Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

OMG!!! soda in my macbook pro

spilled 8 oz glass of tea on my macbook & "survived"

I spilled a full glass of tea (sweetened with 100% grape juice) on my Macbook keyboard. Immediately I turned it over, to my horror as tea was draining from every orifice. I beat on the back, shook it, dried the keyboard with a hairdryer as I was still holding it upside down, then removed the battery, all within a matter of 3-4 minutes. Immediately I opened the yellow pages of my phone book, found a "Mac Man", called and took it too him with my car flashers on. It cost me $250.00 for his efforts, but it is up and "running". I lost the ability to use my DVD drive (although he felt it could be replaced) as well as the ability to be portable and use the battery. So, be persistent...beat it, dry it and act quickly. I learned this from dropping my Palm Pilot (with my life on it) in the toilet. DONT GIVE UP.
 
Glad to hear its working again... well mostly at least. When I did it I took the laptop battery off, took the laptop apart, poured the liquid out, and hair-dried it. Was back up and running once i was confident it was completely dry. Cleaning the insides with alcohol soaked cloth sounds like a good idea too though!

As for the speaker.....one of mine needed doing and I was charged about £60 if I remember correctly, although this was an older macbook pro. You will probably find your warranty is all buggered up so you might want to get the part yourself and see if it is doable at home. On the other hand if apple replace it- have seen the water damage and charge you for the repair, and then if it is all working properly again they will reset the warranty. In other words, if it is all working when they return it to you and find no other problems relating to the water damage then you are still covered for things like recalls, screen hinges etc.

Good luck!
 
The unibody has holes all over the keyboard, so you probably shorted the entired motherboard if you dropped a glassful.

Since you have nothing to lose, learn on how to tear apart the whole thing. Open the case, take the hard drive, memory, logic board completely apart, clean it with isopropyl alcohol, and let it dry for a few days.
 
Minhoca said:
well....i'm doomed...

I was turning on my macbook pro....it just was making the booting sound when i accedentaly drop a glass of soda in the keyboard....The mac just turned off....I'm turned it around and I waited till i dont see any soda in it...I tried to turn in on but after making the boot sound it just turn it self off....1 hour after I took his battery off and put it over a towel.....with the vent exit poiting down..

Will my macbook pro die? Or there's still a chance that hes ok?

P.S.- My parents are going to kill me.....
Click to expand...

If you bought it with your money, your screwed, if they bought it your screwed, and if it was theres and you fried, maybe the local recruiters office for the military can hide you for a 6 year hitch:D
 
Minhoca said:
well....i'm doomed...

I was turning on my macbook pro....it just was making the booting sound when i accedentaly drop a glass of soda in the keyboard....The mac just turned off....I'm turned it around and I waited till i dont see any soda in it...I tried to turn in on but after making the boot sound it just turn it self off....1 hour after I took his battery off and put it over a towel.....with the vent exit poiting down..

Will my macbook pro die? Or there's still a chance that hes ok?

P.S.- My parents are going to kill me.....
Click to expand...
You shouldn't have turned it on, i know its an awful thing to say but i think its your own stupid fault that your macbook is now probably broken. I'd take it into your nearest apple store and get it repaired.
 
jdee2wheels said:
I bought a powerbook on craigslist for $40 from a women who spilled a whole can of coke on it.

When I got it it wasn't really working at all, it would turn on for a few seconds and then die. I took the whole thing apart and there was sticky coke residue everywhere. I cleaned everything with rubbing alcohol and got to boot from an external drive. The internal hard drive was shot and the keys were sticky, but after replacing the hard drive and keyboard the thing is as good as new. Best $40 I ever spent!

I think you'd be surprised who resilient the logic board is. If it's not working there is a good chance that some of the dried up sticky soda is messing up a connection on the logic board. If you clean everything up, it might just work again.

That being said, macbook pros are a bit of a pain to take apart but you probably have nothing to loose at this point.
Click to expand...

I've got a story similar to that. A few years ago, a friend of mine spilled root beer on his Dell...twice. Yes, twice. He did it on accident the first time, and when he went to show a friend how it happened, he forgot there was still root beer in the can, and did it again! He called me and asked if there was anything I could do, so I took the thing apart. In the end, it needed a new keyboard, battery, and hard drive.

So, take it apart, and clean everything up. i'm assumming that your liquid submersion dots are screwed, so I recommend soaking the motherboard, keyboard, and top+bottom case in the tub for a few hours (REMOVE THE CMOS BATTERY IF YOU DO THIS). The only things I wouldnt do this with is the DVD drive, hard drive, and battery (obviously not the screen). It will get the gunk loose, and will not damage your laptop. Water can only damage it if its turned on. Once you get the sugary goop out of EVERYTHING, Dry it as best you can yourself, then let it sit for a few days. If at all possible, use distilled water to prevent minerals, but its not necessary as long as you dry the computer well yourself.

I know that sounds crazy, but it works and is 100% safe to do, I promise!

Anyways, whats your problem? the sound doesn't work in OSX but in Windows, or doesn't work at all? or OSX doesn't boot? I had a hard time understanding what you were trying to say. If the laptop turns on, consider yourself very lucky. Now stop using it and clean it out.

If you don't know what you're doing, get someone who does!!!!
 
I have an iMac thats off the ground =) I once spilt a thick smoothie all over the keyboard but I just rinsed it out under the tab and it worked just fine (and still does)
 
Any sort of liquids and electronics don't mix. But at the very least you learned a very important lesson. Move on.
 
hlysmksbtmn said:
You might want to consider a thinkpad: http://www.pc.ibm.com/europe/engineered/en/keyboard.html?europe&cc=europe

This "feature" is awesome. I spilled soda while my thinkpad was on and it just drained right out through the bottom. I never even turned off the computer! Every laptop ought to have this feature!
Click to expand...

I don't know of they still do, but lighting desks for Rock and Roll concerts used to have beer channels built in so when the roadies knocked their beers over it was diverted away from anything important and out the bottom of the desk.

I always thought laptops should work the same way.
 
NEVER turn on your device right after you spill liquids on it first. Dry it out for a few days and THEN test it.

Just sayin'.

Glad to hear it's working again though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back