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the suffering

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Mar 28, 2012
5
1
Saturday night I spilled lemonade/vodka on the front of my late 2009 MacBook pro 13 while it was on. The screen shut off immediately and it powered off. I pulled the bottom off, took out the battery and wiped/blow dried on low/canned air to the best of my ability and left it upside down to dry for the last 4 days. Today I decided to give it a try. When I press the power button the fan spins, the optical drive makes noise, and I can hear the hard drive spinning. Also the MagSafe connector indicates its charging. The led indicator on the front stays a solid white. My problems :
Nothing displays on the screen
Keyboard backlight does not light up
The apple startup sound does not occur.

I have tried:
Disconnecting keyboard cable
Placing ram in both spots with two different sticks to swap out


That said, what's the likelyhood that the logic board is fried? Is there anything more I can try to try breathing life into the laptop? I'd like to think since a lot of the typical things are working like the power button, led, hard drive, fan, etc that I just might have a chance of saving it. Any help is appreciated. For what its worth I have read a lot of the MacBook spill threads
 
The only thing that MAY be able to heal it is time. Time to completely dry off. If it doesn't work in a week then at best you've got a good excuse to buy a nice new laptop.
 
Have you tried checking out this thread? There are a lot of helpful people there that might be of service to you.

I read over that and tried it but no beuno. My mbp is responsive minus the display and back light and seemingly lack of boot since I don't get the sound

The only thing that MAY be able to heal it is time. Time to completely dry off. If it doesn't work in a week then at best you've got a good excuse to buy a nice new laptop.

Lol I dont want an excuse for a new laptop. Wifey and I planned to start trying for a baby next month and she wants to get new baby shopping underway already. She is ok with me getting a new one if it can't be revived as she knows I love it and can't go back to windows. Besides I'd rather devote that much to the baby stuff anyway if I can.
 
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Sorry to hear. :( If it was just vodka, you would be a lot luckier. Lemonade is one of the worst, as it is going to leave a residue.
 
Wirelessly posted

Vodka, gives you headaches ;-)
Get a refurb if time doesn't help you?
 
Wirelessly posted

Vodka, gives you headaches ;-)
Get a refurb if time doesn't help you?

I'll probably just buy a used one on eBay. I don't really need the i5. If I can't get this one back working I'll probably sell it for parts/repair. Whats the worth? $300-500?

Also if a replacement is needed can I just toss my old hard drive in the new one or is a reformat required?
 
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