Late 2011 MBA liquid damage

[andrewkontos]

Hey everyone, here it goes with another liquid damage story.. My friend was borrowing my computer to DJ an event and somehow some alcohol was spilled on it. He told me it was a small amount it kept working and then when i found out i turned it off dried it for a few days and turned it on it booted up normal, speaker sounded fine the problem i ran into was when i got to the login screen to enter my password it wouldn't go..tried multiple tunes and then did command r to reset the password and since i have firevaukt i wasnt able to because it was symbols only. I plugged in a USB keyboard and pulled up safari and it seemed to be working but i still couldn't get it to login. I haven't touched my computer since that was a few months ago, i have tried drying it out more and recently turned it on the battery still holds a charge and it doesn't reset or anything just sits at the log in screen like a normal computers..any ideas for this or suggestions would be greatly appreciated. The closest Apple store is over three hours away..Thanks again. Andrew

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I forgot to mention it got spilled on the bottom left of the keyboard and i believe the alt and command buttons are sticking.

 

[micrors4racer]

Sounds like the keyboard is dead. Did your friend at least buy you a new one? Seems weird that you would wait months before trying to fix it. I would make them foot the repairs if my machine was damaged.

 

[andrewkontos]

The reason for the time was i have constantly been working now and at the time couldn't afford you even have it looked at (college student) is the keyboard something i worked be able too replace following a guide such as ifixit? Thanks

 

[TheRealDamager]

I just added that (DJ'ing an event) to the list of things I will never lend my friend an Air for...

Good luck...

 

[andrewkontos]

Thanks I appreciate it, i forgot to say when i was typing on safari in the command r mode with the external keyboard the right keys were being displayed but when i went to put my password in it still wa shaking showing it was wrong.. I regret turning on firevault now or i could reset the password :/.

 

[micrors4racer]

If you are even considering switching the keyboard your self i think you should consider bringing it to the apple store and seeing what they say. If it was alcohol that was spilled it probably did not stain or corrode the inside so they wouldn't be able to really see if it was water damaged . And if they refuse or its out of warranty already then you can follow the guides on ifix it to install a new keyboard. Considering the machine still works ok this shouldn't be too bad.

You're saying that an external keyboard types in all the right keys but your password won't work. Have you tried typing your password on say the address bar on safari and seeing if its actually putting in the password right? You might have just also forgotten the password or are typing it wrong. I did this my self too many times. Another way to access your data is the recovery key that file vault gives you when you first turned it on. You also had the option to store that recovery key with apple when you first started so you can try and give them a call to see if they have it.

 

[0x000000]

My MBA had a similar accident and when I went to the AASP, they didn't want to change the keyboard before they looked into it, because "you never know where water goes". Even if it seemed as if it's only the keyboard, you never know. Bulls**t I thought, but well, go on.

Some days later they sent me some images. The water went EVERYWHERE. On the logicboard, the fan, the SSD, cables... It did still run, but it was sad to see. I suppose if it's dried and the MBA didn't fry itself already, it won't cause too much of a problem in the future, but Apple Care etc. are gone for good unless you replace all parts that were affected, whether they work or not. A complete repair would've cost me twice as much as the MBA was worth (3.2k).

Replacing the keyboard alone should cost you around 350 (euros, that is), because the keyboard may be cheap (200~) but disassembly is not. The topcase is the MBA's "deepest" part, you have to take off everything to replace that and the keyboard is glued to it. But maybe you're lucky and it really is only the keyboard.

And yes, there are iFixit guides but that's seriously far worse than anything I'd dare and I'm usually not afraid of disassembling things.

If it was alcohol that was spilled it probably did not stain or corrode the inside so they wouldn't be able to really see if it was water damaged

That wouldn't work. The alcohol you drink is usually something that contains lots of random stuff like sugar or syrup and that stuff does leave clearly visible stains. And even if it were something like Vodka, there's fine dust everywhere inside of your notebook so that fluids would probably still leave visible stains...

 

[andrewkontos]

So as i was tinkering around and cleaning a few keys from the top. I couldn't see any corrosion and also i found the recovery key. Heres a question for you smart forum readers.. I had plugged in my old iMac external USB keyboard last night and tried typing in my password got the shake again. But it displayed i was tong.. So i decided to try to use my recovery key..i stay typing the recovery key nothing displays tried every button on the old iMac keybpstd nothing would enter in except for the numbers on the right side... Any ideas? The cursor would blink in the recovery key box but that was about it sand adding numbers.