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MacBook Pro + Juice

P

Pr0grammer

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 2, 2009
25
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Yesterday evening I spilled juice on my MacBook Pro (unibody 13").. Right down the air vent. It powered itself off immediately and I opened it up, there were several drops of juice on the logic board and inside the back of the case. I wiped them off as best I could and let it sit overnight (all the Apple stores in the area were closed). This morning I took it in to the store and they gave me some directions, and I took it home, removed the battery, took everything apart, wiped everything down with filtered water and got all the residue off, and then put it back together. Right now I'm letting it sit with the back cover open and the battery unplugged.

-There was no residue at all on the CPU side of the logic board.
-None of the liquid detection spots have turned red.
-I haven't tried to turn it on since the problem.

What are the chances that the logic board is fried, and how long should I let it sit to dry (bearing in mind that both sides of the logic board have been cleaned extensively with water this morning) before attempting to turn it back on?
 
Well if none of the liquid triggers turned red, if the logic board is fried you might be able to get it replaced for free under warranty, but I don't really know that much about the other ways they can detect spills.

EDIT: If it were lemonade there is a pretty decent chance that the logic board could be fried. But I would wait till tomorrow, leaving the bottom off the computer to let it dry, and see if it boots up. If it doesn't take it to the Apple store and see what they say.
 
There were only a few drops of the lemonade on the logic board though, so there wasn't much of a chance for it to do much damage. The main question is whether I should turn it on tomorrow or wait 2-3 days after the liquid exposure for it to dry (which lots of people seem to recommend).
 
Was the lemonade on any circuitry? And I am just saying that there is a decent chance, because my friend did the same thing with his Dell ( I know, I know ) and even though there were only a few drops, it still managed to pretty much destroy the computer. (It was orange juice but citric acid is citric acid none the less)
 
Yes, it was right on the circuit board.. Hopefully Apple boards are more resilient than Dell ones. I don't want to have to pay $750 for a new logic board on a month-old computer..

..We'll find out in a day or two. I can't do anything about it right now anyway, so I'd just like to know whether I can safely turn it on a day after it being wet or if I should wait another day or two.
 
Like you said though, none of the liquid sensors were tripped, so you could take it to the Apple store and just say, "It won't turn on." And see what happens
 
I waited a bit and turned it on, and it worked for half an hour or so, and then the screen faded unevenly to white (there were lines and such fading in faster) and stayed white. The computer was still working (at least the brightness controls were). I turned it off, unplugged the battery and let it sit for another half hour or so, then tried it again. The screen stayed completely white, but everything else seemed to be working fine.

Any ideas?
 
Pr0grammer said:
I waited a bit and turned it on, and it worked for half an hour or so, and then the screen faded unevenly to white (there were lines and such fading in faster) and stayed white. The computer was still working (at least the brightness controls were). I turned it off, unplugged the battery and let it sit for another half hour or so, then tried it again. The screen stayed completely white, but everything else seemed to be working fine.

Any ideas?
Click to expand...

Plug an external screen into the laptop (if you have one) and see if it works.

Good Luck!:D
 
mrsir2009 said:
Plug an external screen into the laptop (if you have one) and see if it works.

Good Luck!:D
Click to expand...

I actually don't have an external screen at the moment. Thanks though.

None of the lemonade went in the area around the screen connectors though, so I'd expect the issue to be with the GPU, not the screen.
 
Another update: I took it to the Genius Bar and they plugged in an external display and it worked fine. It looks like one of the components in the screen hinge is blown, the person said it was most likely the inverter.

I checked and the AmEx card it was bought on covers accidental damage like this, so I guess the problem's solved. I'll send it to Apple, get the warranty back in the process, and have AmEx pay for it.

Thanks everyone!
 
Pr0grammer said:
I actually don't have an external screen at the moment. Thanks though.

None of the lemonade went in the area around the screen connectors though, so I'd expect the issue to be with the GPU, not the screen.
Click to expand...

Another possibility is that they part of the computer that sends the signals to the screen is broken. ???
 
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