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MP 1,1-5,1 Spilled drink on 2010 Mac Pro

Kipsley

Kipsley

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 12, 2015
95
23
Western Australia
Its been very hot in Australia and my fans have been revving pretty high, so I removed the side cover and use my standard house fan to help cool the machine down. This has kept my fans from over revving the all temp are normal.

But last night I spilled my drink to the floor next to my Mac Pro tower (with the side panel off) and some of the drink splashed into the computer and splashed across the Motherboard and the Processor board. The machine turned itself off as if the power had been pulled.

This morning I found the Mac is lifeless. Upon plugging it into the wall, I get two led lights on the motherboard lighting up red. These are the cpu a and cpu b lights (top first two LEDs) and they light up for less than half a second then go out. When I press the power button to start the machine, nothing at all happens. Nothing. No fans, no clicks. Its as if the machine is dead.

I have stripped the machine and cleaned everything, replaced the 3 volt battery, and I do have a trickle charge from the power supply going to the Mother board.

The Processor board took most of the liquid and some even got under the heat sink.

I take it I fried the Processor board and my CPU, but before I buy a new one (expensive), Im asking for opinions.

Thanks.
 
Kipsley said:
I have stripped the machine and cleaned everything, replaced the 3 volt battery, and I do have a trickle charge from the power supply going to the Mother board.

The Processor board took most of the liquid and some even got under the heat sink.

I take it I fried the Processor board and my CPU, but before I buy a new one (expensive), Im asking for opinions.

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Sorry to hear about the spilled drink your Mac Pro. I'm assuming your cMac Pro is from 2009 based on your signature. Thanks

Edit: Might as well have a technician check on your Mac Pro. ruslan120 pointed out may not be a good idea to swap/test out another processor tray as the motherboard might also have short circuited. Thanks
 
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That sounds like a bad idea... what if something on the motherboard shorted? It might cause a short in the new tray as well.
 
ruslan120 said:
That sounds like a bad idea... what if something on the motherboard shorted? It might cause a short in the new tray as well.
Click to expand...
Yeah you may be right. Thanks Might as well get a technician to check on the cMac Pro
 
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Take all apart and clean it with isopropyl alcohol. You can flood it with this pure alcohol and brush it. Take care of esd security of course.

After cleaning give it dry compressed air. And let it dry at least 48 hours.
 
Hello Kipsley,

did your drink contain sugar, milk, salt ?
Take Macschrauber´s advice, clean the MLB and processor board.
Keep in mind that depending on the used ssd device there will be liquid
under the ICs. This liquid has to be deluted with plenty of isopropyl or if not at hand
use some methylated spirit (risk of fire !).
If no compressed air is at hand take a vacuum cleaner with a small nozzle.
Take your time. If some liquid found its way under cpu socket, northbridge...
let the MLB and CPU tray dry out in a sunny place.

Wish you luck
Willow the wisp
 
Of course you must take off the heat sinks and apply new thermal paste.

For a quick power on test (hear it chime) you can let the heatsink go off for 10 seconds or so.
 
It was orange cordial. I have done as you said and cleaned the entire machine. I did remove the heatsink as well and if it does start, I shall only run it for a very short time (Just long enough to shut it down) then reapply the paste. I don't think enough splashed into the machine to reach the CPU. That looked clean, though the Processor Board took the brunt of the spill. I'll let you know how it goes.
 
Kipsley said:
It was orange cordial. I have done as you said and cleaned the entire machine. I did remove the heatsink as well and if it does start, I shall only run it for a very short time (Just long enough to shut it down) then reapply the paste. I don't think enough splashed into the machine to reach the CPU. That looked clean, though the Processor Board took the brunt of the spill. I'll let you know how it goes.
Click to expand...

If you get it back to life, I've found just directing a floor-fan in through the front grille has a pretty significant effect in dropping temperatures, and reducing internal fan speeds, without having to take off the side door.

Don't forget to clean in the RAM slots.
 
Ack. Sorry to hear about that mishap. I wish you the best with getting it working again. Spilling drinks on any of my equipment, especially equipmene with open ventilation grates or otherwise, is one of my worst fears. As a fellow 2009 Mac owner (mine's a MacBook), you have my best wishes.

The ideas here all sound good. I've never done any liquid damage repair myself, but I do know a little bit about what to do if it ever were to happen.
 
Left the machine open and in the sun outside. Still nothing. Everything is clean with no sign of the spill anymore, no sign of any actual shorts or burn marks.

On the Mother Board there is a large square microchip (about an inch by an inch) pretty much just left of centre. This got splashed on. The bulk of the spill was on the Processor Board and went under the heat sink but not far enough to impact the CPU. Heat sink was removed and everything was cleaned.

When power is supplied to the machine two red LEDs will flash briefly (less than one second) and these are the CPU A and CPU B LEDs (the very top ones). When the button on the Mother Board is pushed to verify trickle power, it lights up yellow as it should.

Pressing the main Power Button on front of machine has no effect at all. No fans, no clicks, nothing.

Given the fans plug into the Mother Board, should they run if the Mother Board is ok? I'm just wondering what I might need to replace. Mother Board or Processor Board? or even both?

Could the actual Power Button on the front of the machine be effected?

When power is disconnected I can hear a click as the power supply turns off.

My next day off of work is Monday March 9th, and I'll drop it into my local Computer Repair Shop if I can't figure it out. I'm just trying to avoid expensive bills.
 
IT'S ALIVE!!!!!

Just for kicks a plugged it in and pressed the go button...... it turned on!
I hooked it back up to the monitor and plugged in the keyboard, etc, and it's working fine.

..... then I remembered that I had the heatsink off, and so quickly turned it off again. I will buy some new heatsink paste and then everything will be fine.

So, to sum up:..... Machine had orange cordial splashed through it with side panel off exactly one week ago during a "Saturday night spilled drink" episode. Pulled apart and cleaned so all traces of spill were gone. Machine left for a week to "dry out". It goes (does the happy Kipsley dance).

Thanks for all the good advice everyone.
 
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Kipsley

I suggest moving it up off the floor ( dusty? ) if that is where it was when the accident happened, above cordial level . . 😇
Mac Pros must be hard to get in W.A.
 
Checked the northbridge and it's fine.

Mac was running great. I turned it off to go have dinner, and when I came back it would not switch on a again, so now I'm back to using the lappy once more.

No red lights showing.
It just won't go.

I'm going to leave it once more for a while as I suspect that the heat from it running has made some hidden remaining cordial liquefy (maybe under a microchip). Anyhow, when it does decide to go again, I'll just leave it going so it will eventually evaporate (or cook solid) whatever is left behind.
 
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