a seriously sucky series of unfortunate events...

Here is a list of problems in my life:
1. I pour water on my poor MacBook Pro keyboard. Wipe it up, Shut it down.
2. Next day. Restart. Some keys act wonky.
3. I need a program to disable the internal keyboard as a temporary fix. I have a wireless one. I install key remap for macbook. I install double command. Neither were able to do that. Shutdown.
4. Restart. Neither keyboard works. I learn that having both those programs installed at the same time will do that.
5. Uninstalling either program requires typing my password. But the programs won't let me use the keyboard.
6. Keyboard viewer won't type the symbols I have in my password.
7. Symbol viewer won't type into the Mac password box.
8. Pasting into the password box isn't allowed either, at least with out shortcuts.
9. I have a Linux boot disc on my desk. Perhaps I can delete the folder through Linux. Insert disc, change boot disc to the CD. Linux won't delete the file because of permissions or some ****. Shut down.
10. I can't boot Mac OS since my boot disc is the CD and I can't hold down any of the keys that tell it to boot to a menu or straight to the OS since the keyboard doesn't work.
11. The external keyboard should work while booting since the program hasn't started. It did while logging in. It doesn't now.
12. On the Linux cd there is an option for boot from first disc or something. It tells me there is no disc and that I should insert one and press any key.
13. Try to put in the Mac OS disc, but the eject button is on the keyboard that doesnt work.
14. I will boot Linux then eject on shutdown. Oh, now the disc is going to decide not to work. Clicking "try Ubuntu with no change" loads for a while then goes to a black screen.
15. I retry this several times. I also give it loads of time, finally letting it sit till it burns away the whole battery.
The battery does recharge. First thing going right all day.
16. I can't remember my password, so I make a new account from my phone to post here.
17. As soon as I finish typing this I drop my phone and click onto a new page, erasing the entire message.
This is the current situation of my story.
Do you have any suggestions on how to boot OSX, or how to fix my keyboard issue(s).
Thanks

You started your Macbook waaaay too early after you shut it down from the spill. It's gotta dry first...( not that it matters now ).

If you can boot into OS X, insert your restore CD, navigate to sys prefs>startup disk, you should be able to select the restore CD. Then restart and it will boot from that, but I don't think removing either of those programs will solve your problem. Good luck though.

codda said:

You started your Macbook waaaay too early after you shut it down from the spill. It's gotta dry first...( not that it matters now ).

Click to expand...

This is the root of the problem. And unfortunately, leaving the machine turned on has likely resulted in more extensive damage as the liquid has traveled throughout the case, causing more shorts along the way.

At this point, I would recommend cutting your losses and taking the machine in for service. There's little point in speculating about what might help working around the damage, as it's probably going to get worse over time, rendering those suggestions moot.

I restarted 24 hours after the spill and that isn't long enough?
When I restarted then, the only problem was the keyboard. That was when I installed the programs.
I then shut it down, till last night (1 or 2 days later) the external keyboard worked to log me on and again the only problem was the keyboard.
The only time I had trouble booting was when I switched my boot disc to the Linux CD through system preferences.
Also after posting I ran "check this disc" from the Linux CD menu and it told me the cd has errors. It's over a year old.
I took out the CD drive, slid a thick sheet of paper into it to push the CD off the spinning thing, and took out the CD. I booted and got the Linux style "No bootabl****.e device -- insert boot disk and press any key" there is an underscore on the next line, but neiter keyboard types there. This is the same message I got when I clicked boot from whatever else from the Linux disk.
I inserted the OSX CD and get this same message on boot.
****.

theryho said:

I restarted 24 hours after the spill and that isn't long enough?
When I restarted then, the only problem was the keyboard. That was when I installed the programs.
I then shut it down, till last night (1 or 2 days later) the external keyboard worked to log me on and again the only problem was the keyboard.
The only time I had trouble booting was when I switched my boot disc to the Linux CD through system preferences.
Also after posting I ran "check this disc" from the Linux CD menu and it told me the cd has errors. It's over a year old.
I took out the CD drive, slid a thick sheet of paper into it to push the CD off the spinning thing, and took out the CD. I booted and got the Linux style "No bootabl****.e device -- insert boot disk and press any key" there is an underscore on the next line, but neiter keyboard types there. This is the same message I got when I clicked boot from whatever else from the Linux disk.
I inserted the OSX CD and get this same message on boot.
****.

Click to expand...

Depending on ambient humidity, air circulation and conditions, drying time can vary pretty widely. Generally, if you have liquid encapsulated in a confined space that isn't getting air circulation, it can take quite a long time to thoroughly dry.

Now, all bets are off when you get liquid in a laptop in the first place - but your best hope of having a working machine is usually to remove all power immediately (including the battery, if possible) and sealing the machine in a box with an drying agent like silica gel packets or dry, uncooked rice and leaving it like that for upwards of 72 hours.

But that's beside the point because the damage sounds like it's already done. Without opening the machine and taking a look at it, it's almost impossible for us to advise you here. I'm sorry to say it, but you're original assessment is on the mark - it's a seriously sucky series of unfortunate events that lead up to an unusable laptop. Next steps, in my opinion, would be to have a qualified tech open the machine and get an estimate for repair costs - and weigh those against the cost of a new machine.

Tough luck indeed and the way things have been going for you, no walking under ladders or anything like that. Do you have any household insurance for contents which just may cover accidental damage to goods?

update

I live in a dorm, so I don't have any house insurance. Maybe my parents house insurance covers my stuff while l live in the dorm. I have heard before that some insurances will do something like that, since I technically still reside at home (parents house).

Question: what normally happens when you insert a CD like the Linux CD, and select it as your boot disk from system preferences, then physically remove it from the CD drive with out pushing the eject button? Would it be confused and bring up the no boot disk screen or would it be smart and just boot straight to OS X instead?
I feel sure it would be smart, and my motherboard is ****ed but I want to hope, since my motherboard costs $900.

Also, I'm not the type to ask a "qualified tech" to do it for me. I'm more the kind to dive in way over my head with a little help from Google.
I've removed everything from the laptop that can be removed without the special 5-point proprietary screw driver. The cd drive, RAM, fans, and hard drive show no signs of water damage or of water having ever gotten that deep at all.

I can't remove the battery, motherboard or keyboard until the special screwdriver gets here. This side of the motherboard looks fine, but it's the other side that is under the keyboard and has the water on it.

Your MacBook is hosed. Think about this: if you set out a glass with it filled up a quarter of an inch high, and just let it sit there, how long will it take to evaporate? Not 24 hours. Not even a week. If I took a damp glass fresh out of the dishwasher after finishing its cycle and let it sit out on a towel upside down, 24 hours later there will still be beads of water in it.

Also consider that the keyboard is the topmost component. The water wouldn't have simply damaged the keyboard… it would have dribbled through the keyboard and down into the other components till it hit the bottom. It's a fine thing to try to be optimistic, but that's just not being realistic here. If you start randomly replacing parts without knowing what the "whole picture" is, you could end up bricking those new parts. Example: let's say the keyboard has shorted. So you replace the keyboard, but it shorts out again because the motherboard is faulty and causing the keyboard to short out. So you replace the motherboard and the keyboard (again), but they both short out because you overlooked the power supply, which was the faulty part all along, causing a chain of faults in other components. You've now incurred significant expenses that got you nowhere, and looking at more.

Bottom line: if finances are an issue, and you are reliant on this MacBook for school, cut your losses and accept the reality of the situation.

theryho said:

Also, I'm not the type to ask a "qualified tech" to do it for me. I'm more the kind to dive in way over my head with a little help from Google.
I've removed everything from the laptop that can be removed without the special 5-point proprietary screw driver. The cd drive, RAM, fans, and hard drive show no signs of water damage or of water having ever gotten that deep at all.

Click to expand...

And I wouldn't have suggested taking it for repair if it were simply swapping out parts - but it won't be. And unless you have access to a $25K SMD workstation and an oscilloscope, you won't be able to fix that motherboard, regardless of how it looks when you pull it.

My point is that there are lots of services out there that will actually do component level motherboard repairs at reasonable prices. This is just one of them:

Laptop Liquid Spill Repair : MicroReplay

Regardless, you won't know what you're looking at cost-wise (or whether it would be viable to even repair) until you have someone with the right tools do an assessment on it.