Macbook Liquid Incident, Need Help with the consequences

[HTFAF]

So,
Last night it happened. Water all over my macbook.

I turned it upside down but made the mistake of trying to power it up and plug it in til i read you weren't supposed to. I turned it off and left it off and unplugged overnight. Just turned it on, about 19 hours later, and everything is thankfully working right.

Except the battery. i got the old X on the battery, but my computer seems to be working fine, when plugged in or unplugged. It's like the battery still has normal life, but the meter always has the X - "No Batteries Available" Message.I followed all the support docs, reseated it, reset the msc (or whatever its called and no luck.

Honestly, if I'm lucky enough for this to be the only defect caused, I'll be happy, just wondering if this has happened to anyone else and what the ultimate outcome was....hope my machine makes it, at least til christmas when i plan to bug my family to buy me one of the new books whenever they come out.

thanks.

 

[r.j.s]

Shut it off immediately, leave it off for 3 days. If you do not let it properly dry, the water and electricity can cause corrosion, bringing about a quick death for your Mac.

 

[polaris20]

Shut it off immediately, leave it off for 3 days. If you do not let it properly dry, the water and electricity can cause corrosion, bringing about a quick death for your Mac.

Yeah do this, definitely. I've had Thinkpads get coffee spilled on them, and as long as you leave it off and let it dry, you can often (not always though) recover them.

One had coffee with cream and sugar spilled on it, so I removed the motherboard, RAM, hard drive, and CPU, and let it dry. Then cleaned it with alcohol. It worked! (well, after I put it back together again )

 

[HTFAF]

phew....thanks. Do you think I did more damage by turning it on?

What do i do in three days? put the battery back in and hope for the best? Or is there some procedure to do before starting it back up...

 

[r.j.s]

phew....thanks. Do you think I did more damage by turning it on?

It is possible.

What do i do in three days? put the battery back in and hope for the best? Or is there some procedure to do before starting it back up...

The only thing you can do is, put the battery in and hope for the best.

 

[jhamerphoto]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but it's more useful than posting a new one...

The same thing happened to my girlfriend with a small amount of tea. She left it to dry as I instructed her, but now it won't turn on at all. Now after resetting the Power Manager or anything. I'm usually pretty good with macs, but I've never had an incident involving liquid.

Any tips?

 

[r.j.s]

I don't mean to hijack the thread, but it's more useful than posting a new one...

The same thing happened to my girlfriend with a small amount of tea. She left it to dry as I instructed her, but now it won't turn on at all. Now after resetting the Power Manager or anything. I'm usually pretty good with macs, but I've never had an incident involving liquid.

Any tips?

The sugar in the tea, or something else if it is unsweetened, probably corroded or shorted some of the circuits. You could take it to Apple, but it probably wont do much good.

 

[jhamerphoto]

The sugar in the tea, or something else if it is unsweetened, probably corroded or shorted some of the circuits. You could take it to Apple, but it probably wont do much good.

Thanks, didn't know about the sugar, but I do know she always has sugar in her tea.

And Apple won't do a damn thing, except tell her the logic board needs to be replaced.

 

[r.j.s]

And Apple won't do a damn thing, except tell her the logic board needs to be replaced.

Logic boards are quite expensive, she'd be better off buying a new one.

 

[jhamerphoto]

Logic boards are quite expensive, she'd be better off buying a new one.

That's what I'm doing. They told me the logic board in my MBP needs to be replaced to fix my firewire problem. Two firewire ports don't work and it's the whole logic board?! Everything else works pretty well. I'm just going to wait for the new line to come out in October to buy a new one, since this one works for most of the things I need.

 

[HTFAF]

Well, here we are 3 days later and my Macbook seems to be in perfect working order except for the weird battery thing. As soon as it gets fully charged the "X" appears, but it works just like normal, plugged in or not, and I've already sycned my iPod, imported a cd, and watched a dvd, so it looks like I got off pretty easy. Thanks for all your help

 

[Elven]

Well, here we are 3 days later and my Macbook seems to be in perfect working order except for the weird battery thing. As soon as it gets fully charged the "X" appears, but it works just like normal, plugged in or not, and I've already sycned my iPod, imported a cd, and watched a dvd, so it looks like I got off pretty easy. Thanks for all your help

Clean the battery connections.

 

[HTFAF]

What should I clean them with? What exactly do the connections look like?

 

[jhamerphoto]

What should I clean them with? What exactly do the connections look like?

Try with just a dry, non-static cloth. I don't know about a regular macbook, but you should definitely be able to tell where the connectors are.

Also, resetting the power manager couldn't hurt.

 

[HTFAF]

Okay thanks, is the power manager reset the one where you hold down power for 5 seconds w/ the battery out?

I have the Iklear thing, so I can use one of the cloths from that.

 

[HTFAF]

It worked! Thanks!