MacBook Pro SLOOOWW after Water Damage :(

[XpL0d3r]

13" Late 2011 MacBook Pro, Intel i5, 4GB RAM

Long story short, spilled some water on the MBP while it was plugged in. It was water from a vase, so it was clean water minus whatever flowers expel lol. Anyways, laptop stayed on until I unplugged it from power, where it turned off. Took it apart, there was still a considerable amount of water in there. Let it sit for a couple days, then removed the logic board, took some 91% iso alcohol and Q-tips, and went to town on it, mainly focusing on the parts of the board that had some corrosion. Let it sit overnight, and put her back together.

SHE LIVES! The only issue is, it's sloooowwww. 88% CPU usage on boot up. Reset the PRAM, no help. Reset the SMC... and VOILA! <1% CPU on boot, ran again like a champ!

.... until 20 minutes later, same issue. Reset the SMC again and rebooted while the computer was still warm, and again it ran perfectly. Then 20 minutes later the same thing all over again.

I read something about the LED indicator causing problems, as someone with a water spill had an issue identical to mine, so that will be my next check, but I wanted to post here and see if anyone else had any good information or could help me get this thing back working well for more than 20 minutes.

Thanks!

 

[Astroboy907]

Long story short, spilled some water on the MBP while it was plugged in. It was water from a vase, so it was clean water minus whatever flowers expel lol. Anyways, laptop stayed on until I unplugged it from power, where it turned off. Took it apart, there was still a considerable amount of water in there. Let it sit for a couple days, then removed the logic board, took some 91% iso alcohol and Q-tips, and went to town on it, mainly focusing on the parts of the board that had some corrosion. Let it sit overnight, and put her back together.
Thanks!

Don't do this again. Please.

Just for the sake of anybody that may come here, if water damage occurs power off your device ASAP!! Then let it dry for a week or more, and unplug the battery if possible.

As for the OP, try removing the battery indicator board and powering up and using it (making sure ALL water is off the board, if it has been less than a week since the spill I still wouldn't use it, valiant as the 91% iso was). That might help you figure it out, and it should boot fine with the cable unplugged.

 

[XpL0d3r]

Don't do this again. Please.

Just for the sake of anybody that may come here, if water damage occurs power off your device ASAP!! Then let it dry for a week or more, and unplug the battery if possible.

As for the OP, try removing the battery indicator board and powering up and using it (making sure ALL water is off the board, if it has been less than a week since the spill I still wouldn't use it, valiant as the 91% iso was). That might help you figure it out, and it should boot fine with the cable unplugged.

Yeah, I kind of freaked out when I saw the spill on the laptop so I unplugged it to get it away from the area quickly. My bad.

It's been a couple weeks now, and a over a week since I cleaned it with iso, so I'll give that a try tonight when I get home from work.

Thanks

 

[XpL0d3r]

Disconnected the battery indicator board from the logic board. So far so good...

 

[Astroboy907]

Disconnected the battery indicator board from the logic board. So far so good...

Well, sounds like you diagnosed it properly! Battery indicator boards are only like $20 (or less sometimes), or you could try to clean any corrosion off the board. Well, that is, if it keeps running fast.

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Yeah, I kind of freaked out when I saw the spill on the laptop so I unplugged it to get it away from the area quickly. My bad.

Lol I must've misunderstood your first post. Unplugging it and turning it off and trying to get the water out is good. At the very least, moving it away from the spill is a step in the right direction (literally!).
And cleaning the board with 91% alcohol was definitely the right thing to do (IMO I would do this again just in case), to help stop the corrosion before it went too far. Good to see you aren't afraid to take the computer apart.

 

[jav6454]

There might be corrosion in the BGA pins. Those pins are not Q-Tip accessible.

 

[XpL0d3r]

Well, sounds like you diagnosed it properly! Battery indicator boards are only like $20 (or less sometimes), or you could try to clean any corrosion off the board. Well, that is, if it keeps running fast.

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Lol I must've misunderstood your first post. Unplugging it and turning it off and trying to get the water out is good. At the very least, moving it away from the spill is a step in the right direction (literally!).
And cleaning the board with 91% alcohol was definitely the right thing to do (IMO I would do this again just in case), to help stop the corrosion before it went too far. Good to see you aren't afraid to take the computer apart.

There might be corrosion in the BGA pins. Those pins are not Q-Tip accessible.

On Day 3 and so far it's been running perfectly! I'm going to confirm it's the battery indicator by plugging it back in and checking performance; if it slows down I think it's safe to say that's it, and I'll look into a replacement.

Thanks for the help guys!