Spilled tea on laptop, have read the sticky

Hi all,

First up I would like to say I HAVE READ THE STICKY, just so you are aware.

Now, my girlfriend recently spilled a cup of tea on her laptop, I'm not talking a little bit of tea, I'm talking an entire glass. I happened to be at her place at the time so when she spilled it I managed to get in, shut off the laptop, flip it upside down, try and drain it etc.

I told her that she should leave it off an in a warm dry place for at least a week, yet this was apparently impossible as today she called me and told me that she had turned her laptop on this morning to work on an assignment and it was working fine, I informed her that regardless of it working fine she should still have shut it off etc etc, long story short she didn't listen.

I saw her using her laptop about 3-4 hours after she had turned it on and noticed that although it was plugged in the battery was reading 0%, plugged in, not charging (she was on win7) quite literally about 10 seconds after I pointed this out the laptop shutdown.

There was none of the sparking I'm used to when I spill things on electronics, it just turned off: similar to if it had run out of battery.

So, she had the following problems:

Space bar became a bit ****y
Power meter read 0%
Laptop shut off and won't turn back on after 3 hours

So my question is this: what has happened here? is it likely to be the logic board which is fried? or is it probably just the battery which has had it?

and depending on which: how much would any of you guys estimate it will cost to fix, because despite her insistence I am NOT letting her try and lie and get away with saying it 'just broke' because that would be stupid.

Very likely the logic board is now toast. When a single drop of water landed right on the charging circuit of my wifes macbook a couple years back Apple wanted about $700 to fix it. A new board from iFixit was about $450. She just got a new laptop as she needed it NOW for school.

Saying it 'just broke' won't work because water damage is very obvious on electric circuits.

h3k said:

There was none of the sparking I'm used to when I spill things on electronics...

Click to expand...

This is a regular occurrence?

Definitely sounds like the logic board. It's a shame too - since it sounds like there was the potential to salvage it - had she left it off - and then you opened it up and given it a good cleaning - but who knows.

h3k said:

Hi all,

First up I would like to say I HAVE READ THE STICKY, just so you are aware.

Click to expand...

And unfortunately you will get the same replies as someone else that has spilled liquids on their computer. There's nothing special with this situation that would deviate from the advice given in the sticky.

Try the suggestions given in the sticky...but in the overwhelming numbers of cases...you will probably need a new logic board. And depending on the computers age & current value...this can be a no win situation.

Computers + liquid = dead computer

- Nick

p.s. FYI...new laptop logic boards can cost $500-$700.

Just as an example...here's a MacBook logic board for $549. Add to this cost the installation (if you cannot do it...probably an additional $100-$200 bucks)...and then consider that other components may be damaged as well:

http://www.ifixit.com/MacBook-Parts...um=cart_product_link&utm_content=product_list

as far as it being a common occurrence: I spent a while trying to get water cooling in one of my computers a while back and every time something leaked or broke there was always a spark and such

and the main reason I asked this is that the battery was reading 0% just before it shut off, so I was wondering if it could simply be that the battery wont charge any more, or perhaps that the battery itself is broken

I think I may just be hoping that the logic board isn't stuffed because I'll be the one she blames because I told her it would be fine... silly me thinking that she would listen when I told her to leave the thing off for a long time

Doesn't take a short to cause the damage. Just the corrosion it causes can do it. In the case of tea.. with the mention of ****y spacebar which probably means sugar and well.. that's a whole different level of mess

yea, I just opened it up then and firstly, having normally only every built my own computers and only every really bought temporary laptops I must say the build quality of macs is pretty **** good, and seconds: it looked like everything was pretty dry, there was a tiny bit tea still on the under side of the battery but all the fans are sticky as is about half the logic board is sticky.

I'm not at home right now so I only have a few philips screw drivers so I can't completely pull it apart and have a look but from what I can see its covered in sticky mess


on a further note, you wouldn't happen to be able to tell me how it breaks other than shorting? you have peaked my interest

Sure, you start to corrode those data/power paths and it'll cause serious issues pretty quickly. All it takes is for impedance to raise really, how much is dependant on the circuit. If you're working with 5v dc, dropping to 3v etc can render IC's non-op.

And now the laptop IS sticky !

Regular occurance ?

Never have liquids closer than an arms length away.

Sound like a very expensive cup of tea...