What to do with an non working black macbook - ex gf dropped oolong tea on it

[TheGoodGuy]

History:

So this girl i was dating (its her laptop, its with me now for the last god knows how long, we've long since broken up) dropped a big glass of oolong tea on her macbook (hit glass and it fell on it) while it was on. It fuzzed (according to her) and she called me in a panic. I asked her to shut it off, remove the battery and let it dry out. This was probably like May of last year.

Well after repeated drying (according to her) in the sun the laptop still wouldnt come on. So she gave it to me (it has my 80gb SATA hdd in it (her's died right before this oolong incident and i gave her my 80gb SATA hdd instead of her standard 120 - she had it for like 2 weeks at the most).

Anyway the laptop has been sitting in my closet all this time. Tonight while cleaning stuff out I saw it, i turned it on.

Problem: Does not turn on.

When i connect the magsafe connector it first goes orange and then green. If I hit the power button, the screen comes on for a flicker and goes off. I can hear hard drive power up and the cpu fan spinning inside. There is no other response. You can hold the power button down and it will power off. Also the magsafe connector flashes green/orange when i try power up (at times, it seemed to stay orange the last time - maybe it was finally charging).

It still does the same thing without the battery plugged in except the magsafe blinks orange / green.

So basically that laptop to me is DOA. However I would like to return it to her if i can fix it. I am not sure what may have gone bad. Apparently it was a significant amount of oolong tea. I can try let it sun out tomorrow in 70* weather in So.Cal but I doubt it would do much.

I do not know how to open this macbook up so a guide might help. Its not under apple care (we checked), so I can either open it up and salvage whatever I can (mostly my hdd) or try and poke around and fix it. Also I tried a neighbours white macbook's battery, nothing works. The black macbooks battery will not fit in the white one's slot (weird - i wonder if this battery has actually expanded)

Obviously it does power up and power down but nothing else. I am wonder what may have gone wrong. I am more of a PC/Linux guy than a mac guy so I am not completely aware of the little mac tricks.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Cliffs:

*Ex gf dropped oolong tea on laptop - let dry (apparently). Happened in around april last year.
* TUrned it on tonight, hdd powers up, cpu fan powers up, screen flickers. Nothing else. You can power off by pressing the button
* same deal with battery out.
* what do i do with it - how to fix?

 

[GfulDedFan]

Hard to say what fuzzed with the tea incident. Here's a website with some guides to get to the insides: iFixits MacBook Core 2 Duo Guides (see bottom of page) There is a similar guide within their selection for a Core Duo (earlier) model but from your description of hers coming with a stock 120GB HD, it's probably a Core 2 Duo. Also, the guides are probably identical since there wasn't that big of a change in the schematics of the models.
iFixit is also a pretty good place to find and buy parts but it would be hard to diagnose what needs replaced on yours/hers. But, at least you can figure out how to get your HD back.

 

[8767092]

This could get expensive to repair. Macs are expensive to repair just to start, but liquid damage is one of the worst things you can have happen.

We sometimes buy damaged Macs to repair for companies we consult for, but we won't buy any with liquid damage because of how much they cost to repair. Yours seems to be better than some I've seen because it has a reaction when powered on, but be prepared to spend a lot to repair it.

 

[Stachelsk]

You can practically guarantee the logic board has gone south, which will set you back a couple hundred to begin with. After you install a new logic board, there might be a few other things that need replacing as well (keyboard, trackpad, RAM, LCD backlight)...

 

[ptsube]

That does not sound good. I say part it out in Ebay. Verify the good parts, and list them on Ebay. You could make enough to get yourself a Mac Mini or something. I would guess your mainboard is fried. But between the LCD, top case, bottom case, battery, keyboard, Superdrive, and little components here and there, you could do quite well on Ebay.