Macbook spilled liquid awhile back, still dead...

Ok guys I have a question for you. First off, it's not my MB, it's my roommates, but I'm here to ask your help for him.

Awhile back (about 2-3 months ago) I placed his mac on a towel on a chair in his room. The towel wasn't wet when I placed it there that night, but in the morning, woke up and the towel was soaking wet (Had a party). His girlfriend immediately took out the battery and placed both near the heater for several hours, which we then moved to the mac to a vent downstairs and propped it open for several days before turning it on and connecting the battery again. Hoping the warm air would dry out the inside. About a week after drying it out, we tried to turn it on. The light on the power cord was green but really dim, and often flashed yellow and green, very very dim. Took it to an apple store and asked for assistance. They used one of their power cords to try it out, got a solid bright green light saying it was charged, and obviously it wasn't having been unplugged for a week or so. Mac wouldn't power up at all. Tried pressing the battery button on the side and all the lights on the indicator would flash.

Well 2-3 months after this all happened, I took the battery cover off, took out the hard drive and battery, then took out the 8 screws covering the bottom half of the laptop. This is what I found:





(Sorry for the large pictures, but it help to show detail)

Not sure where to go from here, or if the computer is just completely totaled. Looking for some direction on how to clean it, check any kind of sensor, or just to get it up and running again. I read the sticky on spilled liquid, but don't know what to do here. I know I shouldn't send it in for him, since apple care doesn't cover spilled liquid and they're most likely going to send it back to us saying it's fried.

Can anyone help out here? I'm somewhat new to macs, but we have another roommate who has a MBP who knows his way around macs pretty well and even he doesn't know what to do... Thanks for the help in advance guys.

The odds are very good that the logic board is fried. If the computer was on, even sleeping, when the water got inside, its toast.
Any liquid is extremely volatile to microchips when there is even a small current running throughout. You did the right thing by taking
out the battery and trying dry it, but it sounds like the damage was already done. A logic board is very expensive to replace, so you're
friend is better of spending a little more money and getting a new mac. I'm surprised the folks over at apple didn't tell you this when
you were there.

So do you think it's worth taking it to our local shop? They charge $45 to diagnose it, and $65/hr and the diagnosis is included in the first hour. They're a great shop, but I'm wondering if it's worth seeing how much it might cost to fix?

Well, its really up to you. It's most likely the logic board, but you'll never know for sure until an experienced technician looks at it. If your friend really doesn't want to shell out for a new computer, it could be worth the 100 bucks just to see what the problem is.

Save yourself some money. The logic board is toast.

thomas998 said:

Save yourself some money. The logic board is toast.

Click to expand...

Alright so I took the logic board out, and this is what she looks like:

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b249/TrePaul86/Randoms/Others/IMG_1959.jpg

http://i20.photobucket.com/albums/b249/TrePaul86/Randoms/Others/IMG_1960.jpg

Did some more research and found some replacement boards on eBay for logic board number 661-4818 for an a1278 13in macbook... The hard drive is tested and working properly, the keys and screen I would assume are working as well as the ram. Also, the battery needs repaced, but I think this macbook is repairable for roughly $300 for the logic board and new battery. Other than eBay, does anyone know where I can find some cheaper logic boards?

Alas the more you spend the more you are going to find wrong with the machine. A good drenching equals death in many, many cases.

It's entirely up to you whether or not to proceed and spend the money to repair the machine. The difficulty here is that you really won't know the extent of damage until you get a working logic board in. As harry advises, you can wind up spending more $$$ than you thought.

As far as the prices you quoted, they're good. I've seen refurbished boards for more. And I must compliment you on the job you did removing the board. I sincerely hope you can get it up and running. Good luck with the repairs and keep us informed.

Regards.