Water spilled on MacBook

[jutaval]

Hi guys,

Sorry in advance for any mistakes, but I'm brazilian and my english is far from perfect.

3 days ago I (stupid, I know) spilled a cup of water all over my MacBook keyboard. It shut down automatically. I dried all visible water and put it upside down. About 20 min later I opened it and dried all the water I saw inside and put in on a bag of tive for 3 days.

Today I tried to turn it on, but had no luck. Then I plugged the battery cable and it worked!! The keyboard was weird but then got better. The battery was stuck on 6% and wouldnt charge more than that. I turned it off and some minutes later tried to turn on again but it didnt 🙁 now I put again in the bag filled with rice.

Oh,the light on the battery cable was never on! Even when the MacBook worked.

Any ideas of what I should do?

Thanks!!

 

[hobowankenobi]

Hi -


Based on the symptoms, it sounds like there was damage to the logic board around the area where power and battery charging is handled. Sometimes there is corrosion that can be cleaned off, but often the damaged part of the board must be repaired or replaced.

Neither option is something a regular user or a computer tech can do.

Board level repair is very specialized, and not easy to find someone good, and is not cheap. Apple does not repair machines in this situation, they will just replace the logic board, which can be something like $400 here in the U.S.

I wish I had better news for you. 🙁

If you were in the U.S., I would suggest a repair shop like these guys.

 

[jutaval]

Hi -


Based on the symptoms, it sounds like there was damage to the logic board around the area where power and battery charging is handled. Sometimes there is corrosion that can be cleaned off, but often the damaged part of the board must be repaired or replaced.

Neither option is something a regular user or a computer tech can do.

Board level repair is very specialized, and not easy to find someone good, and is not cheap. Apple does not repair machines in this situation, they will just replace the logic board, which can be something like $400 here in the U.S.

I wish I had better news for you. 🙁

If you were in the U.S., I would suggest a repair shop like these guys.

Oh no 🙁 well, here I don't think it would be worthy to fix it...

But do you know why it turned on? It seemed so fine until I turned it off!

 

[User%Name]

Could be there was no water in any sensitive areas, and then water might have gone there after you turned it on and then off. I would suggest you buy 99% alcohol and then thoroughly clean the motherboard with alcohol so that you don't end up getting any more corrosion.

It could be other possibilities too. What model year is your laptop? Are you in the US?

Edit: just read you are from Brazil...

 

[jutaval]

My friend saw that the logic board was damaged in the battery area(?) is a MacBook Air 13'.

Do you think it can be fixed? Or just replacing it?

He already cleaned it and there's no sign of any corrosion anymore.

 

[Cyber735]

Hi,

I went through this about a month ago.

Long story short, you've voided your warranty. You have two choices,

1. Pay a huge amount to replace the whole logic board.
2. Pay a repair shop $90 - $200 (worst case scenario) to make repairs to the actual logic board.

When this happened to me and I googled for a solution, everywhere I looked said it was the end of the road for my macbook, and that the logic board HAD to be replaced. Here's what you do:

Find a repair shop, preferably that specialises in apple repairs, and ask do they do component level repairs to the logic board. If not, keep looking. You'll find somewhere that will chemically clean the logic board and repair the individual components. Do not pay anything on top of their standard service charge unless they manage to save it.

In the mean time, don't try to turn it on!

Good luck

 

[vickar]

My friend saw that the logic board was damaged in the battery area(?) is a MacBook Air 13'.

Do you think it can be fixed? Or just replacing it?

He already cleaned it and there's no sign of any corrosion anymore.

Before you take it to any repair shop, first try to clean it with special treatment for PCB (Printed Circuit Board – that very thing the logic board itself is without components soldered) cleaning. After liquid damages, the corrosion may and often happens UNDER the elements soldered to PCB because water and other liquids flow everywhere, nothing to say the water then evaporates leaving substances (mostly salts) dissolved in it on the surfaces. Thereby it's not enough to just remove water or clean visible corrosion, you want to use special treatments purposed for such a residues removal.

One very popular solution in the electronics world is the "Flux Off" solvents compound (see the picture). Don't know if it's on sale in your country, but you may try to look for some similar treatments Brazil, shouldn't this one available.

Before you spray it over the board, you want to make sure that no plastic components affected! Carefully try with very small drops on any plastics on the board (connector's housings, clamps, fasteners, holders – whatever made from plastic and can't be removed without desoldering from the PCB). If some of the parts are subject to treatment activity, cover those with sticky tape to avoid any contact with the treatment.

Generally, you want to spray it over the board everywhere, allowing it to flow under the soldered components and then back out to dissolve and wash out any kind of corrosion and active chemicals. You are about to literally wash the PCB (logic board) with the treatment! Once applied to the PCB, the solvent evaporates with chemicals dissolved in it, thus you need to apply it several times, so as much chemicals removed as possible.

This is the first thing that any repair shop would try to before resoldering / reballing or replacing any damaged components on a PCB. So if you are lucky, it will cost you just a fraction of the price, should repair staff would have this job done.

 

[Beachguy]

Jutaval, you've already gotten excellent advice on your Mac. I just wanted to say that your English is excellent- better than most native speakers!

I hope you get your Mac working perfectly again.

 

[Ian.C]

I have fixed lots of these, if it was only water there a better chance to fix it. The fix rate I have discovered is around 70% fix rate.

Usually when water is spilt on the keyboard water takes time to enter the more sensitive parts inside.

The first thing to stop working is various keys on the keyboard and this is because on the underneath of the trackpad is a pcb board that carried power and the use controller chips for the keyboards various controls. I cable comes from the logic board to one side of the trackpad and then from the trackpad back to the logic board. This is why it worked for a while and now will no longer power on.

You could have blown the power circuit but without seeing it there's no really way of telling.

The best thing to do is disassemble the MacBook and remove the logic board and trackpad and clean them with 99% achohol this will remove any corrosion that has already begun, use a very soft brush and don't use to much pressure. The brush will remove an corrosion that has started and remove any remaining water residue that might still be there

Once cleaned put it back together and see if it powers on. The trackpad will defiantly need replacing and keyboard. So if the MacBook powers on again keyboard snd trackpad may not.

Use a magnifying glass to identify any areas that are affected and make sure they are cleaned.

If any liquid is split on any laptop you should power off imeadiately and strip it down and clean this will give you the best chance of a fully working machine

Hope this helps

Ian

 

[jutaval]

Hi -


Based on the symptoms, it sounds like there was damage to the logic board around the area where power and battery charging is handled. Sometimes there is corrosion that can be cleaned off, but often the damaged part of the board must be repaired or replaced.

Neither option is something a regular user or a computer tech can do.

Board level repair is very specialized, and not easy to find someone good, and is not cheap. Apple does not repair machines in this situation, they will just replace the logic board, which can be something like $400 here in the U.S.

I wish I had better news for you. 🙁

If you were in the U.S., I would suggest a repair shop like these guys.

Hi!

Thank you!

Just an update: I took it to a repair shop and in about 2 weeks they fixed it! It costed me R$1.000,00 which is about $300,00. A new one here in Brazil is around 2.800,00 dollars. My keyboard light never worked again, but I think it was worth it after all, once (except from that) it's been almost a year and it works perfectly 🙂
[doublepost=1473095289][/doublepost]

Could be there was no water in any sensitive areas, and then water might have gone there after you turned it on and then off. I would suggest you buy 99% alcohol and then thoroughly clean the motherboard with alcohol so that you don't end up getting any more corrosion.

It could be other possibilities too. What model year is your laptop? Are you in the US?

Edit: just read you are from Brazil...

Hi!

Thank you!

Just an update: I took it to a repair shop and in about 2 weeks they fixed it! It costed me R$1.000,00 which is about $300,00. A new one here in Brazil is around 2.800,00 dollars. My keyboard light never worked again, but I think it was worth it after all, once (except from that) it's been almost a year and it works perfectly 🙂
[doublepost=1473095478][/doublepost]

Hi,

I went through this about a month ago.

Long story short, you've voided your warranty. You have two choices,

1. Pay a huge amount to replace the whole logic board.
2. Pay a repair shop $90 - $200 (worst case scenario) to make repairs to the actual logic board.

When this happened to me and I googled for a solution, everywhere I looked said it was the end of the road for my macbook, and that the logic board HAD to be replaced. Here's what you do:

Find a repair shop, preferably that specialises in apple repairs, and ask do they do component level repairs to the logic board. If not, keep looking. You'll find somewhere that will chemically clean the logic board and repair the individual components. Do not pay anything on top of their standard service charge unless they manage to save it.

In the mean time, don't try to turn it on!

Good luck

Hello

Thank you for the tips! I decided to take it to a repair shop and they fixed it! it costed me $300,00. it's been almost a year and it works perfectly (except for the keyboard light) 🙂
[doublepost=1473095613][/doublepost]

Before you take it to any repair shop, first try to clean it with special treatment for PCB (Printed Circuit Board – that very thing the logic board itself is without components soldered) cleaning. After liquid damages, the corrosion may and often happens UNDER the elements soldered to PCB because water and other liquids flow everywhere, nothing to say the water then evaporates leaving substances (mostly salts) dissolved in it on the surfaces. Thereby it's not enough to just remove water or clean visible corrosion, you want to use special treatments purposed for such a residues removal.

One very popular solution in the electronics world is the "Flux Off" solvents compound (see the picture). Don't know if it's on sale in your country, but you may try to look for some similar treatments Brazil, shouldn't this one available.

Before you spray it over the board, you want to make sure that no plastic components affected! Carefully try with very small drops on any plastics on the board (connector's housings, clamps, fasteners, holders – whatever made from plastic and can't be removed without desoldering from the PCB). If some of the parts are subject to treatment activity, cover those with sticky tape to avoid any contact with the treatment.

Generally, you want to spray it over the board everywhere, allowing it to flow under the soldered components and then back out to dissolve and wash out any kind of corrosion and active chemicals. You are about to literally wash the PCB (logic board) with the treatment! Once applied to the PCB, the solvent evaporates with chemicals dissolved in it, thus you need to apply it several times, so as much chemicals removed as possible.

This is the first thing that any repair shop would try to before resoldering / reballing or replacing any damaged components on a PCB. So if you are lucky, it will cost you just a fraction of the price, should repair staff would have this job done.

Before you take it to any repair shop, first try to clean it with special treatment for PCB (Printed Circuit Board – that very thing the logic board itself is without components soldered) cleaning. After liquid damages, the corrosion may and often happens UNDER the elements soldered to PCB because water and other liquids flow everywhere, nothing to say the water then evaporates leaving substances (mostly salts) dissolved in it on the surfaces. Thereby it's not enough to just remove water or clean visible corrosion, you want to use special treatments purposed for such a residues removal.

One very popular solution in the electronics world is the "Flux Off" solvents compound (see the picture). Don't know if it's on sale in your country, but you may try to look for some similar treatments Brazil, shouldn't this one available.

Before you spray it over the board, you want to make sure that no plastic components affected! Carefully try with very small drops on any plastics on the board (connector's housings, clamps, fasteners, holders – whatever made from plastic and can't be removed without desoldering from the PCB). If some of the parts are subject to treatment activity, cover those with sticky tape to avoid any contact with the treatment.

Generally, you want to spray it over the board everywhere, allowing it to flow under the soldered components and then back out to dissolve and wash out any kind of corrosion and active chemicals. You are about to literally wash the PCB (logic board) with the treatment! Once applied to the PCB, the solvent evaporates with chemicals dissolved in it, thus you need to apply it several times, so as much chemicals removed as possible.

This is the first thing that any repair shop would try to before resoldering / reballing or replacing any damaged components on a PCB. So if you are lucky, it will cost you just a fraction of the price, should repair staff would have this job done.

Hi!

Thank you so much for the tips!

I took it to a repair shop and in about 2 weeks they fixed it! It costed me R$1.000,00 which is about $300,00. A new one here in Brazil is around 2.800,00 dollars. My keyboard light never worked again, but I think it was worth it after all, once (except from that) it's been almost a year and it works perfectly 🙂
[doublepost=1473095658][/doublepost]

Jutaval, you've already gotten excellent advice on your Mac. I just wanted to say that your English is excellent- better than most native speakers!

I hope you get your Mac working perfectly again.

Thank you 🙂
[doublepost=1473095713][/doublepost]

I have fixed lots of these, if it was only water there a better chance to fix it. The fix rate I have discovered is around 70% fix rate.

Usually when water is spilt on the keyboard water takes time to enter the more sensitive parts inside.

The first thing to stop working is various keys on the keyboard and this is because on the underneath of the trackpad is a pcb board that carried power and the use controller chips for the keyboards various controls. I cable comes from the logic board to one side of the trackpad and then from the trackpad back to the logic board. This is why it worked for a while and now will no longer power on.

You could have blown the power circuit but without seeing it there's no really way of telling.

The best thing to do is disassemble the MacBook and remove the logic board and trackpad and clean them with 99% achohol this will remove any corrosion that has already begun, use a very soft brush and don't use to much pressure. The brush will remove an corrosion that has started and remove any remaining water residue that might still be there

Once cleaned put it back together and see if it powers on. The trackpad will defiantly need replacing and keyboard. So if the MacBook powers on again keyboard snd trackpad may not.

Use a magnifying glass to identify any areas that are affected and make sure they are cleaned.

If any liquid is split on any laptop you should power off imeadiately and strip it down and clean this will give you the best chance of a fully working machine

Hope this helps

Ian

Hi Ian,

Thank you!!

I took it to a repair shop and in about 2 weeks they fixed it! It costed me R$1.000,00 which is about $300,00. A new one here in Brazil is around 2.800,00 dollars. My keyboard light never worked again, but I think it was worth it after all, once (except from that) it's been almost a year and it works perfectly 🙂

 

[mb200k]

Hi!

Thank you!

Just an update: I took it to a repair shop and in about 2 weeks they fixed it! It costed me R$1.000,00 which is about $300,00. A new one here in Brazil is around 2.800,00 dollars. My keyboard light never worked again, but I think it was worth it after all, once (except from that) it's been almost a year and it works perfectly 🙂
[doublepost=1473095289][/doublepost]

Hi!

Thank you!

Just an update: I took it to a repair shop and in about 2 weeks they fixed it! It costed me R$1.000,00 which is about $300,00. A new one here in Brazil is around 2.800,00 dollars. My keyboard light never worked again, but I think it was worth it after all, once (except from that) it's been almost a year and it works perfectly 🙂
[doublepost=1473095478][/doublepost]

Hello

Thank you for the tips! I decided to take it to a repair shop and they fixed it! it costed me $300,00. it's been almost a year and it works perfectly (except for the keyboard light) 🙂
[doublepost=1473095613][/doublepost]



Hi!

Thank you so much for the tips!

I took it to a repair shop and in about 2 weeks they fixed it! It costed me R$1.000,00 which is about $300,00. A new one here in Brazil is around 2.800,00 dollars. My keyboard light never worked again, but I think it was worth it after all, once (except from that) it's been almost a year and it works perfectly 🙂
[doublepost=1473095658][/doublepost]


Thank you 🙂
[doublepost=1473095713][/doublepost]


Hi Ian,

Thank you!!

I took it to a repair shop and in about 2 weeks they fixed it! It costed me R$1.000,00 which is about $300,00. A new one here in Brazil is around 2.800,00 dollars. My keyboard light never worked again, but I think it was worth it after all, once (except from that) it's been almost a year and it works perfectly 🙂

Im also from Brasil and spilled water on my MacBook air some time ago, i cleaned it and everything was working fine but now the battery info shows that i need to verify my battery, and the charger light is always orange, even when fully charged. Where is the repair shop that fixed your mac?
thanks!

 

[jutaval]

Im also from Brasil and spilled water on my MacBook air some time ago, i cleaned it and everything was working fine but now the battery info shows that i need to verify my battery, and the charger light is always orange, even when fully charged. Where is the repair shop that fixed your mac?
thanks!

Hi,

I live in Rio so I repaired in a shop at Edifício Central (in Carioca, downtown). I don't remember the name, but if you want it I can look it up. Good luck!

 

[mb200k]

Hi,

I live in Rio so I repaired in a shop at Edifício Central (in Carioca, downtown). I don't remember the name, but if you want it I can look it up. Good luck!

I sent you a PM