What to expect after panicking and doing something stupid?

[sanboro]

So,

I spilled some water, not a big amount but enough to worry over my new MBP 13 unibody.

I recently moved and i dont have any furniture, my laptop was at the same level but a considerate distance from a glass of tap water. I accidentally spilled some water over the enter, f8, over the track pad at the base of the screen and the super drive slot. As i said, it was not a lot of water.

Then I panicked....

I turned off the computer, and turned it upside down. I couldnt take out the battery, because i cant take out the battery in this computer.

And when i realized the battery issue I panicked even more, So i used a hair dryer to dry the water out, not realizing it had only two options, off and very hot.

Without realizing, the heat made some keys to come off, basically they melted. I felt like a complete idiot.

then i turned the computer upside down then I dried the computer, and took it the next day to the shop. The guy turned on the computer for a moment and it seemed to be working ok. Even the burned keys were still responding, only the caps were jammed. I turned it off, and now is completely sunk into 10 kg of rice covered in a T shirt.

I bought the new keycaps and hopefully everything will be alright.

He told me that warranty is off, and that there is nothing to do there, he also told me that the damages can be seen in the coming weeks or months as the whatever residues of the water can create a short or something.

I understand that lying about me doing a spillage is kind of stupid because of the humidity sensors, (which i guess they were triggered, ive heard they are very sensible even to high humidity conditions or even sweaty hands).

So what can i expect? what is the potential damage here? How sensible are these humidity sensors? what to expect with the extreme heat over the keboard?


It only takes a moment to mess things up. I ve owned a PB for 4 years and nothing ever happened to it.. not a dent or a scratch or anything... took me 6 days to make a mess out of the new one.

Any comments about this?

 

[MasterDev]

Usually with something like this, only time can tell... (Beer in my case) My PC's ended up dying within months that it happened.

BUT, my MacBook Pro was ran over and got water splashed on it as well, and it's still running fine 7 months later.

So, that's my side, but others may have different opinions as well...

EDIT: Props for not lying and fessing up about your mistake! Not like others on here...

 

[sanboro]

what about the heat?

I have to say that i would have lyed, honestly. But i figure that telling the truth of what happened might make things faster when they make a diagnose (that in case of something happened).

Well i hope that just a splash isnt that problematic.

How long should i wait untill i turn on my computer?

 

[johnselmos]

what about the heat?

I have to say that i would have lyed, honestly. But i figure that telling the truth of what happened might make things faster when they make a diagnose (that in case of something happened).

Well i hope that just a splash isnt that problematic.

How long should i wait untill i turn on my computer?

Couple days should give it enough time to air dry, I would think. I've spilled small amounts of water on my MBP before, and it has yet to come back and bite me.

 

[goMac]

As a Mac tech, I have seen lots of people do the exact same thing for the exact same reason with hair driers, space heaters, and even fireplaces.

Likely the computer will be fine. If you took it to an actual Apple store, they could give you more information, and probably even get your warranty back in order by doing an Apple certified repair.

 

[sanboro]

As a Mac tech, I have seen lots of people do the exact same thing for the exact same reason with hair driers, space heaters, and even fireplaces.

Likely the computer will be fine. If you took it to an actual Apple store, they could give you more information, and probably even get your warranty back in order by doing an Apple certified repair.

well i guess i am not the only person who panicks...

about the mac repair. Anyway the keycaps were busted and in the shop they told me they dont have a way to repair that, other than changing the whole keyboard that will take about a week and like 500 euros.... that is like 800 us dollars.

So i bought the keycaps online and expect them to be in a couple of days, shall i put them on myself or shall i go to the shop and let them do it? i mean anyway with the spillage the warranty is over. so what can i do? would that make any difference?

thanks a lot for the encouraging news, the only one so far.

 

[goMac]

well i guess i am not the only person who panicks...

about the mac repair. Anyway the keycaps were busted and in the shop they told me they dont have a way to repair that, other than changing the whole keyboard that will take about a week and like 500 euros.... that is like 800 us dollars.

So i bought the keycaps online and expect them to be in a couple of days, shall i put them on myself or shall i go to the shop and let them do it? i mean anyway with the spillage the warranty is over. so what can i do? would that make any difference?

thanks a lot for the encouraging news, the only one so far.

I'm not sure you can replace individual keycaps on the unibodies. I know at my old work we had to replace the entire top case. But I dunno...

 

[sanboro]

I'm not sure you can replace individual keycaps on the unibodies. I know at my old work we had to replace the entire top case. But I dunno...

well i bought already the individual keycaps and i think its possible. I busted 10 keys, to buy those it was 120 us dollars. To repair the whole thing was more than 500 euros.

I am not throwing dollars out of the window and having this option seemed a little bit better than the repairing the whole thing.

hopefully everything will be alright.

 

[prodigee]

I'm not sure you can replace individual keycaps on the unibodies. I know at my old work we had to replace the entire top case. But I dunno...

You can replace the keys on the unibodies. I have done it in fact. I took one the keys off to clean it, and it is just like any other laptop the keys come off and can be put back on (of course this isnt easy because of how the keys are positioned and the fact that it is a laptop). None the less the keys are 100% user replaceable.

 

[sanboro]

well i will let you know in the coming days when the keys arrived and if hopefully my mac runs smoothly again.

 

[angemon89]

I think you'll be ok.

Might I suggest that you buy an mStand. It will keep your MBP relatively out of reach from accidental liquid spills. Now I drink around my MBP all the time because I'm not paranoid about spilling something anymore.

 

[Azathoth]

I think you'll be ok.

Might I suggest that you buy an mStand. It will keep your MBP relatively out of reach from accidental liquid spills. Now I drink around my MBP all the time because I'm not paranoid about spilling something anymore.

Or get apple to do something about the design of their laptops - other manufacturers seem to be able to make spillproof keyboards (e.g. Thinkpads), unless Apple expects their users to be wearing white gloves and cordonning off the immediate vicinty before opening up their MB to do some work.

To the OP - pure water should be ok - as long as the HDD and DVD drive didn't get wet then I wouldn't worry about it - I clean electronics with water to get the 'no-clean' flux off.


- Azathoth

Is still trying to decide if he should live in Appleland.

 

[Eshyn]

I'm not sure you can replace individual keycaps on the unibodies. I know at my old work we had to replace the entire top case. But I dunno...

You can, I've done it.

 

[goMac]

You can, I've done it.

Ok, we were Apple certified so it probably isn't condoned by Apple, but it's good to know it can be done. As far as I know, Apple's reasoning was that the new style keyboards weren't intended to be user serviceable.

To the OP - pure water should be ok - as long as the HDD and DVD drive didn't get wet then I wouldn't worry about it - I clean electronics with water to get the 'no-clean' flux off.

Actually, I would think that the HDD and the DVD drive would be the least vulnerable components, because they're sealed. I would be most worried about the logic board, but if it's not too bad flux cleaner can usually take care of it...

 

[sanboro]

I think i will buy a keyboard protector or something...
i ussually never put drinks on the same level of my computer or higher, but i moved to a new place and i dont have furniture so everything is kind of laying on the floor.. thats how it all happened.

right now the computer is in the middle of 9kgs of Rice. And it will stay there for a couple of days more, what still worries me is the fact that i melted the keys. Any idea of what might happen if the computer is exposed to high temperatures?

 

[GoCubsGo]

Couple days should give it enough time to air dry, I would think. I've spilled small amounts of water on my MBP before, and it has yet to come back and bite me.

The fact that he already turned it on means the damage, if any, has been done.

 

[sanboro]

I have to say that the sleek design of the unibodies makes them look really cool, but it sucks when you face situations when you need to take the battery out, i mean accidents can happen.

I love apple and I love their stuff, but these kind of situations are the reasons why some people never want to touch an Apple computer.

I ve checked that some computers like IBM have anti spill keyboards.. Apple has anti-humidity checkers to prevent people from claiming warranty when they spill liquids.

i mean if they spent so much time on putting the battery inside and making it look really cool (because they look really cool) with this unibody design, why not putting an anti spill keyboard? sometimes they are not the best at creating sensible and practical things.... slick, hip and cool yes... but practical I have to say not so much.

like we say in spanish "la moda no incomoda"

 

[sanboro]

The fact that he already turned it on means the damage, if any, has been done.

you mean when it was turned on in the shop????

 

[arogge]

I agree!

I have to say that the sleek design of the unibodies makes them look really cool, but it sucks when you face situations when you need to take the battery out, i mean accidents can happen.

How can there be no circuit access to shut off the power if needed? It might be hard to inspect the hardware if Apple doesn't want the user removing the battery. I wonder if any of these batteries might suddenly catch fire like the ones in some other laptops.

I ve checked that some computers like IBM have anti spill keyboards.. Apple has anti-humidity checkers to prevent people from claiming warranty when they spill liquids.

If that's the only purpose of those sensors, not to warn of such conditions but rather to keep users in check when making warranty claims, why didn't Apple spend the money on waterproofing instead? Any portable computer that is intended to be used outdoors should not be susceptible to damage by some water on its keyboard, or a drop from a carrying height, or normal vibrations, or humidity, or temperatures above 95 degrees F. It's like they expect their laptop users to cordon off an area around it, like in that old Apple commercial about the PowerMac G4, while sitting in an air conditioned office and keeping away anything that could potentially get the laptop wet.

 

[goMac]

If that's the only purpose of those sensors, not to warn of such conditions but rather to keep users in check when making warranty claims, why didn't Apple spend the money on waterproofing instead?

The sensors are like 3 cents each. The iPhone has them too. They're just strips of water sensitive paper.

We used to buy them separately and put them in iBooks at my old job. You can get really cheap drop sensors too that are capsules that break inside if the laptop is dropped.

 

[arogge]

The sensors are like 3 cents each.

I was assuming that these sensors were electronic. But still, how about making a laptop and an iPhone that doesn't break when wet or dropped. I really don't care about the warranty if I can't get to my data that was on the screen before the accidental drop or exposure to moisture.

 

[pukifloyd]

The sensors are like 3 cents each. The iPhone has them too. They're just strips of water sensitive paper.

We used to buy them separately and put them in iBooks at my old job. You can get really cheap drop sensors too that are capsules that break inside if the laptop is dropped.

buy some sensors and replace you current ones with the new ones

 

[ntrigue]

Being AR about my Apple things, I'm sorry. That is just a series of unfortunate events.

I once replaced the back case on my iPhone and super glue splashed onto my laptop screen then I spread it trying to remove with googone!

 

[Donar]

... but it sucks when you face situations when you need to take the battery out, i mean accidents can happen.

Take a piece of cloth, place your MacBook Pro on it with the lower base facing you. Unscrew all screws, remove base plate - remove the battery connector. It will break the seal but the risk of frying your computer is mostly gone.

...
you mean when it was turned on in the shop????

Yes, it is really stupid to turn on things if you don't know if they are dry. However it could be that water is in your computer but didn't produce a shortcut - this can change when the water moves from here to there...

What about disassembling your MacBook Pro, having alook if it is dry? Only recommended if you can re- assemble it, or at least get the back plate off - you only have to remove some (6-8??) screws. Dont' scratch the base plate... it will look ugly then.

 

[mrsir2009]

buy some sensors and replace you current ones with the new ones

Lol you'd have to open up your computer to do that though