Water damaged Macbook Air, receiving power and keyboard lighting up

[seyzna2]

Hi,

On Saturday I spilled coffee on my Macbook Air. It immediately shut off and I tried to turn it back on but nothing. I tried drying it off and even fanning it out. I took it into Apple and the representative said that it was totally destroyed and that it would take $800 to repair. I wrote the machine off and figured it wouldn't turn on again. However, two days later, if I hit the power button, the keyboard lights up and if I plug the power chord into it, the green light says that it is feeding it power. Now, I am not sure if this is a good sign or if there is any chance at salvaging the machine, but I figured that this would be a good place to ask. On Saturday after the spill it did nothing if I tried to turn it on. I am not sure if I should try to salvage this machine or not. Any thoughts? Any way I can potentially get this machine working again? Or perhaps at least get data off of it?

Thanks in advance.

 

[ftaok]

The SSD card might be salvageable. I think OWC sells an enclosure that you stick your SSD blade into and plug it into a USB3 slot.

Other parts might be salvaged as well. Maybe you could get some money for the parts and help fund a new MBA or other purchase.

The LCD is probably in good order and not damaged. The aluminum parts are definitely salvageable. Maybe the fans and other removable parts from the logic board.

I'd be weary of trying to salvage the keyboard, logic board, and battery.

Lastly, if Apple won't repair it (at least for less than $800), you might want to try and fix it yourself. You can take it apart and try to wash the component with distilled water. The coffee is acidic and that can't be good for the parts. If you use sugar or milk, that's really bad. The distilled water should be able to clean all the coffee off. you'd still probably want to get a new battery, though. So maybe it's not that cost effective.

One other thing, do you have accidental damage protection on it? Perhaps your credit card has automatic coverage of that type. I'm guessing you don't have insurance on it, otherwise you'd have gone that route first.

 

[Willo34]

ftaok said it all.

 

[esatamacmodular]

just got my 13" air fixed from water damage on an ebay service out of NYC for around $200. They apparently give you your money back if they can't fix it (but they fixed mine so I didn't get to test that guarantee). I still had trackpad issues that they tried to upsell me on after fixing the logic board, but I denied that service and just replaced a cable and its fine. If I were you I would message them on ebay, describe the state of your computer and hear what they say. Took about 2 weeks to get back in the mail. If you think your LCD is in good shape, then this might be your solution.