Macbook Pro Took A Dunking - Troubles Ensue

[Happy Marsden]

Some small amount of water was spilled on my 2011 Macbook Pro (when I wasn't around). It was wiped up immediately after, then the machine was turned on 15 minutes after. It worked fine for about 36 hours, then wouldn't start up. I don't know if the two are related, but.... I managed to restart it by removing the battery (although the battery is in fine condition). Here are the problems I am now facing:

- I have to remove the battery completely, because it will not boot up if the battery is inserted
- Even so, it won't start up with the battery out, unless I remove the magsafe plug.
- When it starts, all windows reopen and it loses all configuration information every time; ie. data, wifi password, etc.
- The internal keyboard does not work --at all--
- I reset the SMC, NVRAM, ran Applejack and did an Apple Hardware Test. (None of it helped, the AHT shows nothing to report).

This is where I'm stuck, as to what exactly is wrong with this Macbook!

 

[Dadioh]

Some small amount of water was spilled on my 2011 Macbook Pro (when I wasn't around). It was wiped up immediately after, then the machine was turned on 15 minutes after. It worked fine for about 36 hours, then wouldn't start up. I don't know if the two are related, but.... I managed to restart it by removing the battery (although the battery is in fine condition). Here are the problems I am now facing:

- I have to remove the battery completely, because it will not boot up if the battery is inserted
- Even so, it won't start up with the battery out, unless I remove the magsafe plug.
- When it starts, all windows reopen and it loses all configuration information every time; ie. data, wifi password, etc.
- The internal keyboard does not work --at all--
- I reset the SMC, NVRAM, ran Applejack and did an Apple Hardware Test. (None of it helped, the AHT shows nothing to report).

This is where I'm stuck, as to what exactly is wrong with this Macbook!

The problem is that you ran it for 36 hours with water inside. This has corroded some circuit traces and/or solder joints on components. Because the corrosion is driven by electromigration it corrodes faster where higher voltages exist. The battery charging circuit runs at 12.5V so it corrodes faster. Likely that the ISL6259 charger IC needs to be replaced and traces repaired.

The charger IC, battery, SMC, ad magsafe all communicate with each other on an I2C serial bus. Sounds like that bus is also affected. If you are lucky the issues with the keyboard can be resolved by just replacing the keyboard. If not, the actual keyboard connector has been affected and would need to be replaced.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but sounds like logic board repair is most likely remedy (or replacement). :-(

 

[Dark Void]

This is where I'm stuck, as to what exactly is wrong with this Macbook!

The problem is that water was split on a sensitive electronic device, and then you let it run afterwards. Letting it run could have ensured its half-life but in all honesty it could have happened at the moment the liquid made contact with any sort of circuitry. In other words, it could have been unavoidable even considering your actions thereafter, but not giving it proper time to dry certainly didn't help the computer at all.

I suppose you can continue to use it as is with all of it's annoyances but that isn't exactly ideal - unfortunately, as stated above, you're going to have to have the logic board replaced, and since that is probably going to be quite costly - it may just put you in the market for a replacement.

 

[Happy Marsden]

Wow, that is bad news if it's the case that I would need a new logic board. And it sounds like it could even go beyond that, to corroded parts outside of the logic board. ie. Perhaps the battery connector, since it won't boot up with the battery plugged in. I suppose I could still use it if I plugged in an external keyboard. But is there any way to rectify this problem of losing the saved configurations when the machine is rebooted? Having to keep entering the wifi password etc. makes it impractical to use at all.

 

[Mr. Buzzcut]

- I have to remove the battery completely, because it will not boot up if the battery is inserted
- Even so, it won't start up with the battery out, unless I remove the magsafe plug.

This is where I'm stuck, as to what exactly is wrong with this Macbook!

It only it had been holy water because this sounds like demonic possession.

(The question has already been answered so I hope a bit of humor is okay.)

 

[Happy Marsden]

It only it had been holy water because this sounds like demonic possession.

(The question has already been answered so I hope a bit of humor is okay.)

So... are we ruling out demonic posession, or are we not ruling out demonic posession? I need to know what to tell my insurance company. Because I think I saw it levitate afterward. Or maybe that was just the effects of the heart attack, after I heard about this...

I'm still trying to answer the question of what is causing the Macbook to lose its system configuration, like wifi password, date etc., and whether i can fix this. Has this been answered elsewhere; and if so, how do I search on it?

 

[maflynn]

I'm still trying to answer the question of what is causing the Macbook to lose its system configuration, like wifi password, date etc., and whether i can fix this. Has this been answered elsewhere; and if so, how do I search on it?

Water inside the computer shorting out the logic board since you ran the computer for an extended time. Sopping up the excess water externally did nothing for the water inside.

The bottom line is it definitely sounds like you shorted out the logic board.

 

[Happy Marsden]

Water inside the computer shorting out the logic board since you ran the computer for an extended time. Sopping up the excess water externally did nothing for the water inside.

The bottom line is it definitely sounds like you shorted out the logic board.

So in what way does this affect the machine not retaining the wifi password? Is that not a software issue? Does it not retain this on the hd? Keep in mind, it boots up, sound works, trackpad works, hd is fine, I can go on the internet, watch videos, etc etc.

 

[Samuelsan2001]

So in what way does this affect the machine not retaining the wifi password? Is that not a software issue? Does it not retain this on the hd? Keep in mind, it boots up, sound works, trackpad works, hd is fine, I can go on the internet, watch videos, etc etc.

Take a look at this thread the post by JAHelms about halfway down seems to be helping a lot of people.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4342982

 

[Happy Marsden]

Take a look at this thread the post by JAHelms about halfway down seems to be helping a lot of people.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4342982

Thanks, but that tip did not work for me. I created another wifi account with the same name, but as soon as I turn Airport off (without restarting the computer) and back on, the Mac forgets the wifi password (even though "Rembmer This Network" is checked). I don't think we have the same problem. Since the accident, my Macbook is not just forgetting wifi passwords... the date, my firewall settings, and who knows what else, I haven't used it much.

 

[Dark Void]

Thanks, but that tip did not work for me. I created another wifi account with the same name, but as soon as I turn Airport off (without restarting the computer) and back on, the Mac forgets the wifi password (even though "Rembmer This Network" is checked). I don't think we have the same problem. Since the accident, my Macbook is not just forgetting wifi passwords... the date, my firewall settings, and who knows what else, I haven't used it much.

Given all of the sporadic, multiple issues it would indicate that the board is definitely damaged. It's lucky that is still works at all but given the fact that it wasn't given time to dry properly, if liquid is still in fact inside of the notebook, other components may start to show suffering as well - such as display flickering, tearing, or simple failure if it makes its way to the GPU portion of the board for example.

What is done is done and cannot be improved but I would shut it off completely for a few days just to make sure nothing else further occurs.

 

[Happy Marsden]

A few people are saying this, but after several attempts, I'm still trying to understand what mechanism of the *logic board* would cause the date, time, firewall configuration, wi-fi passwords and other such configurations to be lost after restarting the Macbook, or after simply restarting Airport. Am I mistaken in believing that system configurations, ie. the firewall rules for the app "HandsOff!", are written to the hard drive, like all other system and third party software files?

Given all of the sporadic, multiple issues it would indicate that the board is definitely damaged. It's lucky that is still works at all but given the fact that it wasn't given time to dry properly, if liquid is still in fact inside of the notebook, other components may start to show suffering as well - such as display flickering, tearing, or simple failure if it makes its way to the GPU portion of the board for example.

What is done is done and cannot be improved but I would shut it off completely for a few days just to make sure nothing else further occurs.

 

[Dadioh]

A few people are saying this, but after several attempts, I'm still trying to understand what mechanism of the *logic board* would cause the date, time, firewall configuration, wi-fi passwords and other such configurations to be lost after restarting the Macbook, or after simply restarting Airport. Am I mistaken in believing that system configurations, ie. the firewall rules for the app "HandsOff!", are written to the hard drive, like all other system and third party software files?

Not certain but I suspect one of 2 things:

1) That info is stored in non-volatile memory on the logic board and is corrupted. Have you done an SMC reset and PRAM reset yet?
2) When the failure occurred some files on the disk got corrupted. The way to check this would be to boot from an external hard drive with a known good copy of OS X installed.

 

[Happy Marsden]

Not certain but I suspect one of 2 things:

1) That info is stored in non-volatile memory on the logic board and is corrupted. Have you done an SMC reset and PRAM reset yet?

Yes, both, a few times. I might understand the date or wifi settings stored on a memory chip... but the firewall rules for the HandsOff! app is written to non-volatile memory??

2) When the failure occurred some files on the disk got corrupted. The way to check this would be to boot from an external hard drive with a known good copy of OS X installed.

That I can do. I'll get one together and check it out, see if it makes a difference.