Ok. Keep in mind, like I said earlier... more likely than not, you're totally SOL. This is the only thing I can think of that might have any chance at all of making the machine functional again, but honestly I doubt it will work. You're probably going to lose all the stickers and ID marks and serial numbers and everything on the boards of the machine. Not that it matters at this point, but whatever vestige of a warranty you may have had is going to be totally void. And if this doesn't work you're probably looking at a new logic board at least. The mark on your screen will never come out and I don't know how long the screen will last; you may end up having to use this thing only with an external monitor or replace the LCD.
Anyhow, to attempt to fix the board, you're going to need a couple things:
- A suitable disassembly guide for the Macbook; see here:
http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/MacBook/86
- A soft bristle toothbrush
- Some 99% isopropyl rubbing alcohol
- Someplace you can securely store all the screws and everything
you're going to be removing
- A notepad to take notes
- Some *incandescent* painter's drop lamps or an oven/toaster oven (ideally a convection oven) that can be set to a very low temperature, somewhere between 100*F and 150*F (38-65*C)
First step is to disassemble the Macbook as much as possible. Take all the drives out, take the RAM out, take everything out so you're left with the bottom case and the lid and all the component pieces as described in that disassembly guide under "complete disassembly". Take notes and organize the screws as necessary... laptops are **** to get back together if you don't do this step.
Examine the board and the drives and the keyboard and stuff. I don't know whether it was open or closed when the spill occurred. If the optical drive has dried beer on it, gently wipe it with a very, very slightly damp cloth... if you can wring it and it drips, it's too wet. Do the same with the top of the hard drive if it has beer on it, and the inside of the case. On the bottom (PCB) of the hard drive, use another cloth with rubbing alcohol to clean any dried beer off. Also use the alcohol on any wires or connectors or anything like that that have beer on them. Leave the battery alone for now.
Now I'm going to tell you to do something that seems totally illogical and backwards, but if anything is going to work, this is it. Take the logic board and clean up all the thermal compound residue on it with the rubbing alcohol. Then run the board under HOT water in the sink (don't boil it, just turn it all the way to hot). Make sure you spray (as best you can) between the chips and the board itself to get the water all the way under the BGA packages. If anywhere is obviously stained, you can very carefully scrub it with the toothbrush. DO NOT knock any SMD components off the board, or this whole exercise will have been totally pointless.
Once you've thoroughly rinsed the board on all sides and you're as sure as you can be that the water has gotten every last crevice and nook and cranny on the board, throw it (not literally...
set it gently) in the oven at, ideally, about 125*F and leave it for at least several hours...
(EDIT: Forgot to mention, you can put it under the painter's lights as well at a distance of about 1ft) overnight would be great, 24hrs probably wouldn't hurt. (note that there is a very small chance that this could melt the plastic on like the USB connectors and stuff, but I think it's unlikely. Apple specifies the maximum storage temperature for this machine at 113*F/45*C so if you don't exceed that you'll definitely be fine, and really ought to handle 125 with no problems, but I don't know that for sureI'd put the board as far away from the heating element in the oven as possible and make sure that it feels fairly warm but not hot enough to burn you before you put it in, just to be sure)
Do the same to the keyboard if it got beer on it, but you might want to leave it out of the oven-i'm not sure the plastic will handle it. Stand the keyboard up on edge and let it dry for at least 24hrs, preferably 48 to make sure it's totally bone dry. You can set it in the sun to accelerate the drying, though.
Reassemble the cleaned system. Don't bother disassembling the LCD unless you're familiar with them, because I'm not, and I don't think that's fixable. Leave the battery OUT of the machine and see if it starts up. If it does, use it and see how stable it is. If you're lucky, it'll be fine. If not, it'll be either partially or totally dead. If the battery got beer on it and the machine works, I'd replace the battery.
Now, for those of you that have read this far and are about to tell me I'm an idiot for telling him to *wash* the board, don't bother. You're wrong. Water and electronics are not things that absolutely need to be kept separated. The Macbook logic board has no electrolytic capacitors on it that I saw, and all the other electronics, if the board is NOT POWERED at the time, will not care if they get wet. So long as they get dried out before they corrode... which is why you put it in the oven. That board is made of fiberglass, the solder is tin or lead, the chips are plastic, ceramic and silicon. There's nothing on that board that will dissolve in water or anything... the copper traces WILL corrode, if they stay wet (which is one of two reasons why spilling things on a computer isn't a good idea... they rarely get dried out properly afterwards; the other reason is because if it's on at the time the liquid is likely to short something important and that short will damage the chips), but if they're dried quickly and they were undamaged before they got washed, they'll be OK afterwards too.
You've got nothing to lose, jughead... you might as well give it a shot.
