How I managed to salvage my Macbook Pro after liquid damage:

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LIQUID- v i n e g a r.
DEVICE- m a c b o o k p r o.
DAMAGE- tiny fried piece of the Logic Board.

TOOLS-
t i n y s c r e w d r i v e r,
s w i f f e r c l o t h,
q t i p,
k i t c h e n l i g h t e r.


STORY- a week & a half or so back, my mother accidentally knocked over vinegar on our diningroom table where I happened to be looking something up for her. the vinegar spilled over to where I was & got into the vents of my Macbook. the screen turned black with a bunch of horizontal colorful lines before it fully shut off. I tilted the device so any running liquid would fall out, then I heard fizzing noises & witnessed smoke coming out of the vents. when I was finally able to remove all of the screws & inspect my device, I noticed that a tiny piece of my Logic Board (two mm by three mm) was fried from the vinegar.

APPLE STORE- when I inquired at my local Apple Store, they immediately told me that my device was to be sent out to Depot & would probably cost around $600 to $700 to repair. the one employee helping me also falsely told me that I could "recycle" my device with them & get money towards a new device. this was not true since you would be filling out an online form, & if any part of the device doesn't work they will give you $0 for it. the employee plugged my device to a charger, & for some reason it was green which meant that the system inside was running but was just not powering on.

BEST BUY- I had my hard drive data checked with Geek Squad just to make sure my data was still intact while looking around for an external hard drive for future accidents, haha. but they did also tell me that with them it would cost around the same amount for repairs since the entire Logic Board was going to be replaced.

I for one, am not the type of person to dish out money without a fight. & so I took twenty years of life experience to muster up the courage to take the matters into my own hands.
When I was younger, my father & I would disassemble PCs for fun, & through the years I've played around with other laptops & computers, but never any Apple products, so this was a first.

WHAT I DID-
1. I removed the back panel, careful to keep the screws together.
2. I used a swiffer cloth to clean the visible surface from any dust particles/corrosion from the vinegar.
3. I removed the hard drive, just in case.
4. I disconnected the battery from the Logic Board. I didn't unscrew it at all, just disconnected the small cable.
5. I used a very tiny screwdriver head to chip off the corrosion from the burnt area, & used the swiffer cloth & a Qtip to further clean that area.
6. I used a kitchen lighter (the ones with a long wand that extends to reach inside grills) to lightly torch the top of the burnt area.
7. There was a piece of that burnt area that lifted up & caused the Logic Board to malfunction due to the disconnection, so I lifted it up using the very tiny screw driver.
8. I used the kitchen lighter again to torch that piece for a few seconds before pushing it back lightly into place.
9. One final clean before putting back the hard drive & connecting the battery again.
10. Plugged it into the charger to make sure it was okay, & the orange light appeared.
11. Unplugged it from the charger & pressed the power button & it powered back up like normal.


I am not saying that this is the only way to fix your device, but it worked for me & I wanted to share my experience with everyone since I literally did steps one to eleven probably half an hour ago, after a week & a half of pure panic.

Any questions are surely invited :)

.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Silver M1 iMac 512/16/8/8 macOS 11.6
Keep your fingers crossed. Can take some time for problems to raise their ugly little heads.
 
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Your Mac's Specs
Main-11" Air, iPhone 6+, iPad Mini 3, Hi-Fi Extras- Too many to count
Sounds like you had a success story at bringing back a mac. I would make sure to back up all of your data incase the machine does go out again and not come back on.
 
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the real test is if it keeps working over the coming weeks. sometimes they seem like they might come back then they die abruptly again
 
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Vinegar is very acidic. I would definitely be on the lookout for future indications of damage. If not, then well played.
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