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How long after potential water damage to power on?

S

skiltrip

macrumors 68030
Original poster
May 6, 2010
2,899
268
New York
My bathroom upstairs had a leak. My studio is right underneath it. So water leaked thru the ceiling onto my MacBook Pro. Fortunately I had the lid closed. So I think it deflected any water from getting in. I took the bottom plate off and everything inside looks bone dry. The keyboard is also bone dry.

Even though it LOOKS to be ok, how long should I give it before turning it on to see if it survived?
 
skiltrip said:
Thanks for that link. In a flurry of emotions I just posted so I could get back to inspecting it for signs of water.

Another thing. It says on there to remove your battery bu you can't donor on the 2010 can you?
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No, that only applies to removable batteries.
 
The battery is removable, however it will void your warranty. There are certain macbook pro's which have the battery that can be removed without voiding, but this isn't yours. So no, do not remove the battery.
 
darknite38 said:
The battery is removable, however it will void your warranty. There are certain macbook pro's which have the battery that can be removed without voiding, but this isn't yours. So no, do not remove the battery.
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When I put an BestSkinsEver on my 2010 13" MBP, I think I accidentally got some of the application solution through the separation between the trackpad and the aluminum body. So in my usual fashion, I unscrewed the bottom of the MBP, and got my handy-dandy tri-wing screwdriver that I had from taking apart my Wii (damn Nintendo for using triwings!). I unscrewed the battery, unplugged the battery connector, and without touching the "Do not remove" sticker on the battery, and the pull tab on the battery, I removed the battery and to my dismay, it was perfectly dry below the trackpad. I still let it airdry for a couple hours to make sure there was no damage, but when I reassembled it, I did get a message telling me that the time was reset to December 31, 1969 (the built in battery acts as a sort of PRAM battery). I had to have my MBP serviced, to get a new topcase, HDD, HDD cable, battery (for being at 89% capacity after 250 charges), magsafe board, and internal speakers, and they didn't even notice that I took it apart (multiple times, to upgrade HDD, etc...).
 
It's been "drying" for about 18 hours now. I put drying in quotes because I don't really think it's wet inside, but I'm going to wait the 48 hours anyway.

As i said, my lid was closed when the water leaked down thru the ceiling. The top of the MBP has some water drops on it, but it wasn't in a pool of water or anything.

The waiting is the hardest part!
 
You should be ok...it seems 99% of the people who have water damage immediately turn their computer on and this is what often causes the actual damage. Between not turning it on and the spill described, as others have said you should be good to go.
 
NickZac said:
You should be ok...it seems 99% of the people who have water damage immediately turn their computer on and this is what often causes the actual damage. Between not turning it on and the spill described, as others have said you should be good to go.
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Thanks. About 6 hours to go. I'll post back with the outcome. fingers crossed.
 
So I didn't wait the full 48 hours. More like 47 hours. Oh my impatient nature.

But everything appears to be fine. Boots fine, screen is fine, sleeps fine, wakes fine. Charges fine. All that's left to do is check to make sure all the ports work ok, but I've really no reason to think otherwise.

My MBP got quite a shower in this incident. Though it could have been worse, I feel like I dodged a bullet of sorts.

I was debating selling and upgrading this year, but after this incident I feel like my trusty companion has once again proven it's loyalty and it's resolve, therefore granting it stay for at least another year.

I love this little computer. My first Mac, and a tough little one to boot.
 
NickZac said:
Good to hear. I know the 48 hr wait is like painful. lol
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I actually did pretty good with the wait. But I think it was that I had a pretty good gut feeling that the computer was fine. But to just play it safe I wanted to wait anyway. I also have a 1.5 yr. old daughter, so chasing her around all day makes the time go by fast. I barely knew I was out a computer for two days.

But last night I did some recording in Pro Tools for a new project and everything was rockin and rollin. Even my audio mixer that was covered in water survived.

I guess the secret is catching it really fast, and flipping everything over so water runs out and not in.
 
I give you props. If I had to go that long without internet porno, I would just die.
 
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