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eimis993

macrumors member
Original poster
Nov 24, 2013
81
12
Hi! Yesterday I have spilled coke on my macbook right side of keyboard. After that I immediately turned laptop off,disconnected everything,cleaned water and turned upside down. After few hours I turned computer on and everything worked, except for keyboard lightning, right side of keyboard doesn't light, o at least lights but not bright at all compared to middle or left side. What I suppose to do now? Do I have to worry about other parts of the laptop, will it continue to work as it is now, because now everything seems to be fine..
 
Likely the computer will go south eventually and your warranty is gone.

I would have powered off immediately.

Some people recommend dismantle then clean with iso alcohol to clean up the gunk. Coke is a nasty thing to electronics. It's going to be hard to be sure it's really clean unless you dismantle and clean.
 
Likely the computer will go south eventually and your warranty is gone.

I would have powered off immediately.

Some people recommend dismantle then clean with iso alcohol to clean up the gunk. Coke is a nasty thing to electronics. It's going to be hard to be sure it's really clean unless you dismantle and clean.

My warranty anyway is gone because I bought it 1.5 year ago. So most likely laptop will fail anyway, or it will work for a long time? I have taken back cover to take a look how it is inside, everything seems to be normal there, no liquid..
 
along with oj, coke is one of the worst things you can spill on it - it will function fine for a little but then the keys will get stickier and stickier. If it's knocked out parts of the backlighting circuitry then it's absolutely going to give you further problems in the future.

If I were you I would learn how to disassemble it, make sure each part is cleaned properly and wait it out. I'm assuming it's a cMBP and not a retina meaning it's not that hard to take apart. Failing that, take it into apple - they'll charge you but at least it'll be as good as new.
 
At the very least, keep it on rice for a week, with a fan on. Disconnect the battery if at all possible.

I would recommend cleaning with Iso though, but getting coke out is a pain. Doable, and good for the computer and logic board (worth it), but a pain.
 
It's tricky with unremovable batteries... but I would of immediately got a vacuum cleaner with the small attachment on it.

Then pored some distilled water on it, and sucked it up again... rice doesn't do anything... unless you're planning to eat it.

Locked bag + desiccant.
 
It's tricky with unremovable batteries... but I would of immediately got a vacuum cleaner with the small attachment on it.

Then pored some distilled water on it, and sucked it up again... rice doesn't do anything... unless you're planning to eat it.

Locked bag + desiccant.

I dont thiks that rice would help because anyway its suppose to be dry inside, its been about 35 h from accident.. The keys were sticky, but I have cleaned them without disassembling with achohol, now they arent sticky. So you think it is very important to disassembly all parts of the machine, and clean everything, because it will anyway would make harm to the laptop in the future? One apple expert sayd that from his experience it will be ok without cleaning.
Anyway, thakns everyone for replies!
 
I dont thiks that rice would help because anyway its suppose to be dry inside, its been about 35 h from accident.. The keys were sticky, but I have cleaned them without disassembling with achohol, now they arent sticky. So you think it is very important to disassembly all parts of the machine, and clean everything, because it will anyway would make harm to the laptop in the future? One apple expert sayd that from his experience it will be ok without cleaning.
Anyway, thakns everyone for replies!

The problem is the sugar, water and acids in the drink corrode the parts, and it just needs 0.1mm to short and it could short any component at any time... you need to flush the laptop as best you can without further damage.

It all depends how much liquid got through... if not enough to get through to the mobo... don't worry. If enough to get through, then you need to take some action.

Mineral oil bath would do it... but it maybe leaking oil for a long time. I would either use distilled water or a mixture of distilled water + alcohol, saturate the area with the laptop inverted, suck it up with a vacuum, then use desiccant and don't use the notebook for a couple days.

A colleague spilt beer on his notebook and 2 weeks later it broke, I took it apart and noticed something sticky, then he remembered.
1st it was just the kb and issues booting, then the wifi, then the VGA.

The vacuum thing sounds extreme... but I've used it to get sand out of a $3k (weather sealed) lens.
 
hey, i got a similar problem over here on my late 2013rmbp :(
a few drops of water (not much) dripped on some of my keys. turned the computer off immediately and wiped it dry, but the affected keys are not lit as bright as the nonaffected keys any longer. this happened about 2 hours ago. so i removed the keys und the clips carefully and soaked up what was behind, but it appears that some water got underneath this "sort of plastic cover" that covers the backlight leds and i cant get the wetness out of there. i only tried very gently of course but it didnt work. you guys got any suggestions? how should i proceed? turn it in for repair? cant stand those unlit keys amongst the bright ones. or will it dry up by itself and everythings fine tomorrow? apart from this every key works just as its supposed to by the way. its just the backlight of the affected keys :(
please excuse my bad english :/
 
so after 5 days, laptop still works ok, no problem at all except that right side of the keyboard lights still not working properly.
 
hey, i got a similar problem over here on my late 2013rmbp :(
a few drops of water (not much) dripped on some of my keys. turned the computer off immediately and wiped it dry, but the affected keys are not lit as bright as the nonaffected keys any longer. this happened about 2 hours ago. so i removed the keys und the clips carefully and soaked up what was behind, but it appears that some water got underneath this "sort of plastic cover" that covers the backlight leds and i cant get the wetness out of there. i only tried very gently of course but it didnt work. you guys got any suggestions? how should i proceed? turn it in for repair? cant stand those unlit keys amongst the bright ones. or will it dry up by itself and everythings fine tomorrow? apart from this every key works just as its supposed to by the way. its just the backlight of the affected keys :(
please excuse my bad english :/

If its gotten behind the cover, wait at least 5 days before turning it back on. If you wait there is a good chance that the water will all dry out and not do a lot of damage. If you also have the right tools go to ifixit.com and see how to disconnect the battery- this helps ensure no more corrosion will happen due to electrolysis.
 
I've seen this done to a few macs (not mine or by me luckily :) ) and they all survived, surprisingly. However, the ones I have looked at have always had water inside them. I'd recommend as a minimum taking off the bottom case and having a look (if you can) - you can at least check to see if any water that has leaked in there.

The keyboard seems to give some protection - the backlight is part of it and has a plastic sheeting behind it.

I hope your keyboard is OK as replacing it is a massive pain, if I remember correctly it's something like 30 of the tiniest screws you can imagine, after you've removed all the drives and the logic board!
 
I've seen this done to a few macs (not mine or by me luckily :) ) and they all survived, surprisingly. However, the ones I have looked at have always had water inside them. I'd recommend as a minimum taking off the bottom case and having a look (if you can) - you can at least check to see if any water that has leaked in there.

The keyboard seems to give some protection - the backlight is part of it and has a plastic sheeting behind it.

I hope your keyboard is OK as replacing it is a massive pain, if I remember correctly it's something like 30 of the tiniest screws you can imagine, after you've removed all the drives and the logic board!

So after month or so, macbook is still working perfectly, except for keyboard lighting. I think that water didn't reached logic board. So what do you think, will Mac continue to work? Thanks
 
So after month or so, macbook is still working perfectly, except for keyboard lighting. I think that water didn't reached logic board. So what do you think, will Mac continue to work? Thanks

Of course, it should be fine for some time. People comment on reduced lifespan of any water damaged circuitry and claim high sugar drinks like coke accelerate the decay of PCB traces and components. I have no experience of this and haven't seen anyone update on a water case further down the line. No saying it doesn't happen, just i haven't seen it personally.

I'm sure it makes logical sense to expect shorter lifespan but when/if that times comes within your ownership you may just have to replace the keyboard. If the power button is affected you may think the laptop is dead if that button stops working too but it might just be a simple keyboard replacement, at which point you could check out the logic board beneath to check for signs of damage.

I wouldn't worry about it for now, unless the keyboard is bothering you keep using as normal unless you are feeling adventurous and would like to dismantle, inspect and clean.
 
Of course, it should be fine for some time. People comment on reduced lifespan of any water damaged circuitry and claim high sugar drinks like coke accelerate the decay of PCB traces and components. I have no experience of this and haven't seen anyone update on a water case further down the line. No saying it doesn't happen, just i haven't seen it personally.

I'm sure it makes logical sense to expect shorter lifespan but when/if that times comes within your ownership you may just have to replace the keyboard. If the power button is affected you may think the laptop is dead if that button stops working too but it might just be a simple keyboard replacement, at which point you could check out the logic board beneath to check for signs of damage.

I wouldn't worry about it for now, unless the keyboard is bothering you keep using as normal unless you are feeling adventurous and would like to dismantle, inspect and clean.

I just have opened back cover of the mbp and checked there , but I didn't saw any water damage or something. As for disassebling Im not good in that things at all , also Im considering to bring laptop for repair in an authorised apple serves, but it would cost me about 200-250 euros and Im thinking that keyboard lighting is not worth that amount of money because all key works perfectly. So I would rather buy nexus 7 than pay over 200 for lighting :)
 
So after month or so, macbook is still working perfectly, except for keyboard lighting. I think that water didn't reached logic board. So what do you think, will Mac continue to work? Thanks

I'd think if it's still going now, your mac will probably be fine. If you aren't too sure about repairing things, don't try the keyboard job - it wouldn't be a fun introduction to laptop repair.

Hope your laptop continues to work!
 
I'd think if it's still going now, your mac will probably be fine. If you aren't too sure about repairing things, don't try the keyboard job - it wouldn't be a fun introduction to laptop repair.

Hope your laptop continues to work!

Thanks! I hope so too :)
 
Thanks! I hope so too :)

After almost 4 months laptop still works perfectly, keyboard keys seems to get rid of that stickiness a bit, although I didn't used that much of mbp keyboard because Im using apple wireless keyboard most of the time, because laptop is connected to an external monitor. So what are the chances that it will last for a long time?
Thanks :)
 
Besides having spoiled the coke in the first place you seem to be in luck right now. It still works.

If it was mine and I cared about it and wanted to keep it I would not attempt to start it up again. I would get it right to a pro that is capable of a complete disassembly and cleanup.

All it takes it for one micro trace so small its hard to see under a microscope, to corrode or short and your MBP is toast.

Short of that there are lots of other things you could do. All of them put your MBP at risk.
 
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