I'm a complete idiot (spillage on PowerBook)

[bumfilter]

Hello!

So I'm chilling out, not paying much attention and I manage to spill nearly half a pint of Apple Juice (oh the irony) into my Al PowerBook.

As soon as it happened I leaped into action, unplugging power and battery, sucking out as much as I could, then using kitchen roll to help out. I was tempted to use a hairdryer but I thought it might blow the liquid further in. I then let it sit in my living room for 24 hours and went to change my underwear.

The spillage occurred around the power plug-in area, so top left hand corner, a spill into the keyboard/speaker/around the plug and some around the screen.

I switched it on about 10 minutes ago and everything seems in fine working order, except for the AirPort Extreme card. It worked fine for around 10 minutes, AirPort was fine, then it crashed (I didn't get a kernel panic, it was the please restart your computer in numerous languages screen).

The next 3 restarts, AirPort was not working, so I took the card out, gave everything a check and plugged it back in. No liquid got anywhere near the battery compartment, so I'm not sure how it's affected the card. I'm assuming there is something Airport related around the area of the spillage.

Anyway, does anyone have any ideas what must have caused this? I'm pretty thankful anything works but getting AirPort working again would be brilliant.

Also, does anyone know how long it will take for that Apple juice to eat it's way through my poor PowerBook's innards?

Thanks if you can help.

 

[TheMonarch]

(I didn't get a kernel panic, it was the please restart your computer in numerous languages screen).

I think those are kernal panics (not completely sure though). Sorry man . Good luck


I suggest letting it dry for more than a day.

 

[bumfilter]

It's only happened once, so fingers crossed. I'm probably wrong but I thought kernel panics, at least proper ones, are when you see lots of code on the screen matrix style, rather than the nice image.

Pants about keeping it off, I'm using it now, via the ethernet port. I think I'll leave it again then!

Thanks

 

[Linkjeniero]

I think the AirPort antenna is around the screen (not sure though), maybe it has something to do with it? If you have access to another 'Book, try your AirPort card and see if it works.

 

[bumfilter]

It says AirPort Hardware not installed. I have no way to test it but I don't think it's the card itself, I'd agree with some aerial type thing.

I'll try and bring it to my local apple repair centre (there is only one here!) and see what they say. Hopefully the laptop will survive a few more months!

 

[VanMac]

Maybe try some contact cleaner

 

[Demon Hunter]

Sugar is bad news

I spilled a few drops of Mountain Dew on my trackpad... it made the button really stick and gave it a loud "click", but after flushing it extremely carefully with water, it's fine. I don't know if that would help.

 

[cb911]

i thought the best thing to do was to wash out anything straight away with distilled water? i think you should try that now... take out as many parts as you can - and try to get all that sugar off the electronics with distilled water. well, if you're game.

btw - i've never done that before, but i've seen a few stories like this here on MR and distilled water is what people recommend. all the best.

 

[iEdd]

Submerge in water.

Maybe take the airport card out and wash it (carefully)...