Macbook SMC Failure?

i have a 2008 white macbook that i bought new. it's been a great computer and i'm extremely careful with all the electronics, especially with it. having said that, i spilled coffee on it monday. being familiar with how much this happens, I immediately threw a nearby napkin on it to soak up and i pressed and held the power button to turn it off. I tilted it up and rushed home and took it apart to let it air out. i used cotton tips to clean of any spots of coffee that had seeped through the keyboard and used a hairdryer to help dry it up. i let it sit open for the next 48 hours then put it all back to together today hoping for the best.

once i got it all put back together, i opened the lid and hit the power button. nothing happened. i plugged it in and the green light came on. with it plugged in, i hit the power button and it chimed right up. it started up just like nothing had happened.

once i booted up, everything seems to be running fine, but i noticed there's a black "X" on the battery in the top bar. the battery was working prior to the accident and now it doesn't even recognize it. also, i left it running for a while and it wouldn't go to screen saver or anything, although, i can manually put it to sleep, and it will wake back up, but it does take it a little while to wake up.

what i'm worried about is that it's possibly the SMC that's messing since all those things have to do with it, as far as i know. i tried to reset it with no luck. my main concern if this is it is whether the fans will continue to work or not. i haven't done anything that demanding yet to know though.

can anyone shed any light on this particular situation or a possible solution?

Please read through our "Sticky" post regarding spills which you'll find at the top of this forum. Spills are unpredictable. But what you described about the battery and power saver setting is not unusual when a spill occurs.

Since the machine is a 2008 model MacBook you don't want to spend a lot of dollars to repair it considering it's probably only worth around $300 to $350 at most.

willanderson said:

i have a 2008 white macbook that i bought new. it's been a great computer and i'm extremely careful with all the electronics, especially with it. having said that, i spilled coffee on it monday.

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I read this statement...and I shook my head. To be honest...why would you tell us how careful you've been with your MacBook...when you just spilled coffee on it?? That's not being careful.

I can guarantee you this isn't the first time you drank coffee (or any other beverage near your MacBook)...this is just the first time a spill occurred.

Everybody is careful with their computers...until something happens!

I'm not trying to give you a hard time (I'm sorry to hear about the coffee spill)...but drinking beverages near laptop computers is just an accident eventually waiting to happen...and is not being careful. We read about laptops & beverage spills on Mac-Forums ALL THE TIME...and in 95% (or more) of the cases...it's not a happy ending!!!

I guess we can look at things on the bright side...at least this is a 2008 MacBook that's worth about $350 bucks...rather than a brand new $2000+ MacBook Pro!!!

The rule is..."Laptop + Spilled Beverage = Dead Laptop!!!"

- Nick

Your most cost effective way I would think to repair your macbook would be to buy one on eBay with a broken screen and merge the two.

But only if you can get it for a really good price.