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Water Damage - need help

G

GutterPhenom16

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Of course my first post on here is about the dumbest thing I've done in a long time. Wall of text commence!

A few days ago I was watching Netflix on my 13" MacBook Pro and I spilled quite a bit of water on it. It immediately shut off.

I panicked, disconnected the laptop from the charger and dried it with a bath towel. That wasn't enough for me so I went upstairs and used a blow dryer (on the low setting and from a distance) and slowly tried to dry up any water on/in my keyboard.

A few minutes after I hit the power button on a sink handle, it actually turned on, but then it shut right off. Some time passes and I continue to dry it out with te blow dryer.

I end up taking the bottom off and patting down the components with paper towels to soak up any water (there was a little bit in there). I knew there was no hope so I just left te computer in my room and let it air dry for a while. I went to work and came home with some rice to do the rice trick for any remaining water. I left it in a sealed garbage bag for 3 days and took it out to no avail. When I plugged in the charger it was dim green.

Since then its been sitting untouched in a desk drawer. This is the 5th day it's been dead.

I was using my brothers laptop tonight when he asked me where my laptop was. He found it and asked me to had him the charger. I told him that it would just show dim green. He plugs it in and it actually popped up as yellow, as if it were charging. The little white light at the front blinked too. I told Him to wait but he pressed the power on anyways. It turned on ad loaded up for a while. It actually got to the main screen and was saying some stuff like "the date is set before January 1st 2009 this could cause problems with some apps" and i thought all was good.. After a minute it shut off again.

Now I have it not plugged in and just sitting here... What should I do? Im pretty sure that last start up was the last time itll ever start, but thats what i said after the water damaged it

I was going to bring it to an apple store tomorrow but if this is just about to fix itself I don't want to waste money. Should I bring it to the store and see what the genius has to say?
 
It's liquid damage, what can you expect? At least logic board, by the sound of it. Possibly, battery, HDD, top case... How old is the machine and how much money do you want to throw at it?
 
YEAH LOGIC BOARD IS PRICEY ALMOST BETTER whoops.

Better off saving for a new mac and just transferring your files and maybe you wont drink next to your computer from now on?

Not trying to be an ass just saying 😉
 
Genius will suggest a logic board and HD replacement, a very expensive repair. It's safe to say that the logic board is definitely damaged. Depending on your model, you may be able to buy one for cheaper on eBay and do it yourself.
 
It's a year old. Just outside of the warranty although water damage and stupidity aren't covered >_<

I would throw as much as a grand in repairs for it. Otherwise I'll save the other couple hundred and just get a new one. How much does a new logic board cost usually?

Edit.

I also don't think the battery is busted. I let it charge for about 35 minutes and the little green lights on the side are lit up half way. That sounds about right charging wise. But the white light on the front won't turn on anymore
 
GutterPhenom16 said:
It's a year old. Just outside of the warranty although water damage and stupidity aren't covered >_<

I would throw as much as a grand in repairs for it. Otherwise I'll save the other couple hundred and just get a new one. How much does a new logic board cost usually?
Click to expand...

Cost depends really on if the Apple Store gives you exchange pricing on liquid damaged parts, if they do and depending on the processor $500-600. If they don't give exchange (which you are not supposed to on accidental damage), then $1000-1100. That's just for the part. If water went down through the keyboard, etc, I'd expect to add another $150 for top case.
 
As others have said you are going to have to look to get it repaired. If you are willing to throw down a grand or so, you may be able to cover it - it all depends on what was actually affected by the liquid though. You could be looking at the price of a new laptop essentially, so it's best to get a quote and see what you're in for before you make any decisions.
 
Dark Void said:
As others have said you are going to have to look to get it repaired. If you are willing to throw down a grand or so, you may be able to cover it - it all depends on what was actually affected by the liquid though. You could be looking at the price of a new laptop essentially, so it's best to get a quote and see what you're in for before you make any decisions.
Click to expand...

Thanks. Yeah I was actually shocked when the thing started up last night. But the only thing that seems to be working now is the battery.

I may just have to save my checks for the next few weeks
 
GutterPhenom16 said:
Thanks. Yeah I was actually shocked when the thing started up last night. But the only thing that seems to be working now is the battery.

I may just have to save my checks for the next few weeks
Click to expand...

Yeah, unfortunately so. If the damage is high, perhaps you could consider another route instead of paying a huge repair bill. It's just something to think about.
 
I'd buy the same era machine refurb or through Craigslist/Kijiji... Refurb will give you 1 year warranty again and both are possibly going to be cheaper than the repair.
 
G-Mo said:
I'd buy the same era machine refurb or through Craigslist/Kijiji... Refurb will give you 1 year warranty again and both are possibly going to be cheaper than the repair.
Click to expand...

When you say refurb. You mean a laptop that was busted like mine but is all fixed up now?
 
Update

I pressed the power button just to see what would happen and it actually ran. It's running right now but my keyboard will not work. I know - shocker.

It has all the apps I use and the files that I had on my desktop. I ran a movie file and the sound is all good and the picture is ok. The mouse and keyboard seem to be the only things that need replacing. This is unbelievable.
 
GutterPhenom16 said:
Update

I pressed the power button just to see what would happen and it actually ran. It's running right now but my keyboard will not work. I know - shocker.

It has all the apps I use and the files that I had on my desktop. I ran a movie file and the sound is all good and the picture is ok. The mouse and keyboard seem to be the only things that need replacing. This is unbelievable.
Click to expand...

Hopefully it lasts. 🙂
 
Dark Void said:
Hopefully it lasts. 🙂
Click to expand...

Yeah, that's the thing. Since it's had water damage, there's no guarantees that it will stay up and running. I'd take this opportunity to make sure you have a backup of everything, because it might be running on borrowed time. Whenever there's liquid damage, it could run fine (or at least mostly fine) for years, or it could die next week. Sounds like you might need to get it looked at for the keyboard anyways...you could always ask the repair place to check everything else out and let you know what they think. Good luck!
 
Put it in a bowel of rice and cover it in rice. Leave it for 24-48 hours. Then try it. If that doesn't sort it then its a repair job.
 
Dark Void said:
He already put it in a bag of rice.
Click to expand...

Yeah the rice was my last drying technique. I left it out on my desk with the window open last night. And I guess the cold did something that finally kicked it on.

I'm going to leave it off for now, turn it bak on for a little, then off, recharge the battery, just slowly ramp it up to how it was running before the spill.

The trackpad is doing this thing where normally it would scroll but it zooms the entire screen now. I tried a plug-in mouse and it's the same thing. So I'm guaranteeing something big is still wrong, but it's better than the whole thing being dead
 
GutterPhenom16 said:
The trackpad is doing this thing where normally it would scroll but it zooms the entire screen now. I tried a plug-in mouse and it's the same thing. So I'm guaranteeing something big is still wrong, but it's better than the whole thing being dead
Click to expand...

I personally would make a backup quick. Water has its way of getting into everything and eventually the laptop will bite the dust I think.

Good luck though! 🙁
 
stuaz said:
I personally would make a backup quick. Water has its way of getting into everything and eventually the laptop will bite the dust I think.

Good luck though! 🙁
Click to expand...

Doing a backup as I type this on my phone. Te original backup was 150 gigs. I realized it was putting all my music an shows onto the external hard drive as well. I excluded those folders and I'm down to a 30 gig backup lol
 
Update 2:

its been about 12 hours since the thing turned on. The only thing that really was bugging me was the fact that my trackpad was really screwy.. it would zoom in the screen when i tried to scroll down files, it would right-click everything i touched.. just being annoying - (wasnt really expecting it to be perfect lol) - and the only keys that would work were the volume up/down, next/previous track, command, and option...

I actually plugged in a keyboard to see if the computer would recognize a USB keyboard; its working like a charm. I plugged in the keyboard, and can type no problem, it stopped that annoying mouse thing, and now its acting entirely like it used to..

im just going to go out and get a cheap little keyboard to use on my laptop, and just hope it stays working the way it is now
 
If you're willing to throw a G in for repairs, why not buy a new one instead!

Apple.com , get education pricing, buy the 2012 MBP 13" for $1099 + tax with a free $100 Apple GC that you can sell at Plastic Jungle for about $90 in cash.

Sell the damaged MBP for parts on eBay or Craigs. I'm sure you'll end up with a brand new MBP for less than a grand 😉

With a new one you get USB 3, better processor, better thermals, free upgrade to ML, much better iGPU, full warranty, faster RAM, and better resale (if that's a factor).
 
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