Power symptoms of water damaged MacBook

[n_baldwin]

Wondering if anyone can diagnose these power symptoms on a MacBook 2.1 Early 2008, bought as water damaged. There does not seem to be any obvious visible damage.
When a MagSafe is connected, and without the power button being pressed, the fan spins, the sleep light comes on steadily, and power goes to the hard drive although it does not boot. This also happens without the keyboard connected, so is not due to a short circuit within the topcase. With a battery, nothing until the power switch is activated and then the same fan, light and HDD.

 

[eman]

Pull the logic board and clean it with high grade alcohol. The liquid spill is shorting the LB. Was the liquid spill water or a sugared drink?

 

[n_baldwin]

Thankyou, I will give that a try in the future. The spill was described as water, and without taking it apart there is no visible deposit or corrosion.

 

[fluffyx]

If you're planning to do a repair, it'd be worthwhile to read up on electrostatic discharge and purchase some basic equipment like a grounding mat and a grounding wrist strap so you can avoid damaging your computer further when you take it apart.

In a few cases, using a 99% alcohol solution will resolve problems, sometimes even permanently! In our liquid damage repairs, we use specialized circuit board repair equipment to permanently repair the traces in the main logic board and replace any subcomponents that might be damaged, so you don't run into problems down the road.

If you want to try to do it yourself, I suppose that soaking in alcohol overnight and then cleaning with a nonconductive tool would be your best bet. Cross your fingers! We boast a 100% liquid damage success rate.