Need advice - Mac technician wrote off my Macbook and now it works again!

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Dear everyone,

I'm currently typing this message on my Macbook Pro 13', which had been written off by the Mac technician. To cut a long story short, I'm a very computer illiterate person (unfortunately). I spilled some Coke at the back (where the hot air comes out) and it stopped working last Wednesday. When I turned on the Macbook, there was no 'gong' sound and the front light turned on, then there was a clicking noise before the light turned off then turned back on. Weird I know.

So I took it to a Mac shop the very next day (I live in Australia by the way), expecting the worse (especially after reading all the forums here on liquid damage and having done none of the steps, since I thought and knew that I would make it ten times worse). They told me a couple of days ago that the Logic board would need replacing and other parts too, so that would have come to $2500. I bought a new Macbook $1499 instead. They transferred all the data across.

I came home and I thought, it would be funny if the 'damaged' Macbook worked again. I pressed the power button and there was a 'gong'! Everything turned on and is working perfectly (except it is a little slow sometimes).

How come the technicians didn't see this coming? Did they manage to 'fix' the problem when they opened the Macbook to take out the hard drive and transfer the data to my new Macbook? Did the technician purposely lie to me so that I would buy a new Macbook? But he said he tried all the standard 'turning on' tricks. Will the old Macbook eventually corrode because of the Coke?

I just can't believe I've spent another $1499 when my old Macbook still works!

Any advice would be good - thank you all!
 
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Rocky Mountain High, Colorado
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1.8 GHz i7 MBA 11" OSX 10.8.2
At best you are running on borrowed time and are lucky. Spilled liquid, as you read here is really bad for computers. Soda is corrosive. It may have been that there was still some liquid shorting something out when you took it in. That may have dried up and allowed you to boot. Even so there is no guarantee that you could keep booting.

If you story was it always booted then I would have said it probably wasn't that bad of a spill. Because you said you couldn't get it to boot and the tech couldn't either that tells me the spill was pretty bad.

Hook up your old macbook to your TV and use it as a media center until it dies - and don't turn it off ever again and try not to move it. Maybe it will last forever.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Late 2009 27" iMac 2.8GHz i7 8GB Ram | Mid 2007 15" Macbook Pro 2.4GHz 4 GB Ram | iPhone 4s | iPad 3
I spilled a 32 oz diet dr pepper on the keyboard of my macbook pro 2 years ago, I pulled the battery immediately, vacumed it out, and let it dry for a few days before attempting to turn it back on. It still works perfectly fine today aside from things that typically go wrong with 3+ year old macbook pro's (battery doesn't hold a charge and the superdrive can be picky sometimes). I believe the lack of sugar in the diet soda may be what saved me though.
 
C

chas_m

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The water part of the soda has evaporated/dried out, but the sugar is still in there and still working on corroding your computer. I can't say without opening it up and looking how long you've got, but basically you're wise to have a spare (new) one handy.
 

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