Thread: Mac Experts: My Pastor spilled liquid on his Macbook - Help with repair ideas

Just received this from my Pastor:

Last Friday afternoon I spilled about 4-6 ozon my macbook. It shut down immediately so I drained it as best I could, set it on a heat registry over night, set it in the warm sun on Saturday and Sunday, then took it to an Apple store today. They plugged it in and turned it on. Everything came on just fine. Only exception. It doesn't recognize that the battery is connected. The battery has a full charge and they even tried a different battery. Definitely the macbook. It will cost me 755.00 to ship into mac and let them fix it, but they guarantee they'll fix it. I guess for 755 bucks they can replace any and everything inside till it's purring again. So I bought a hard drive and backed up the whole thing. Now trying to figure out if I can disassemble it myself and see what's what. Do you guys deal with much of the hardware side of things? any thoughts?

Does anybody know of a website that might be able to identify the component that is failing and a "How to" get into a Macbook for self-help? I think I can do this for him if I can narrow the component down.

Rich, I think I might have access to a hardware tear down manual. What model is it. Might need to be real specific if it is an early or later year model.

-----Added 11/9/2009 at 07:47:31 EST-----

Here, start with these guys. They provide movies of macbooks being torn down for various repairs.

Mac Repair Guides for Apple Macbook, iBook, Powerbook iPhone & iPod - Service Manual
Plus they have replacement parts!


Here is a link to a mac forum and you guessed it. they have an archive of Spilled liquid posts.

OMG!! I spilled water/beer/liquid on my Mac Notebook - MacNN Forums

Side note: A new mac costs just $999 starting. A refurbished one might go for less. 755 for repairs might not be the best idea unless the mac has sentimental values.

Apple has really brought down prices recently, though not as much as most hope.

Originally Posted by ewenlin

Side note: A new mac costs just $999 starting. A refurbished one might go for less. 755 for repairs might not be the best idea unless the mac has sentimental values.

Apple has really brought down prices recently, though not as much as most hope.

The repair, if done by Rich would be substantially less than $700. Even if he had to replace the logic board it would only be around $250 for the part.

Wow! That's a big difference.

But as Rich described, it seems his pastor is ready to ship it off to apple (which I would advise against seeing the price of a new mac).

Who's going to "attempt" the repair? I think I like Ewen's refurbished idea better, if it were me.

MacBook - Apple Store (U.S.)

Sounds like some battery related components are gummed up from the spill. Expose the motherboard and then drench it with Misty Circuit Board Cleaner, especially in the vicinity of the battery's contact with the circuit board.

AMR

Be sure to check information on how to open and fix the MacBook from the link above or ifixit.com before starting. Until the late 2008 and later uni-body MacBook Pro's and the late 2009 uni-body MacBook, there were lots of screws and pieces involved.

Yeah, I've found the internet guides on how to fix the parts and I've been opening up computers for 20 years. Primarily I was interested in anybody who knows, on the basis of the symptoms, if the root cause can be clearly ascertained. I was looking at the parts that can be ordered and it seems like the only thing it could be is the logic board, which costs about $250 for one pulled out of another Macbook.

I'm assuming it was not water that was spilled. After backup (since it was already powered up) rather than spending $750 to fix a maybe, I'd remove the batteries, flush the unit with warm water (over the area of the spill) and let it dry for several days before re-applying power. Shake out as much of it as you can and leave a fan on it to promote faster evaporation. Water itself is non-conductive, but mix a litle sugar or salt and you have conductivity......even after the spill dries. That might be why the phantom battery warning is up.

I have recently done this to my wife's wireless keyboard which swallowed up some sugared coffee. It is working fine. I did this to a GM car stereo which drank a cup of hot chocolate through the tape door. It worked fine. Printed circuit board manufacturers run the completed boards through something that resembles a big dishwasher to get the flux off of the boards.

It wasn't water and a significant amount of "liquid" went onto the keyboard. It immediately shut it down when it happened. The "liquid" has yeast and barley and other ingredients that make it conductive. Based on some online discussions on the Mac fixit forums I've checked, many think it's the logic board.

Yep sounds right. That 'liquid' is much more damaging that either water or coffee, both of which my MacBook have endured.

1) shame on him for spilling that beer
2) this is the perfect opportunity to ditch the Mac and get a real computer!

Originally Posted by Andres

1) shame on him for spilling that beer
2) this is the perfect opportunity to ditch the Mac and get a real computer!

Most of us can't afford anything that would be an upgrade from a Mac.

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After the backup (you can buy 1TB hard drives for about $100 & reuse for archiving or use a friend's Mac) try flushing out the suds and see if you can get a cheapie (just the price of heating the water & powering the fan) fix