside to remove all the sticky-ness when its dried.
 
If he does not respond then you know what the result is. Otherwise, if you are reading this after you have waited two days, your macbook will be fine. :D
 
Posting from my iPod touch..

I am terrified. I cannot afford to replace this now as I am a student and I doubt my dad will replace it.

It's off sitting open right now. I cleaned it up with a little cleaning solution so the inside doesn't smell like alcohol.

Do I have a lot to be worried about? Do you think it will be fine?
 
ajagor92 said:
Do I have a lot to be worried about? Do you think it will be fine?
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Well, not to be negative or anything, but you DID spill beer on it.
It's one thing to spill water on something, but to spill an alcohol based liquid that is very sticky is a whole different story.

I hope everything works out, but you should expect corrosion after some time.

For cell phones, when people spill water on them, and then for "some odd reason", the phone breaks a month later, it usually has to do with corrosion happening over time.

Good luck!
 
Too bad it wasn't Canadian beer. American is so watered down by comparision and you might have gotten some extra processing power as a result.:D Seriously though perhaps someone at school that you consider knowledgeable can look it over after a few days.
 
So I'm fairly confident I dried it out sufficiently. I even removed the ram and aired out in there. What I'm worried about is the corrosion factor. It doesn't really smell of beer that much. At all.

Can I take it to a place like geek squad and have them clean the insides?
 
You can check out some guides here at ifixit and see how to remove the top cover. You can clean it out yourself and save the gouging from Geek Squad. Just don't have a beer nearby :)
 
The Hammer said:
Too bad it wasn't Canadian beer. American is so watered down by comparision and you might have gotten some extra processing power as a result.:D Seriously though perhaps someone at school that you consider knowledgeable can look it over after a few days.
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No offense meant, but as a Canadian I would like to point out that you are wrong about American beer. Perhaps you mean the whole 5% abv .vs. 4% by weight issue? Even ignoring that, there are thousands (no exaggeration) of microbrews in the US that are world class.

Try a Surly Furious from Minneapolis for comparison :)

Tom
 
You want to turn it off right now and leave it like that for a few days in a dry place. If you have a cupboard you put rice in or a airing cupboard I'd put it in there. The rice will absorb the liquid from it.

If you're feeling adventurous after those days, get some distilled water, take it apart and clean some components; that will get rid of the impurities left by the beer. If you don't feel confident in taking your laptop apart (and remember it will void the warranty) leave it for a few more days.
 
I think there is a lesson to be learned from this; don't drink near your computer! If you do, make sure the computer is elevated, or keep the drink away from the computer.

By the way...

ajagor92 said:
So about an hour ago I spilled precious beer on my Black Macbook.
Click to expand...

fixed it for you :p
 
This is getting old. Don't spill, if you do use search. Our advice will never change, so why ask repeatedly?
 
alphaod said:
This is getting old. Don't spill, if you do use search. Our advice will never change, so why ask repeatedly?
Click to expand...

Relax...the kid freaked out and probably tried to find out what to do the quickest way possible..its understandable
 
Well it's still sitting in the v position. The battery's out, etc. I really don't feel like a whole lot got in there. I reacted pretty fast. I'm opening up a safeware policy on it now and praying it still works in a few months. I'm gonna try powering on tomorrow morning so we'll see then.
 
Good luck mate, glad I've never spilt anything on my Macbook, but then I tend to keep drinks other side of the desk, I'm paranoid.
 
Learn from your mistakes. If you shut it off right away, let it dry, cleaned everything with distilled water, waited a couple days, etc. you have a much better chance of it being fine, especially since, from your words, not too much got in.

Best of luck. Let us know.
 
Elven said:
Good luck mate, glad I've never spilt anything on my Macbook, but then I tend to keep drinks other side of the desk, I'm paranoid.
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Same here, I am way too scared that if it spilled on my MBP, I would cry. :eek:
 
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