Mid-2010 Unibody MacBook UK top cases?

[symber]

Morning all.

I bought my girlfriend a white unibody mid-2010 Macbook off eBay. Works great, until, we had a few mates round and someone spilled a drink on the keys. Anyway, machine still works fine as we dried it up pronto, but some of the function keys don't work and every now and then it thinks the power button has been pressed and asks if you want to shut down or restart. Also, upon startup the mac thinks the back slash key is being held down.

So, my question is what to do? I called up a local Apple Cert repairs shop and they said they'd need to look at it first before they could quote how much it would cost to fix, but if it's loads and I don't want to spend that much, I still have to pay the £40 for the consultation.

Alternatively, I could buy a new top case for the bottom half of the Macbook, but I can't find any with a UK layout keyboard, apart from this one:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/MACBOOK-U...puting_Housings_Touchpads&hash=item4ab9bc676e

Which is best part of £100. The US ones seem to be half that...

Any ideas welcome!

 

[diddi969]

If you don't want to buy a new one try to dry the keyboard itself.
Take it off the macbook then disassemble the keyboard and use some
isopropanol.
Good luck

 

[symber]

Thanks for your reply. Thing is, this machine is the unibody one, which means I can't just remove the keyboard. I have to gut the bastard. Not done that before. Think it's worth a try just to clean it?

 

[diddi969]

use a disassemble guide with photos (ifixit.com,...) to check it in detail.
But you have to remove the logic board I think.
Maybe you should first try to remove the letters of the keyboard then blow it with a heatgun or something.

 

[chibiterasu]

use a disassemble guide with photos (ifixit.com,...) to check it in detail.
But you have to remove the logic board I think.
Maybe you should first try to remove the letters of the keyboard then blow it with a heatgun or something.

Whatever you do don't use a heat gun your probably end up melting plastic or the rubber under the keys. The thing with liquid damage is that even though you think its only damaged the keyboard and power button chances are that the liquid had reached the logic board, seeing as the keyboard is on top of the logic board and the keyboard has holes in it. But isn't the top case and the keyboard one unit on the white unibody macs so you will have a hard time getting close to the keyboard. Over time liquid can cause corrosion on the logic board. You should defiantly open it up and clean up any residue (http://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/MacBook+Unibody+Model+A1342+Mid+2010+Teardown/2931/1) you might be able to salvage the keyboard but I doubt it (I spilt smoothie over my old netbook keyboard and I had to replace that the difference in that case is there was a nice solid piece of plastic between the keyboard and the main board)

 

[Brian Y]

On a 2010 - the top case is a complete rebuild. After a while you find out it's actually an easy repair (I can do it in about 20-25 minutes now), but if it's your first one it'll be a daunting experience.

Off the top of my head, Apple charge about £120 for a new top case. It'll come with a warranty, and if they break anything else whilst rebuilding it, they'll fix it. If you've never done a top case on a unibody before, I'd pay the little bit extra and have Apple do it.

PS - the keyboards are replaceable (Apple don't do it, and it's about 30 screws, but it's possible) - however, that won't fix the power button issue, you will need the entire top case for that.

 

[symber]

Thanks everyone for your replies. I have one follow-on question:

If all I could get hold of was the US keyboard layout A1342 top case, would that be compatible with my UK machine, and would it take much to change the OS to recognise it?

Thanks again!

 

[symber]

Never mind, found a UK layout keyboard, and have bought the screwdrivers... It's all arrived and waiting for me to strip it apart, so I'll give it a crack over the weekend...

Wish me luck...

 

[symber]

Success!

Awash with a sense of pride, I've fixed the MacBook keyboard and power button. Dead chuffed. Only problem is the replacement upper case I used had a faulty track pad, so now I have to do it all over again to replace the original one I had. Gah! Regardless, pretty happy right now.

Thanks for your help!