spilt coffee :(

A tragedy happened today, I was putting a book onto the shelf above my desk and it fell off it headed straight towards my mug and sent coffee onto my macbook keyboard.

It was running at the time and the fan started whirring really loudly, I turned it off(after about 30 seconds) and tilted the mac onto its side, coffee started to come out ( a bit blacker than my actual coffee) and I just left it until it stopped.

I'm not really sure what else to do, I've only had it a couple of months so I'm pretty gutted. Any advice? and what do you think my chances are? I've got applecare btw

are there any problems with the macbook? if there are take it to a shop and see how much it cost to get it fixed and from there its your call to buy a new one or get it repair.

AppleCare won't cover coffee spills. It'd be nice, but they don't.

Whatever you do, don't turn it on until it's dried for a few days. That's a good way to get it to short some vitals out.

Do you know how to take it apart? If so, you may be able to do some of the cleaning yourself. Otherwise, yeah, you'll need to find a repair shop.

Make sure you remove the battery, hard drive, memory card and keep it upside dow to dry

as quiara mentioned, let it dry for a few days and turn it on

You can give apple care a call and just say it turning on, who knows they might fix it, nothing to loose right?


I've spilled a cup of coffee over my macbook pro once. It was early morning revising for some exam and like a zombie my cup of coffee flew from somewhere and onto my macbook pro

I immediatly turned it off, flipped it over, took the battery out and sucked where the power cord connects, some coffee came out! i didn't know what else to do! Kept it upside down on my bed

After 2 days i used a hair dryer and tried drying it, simply with air..not hot, popped the battery and it worked!

You may want to consider pulling it apart and cleaning it. Coffee can etch/dissolve the traces on the board if you're not lucky, and then you'll REALLY be in trouble. And your warranty is shot anyhow, so you really have nothing to lose. I can link you to instructions if you like.

Yeah..you need to take it apart. You'll never get all the moisture out simply turning it upside down.

u dont know how to take it apart, i didnt leave it upside down to dry, is it too late now?

Oh man thats sucks to hear. Good luck to you, hopefully you can bring it back to life with no problems.

When my iPod got washed it took more than a week for all the moisture to disappear, so if you can live without your mac for a long time id suggest leaving it in a dry place for more than a week before turning it on. Or better yet, take it apart and clean it, maybe with some alcohol and cotton stick thingies to get rid of any coffee crap.

i did sth like u did..i split juice all over to my mbp.. after i did so i turned up-side down all the juice come down off it..i removed the battery and dried it with a hair dryer...it all worked well.after half an hour it worked again..started up and keyboard is just fine..but if only it gets really hot the keyboard gets sticky a little..and the service wants 40euros to clean it for good..

40€ isn't a bad price - and it's definitely worth it to have your Mac back in working order, don't you think?

yes i will pa the price..since my mbp continues working great...it deserves it all from surviving this accident..

I just turned my macbook on and it works fine, some of the keys were a bit sticky but I took those off and cleaned them.

If something else goes wrong with it that is unrelated to the spillage will my warranty still cover it?

Though I have not spilled anything on a laptop before, I suggest doing what the others recommend, that is - taking the mac apart and cleaning it thoroughly.
You never know when the innards are totally dry and even if it were, coffee may be able to damage or corrode your laptop over time!

To answer your question, these laptops usually have water indicators that indicate if anything has been spilt on the laptop and in that case then warranty will be considered void. But then again, if you could convincingly make the service person help you service it for free, then... it would make your day.

I wouldn't try Apple. when it gets to the repair center they will realize.

Good to hear it is working!