GF spilled water on her MB... advice needed!

Hey everyone, looking for some help and advice.

This is my first post here, but I've been lurking and reading for about a year since I got my black MB. The thing is awesome. Anyway, just registered now for this reason... (and you may notice my forum name...)

My girlfriend has a white MB and today spilled water all over the keyboard while the thing was on. I wasn't there but she says it was a serious amount of water and the computer immediately shut down, with a noticeable sound like that of cold water hitting a hot surface, a kind of frying sound. She took out the battery and put it on its side and within an hour I had the keyboard off and the hard drive out, set in front of a heat lamp with a large fan on it. It's been like this for about 8 hours now and will stay for much longer.

As for damage, there's noticeable residue (mineral deposits?) on the RAM chip contacts and some residue on the logic board in various places but the hard drive was dry as was the optical drive. I'm hoping to save her data by throwing the HD in my MB. The battery is fine. The residue on the RAM, at least, comes off really easily. There is no other obvious damage, although the inside had a few drops of water when I opened it up.

I've read a lot of threads already, such as http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=77554 , but need to know if anyone has any further advice. Should I take the thing completely apart? I'd prefer not to. Will it dry ok as it is? Will I need a thorough cleaning, or can I just start it up in a few days? Any advice you guys have I'd love to hear, I'm very much a novice compared to most of you on this forum. Thanks!
-chris

sizzling is never good with electronics.

if anything, DO NOT try to get apple to fix it for free. Anyone that tells you to try is simply not giving decent advice.

@ this point, you can disassemble it and take a look. But if you try to pawn off the damage on apple, successful or not, its a crummy thing to do.

get your girl a sippy cup

Thanks for the advice. We wouldn't try con Apple into fixing it, and we're hoping to have it be salvageable in some way when this is over with. What would Apple potentially charge for repair anyway?

And the sippy sounds like a good investment.

BUMP for an update and more questions...

So after nearly 4 days under a heat lamp and fan, we put the MB back together and to my astonishment the thing boots up just fine! No apparent hardware issues at all, save for...

Then we put the battery in (which was responding with 5 LED's on its built-in tester) and the thing wouldn't start. We plugged it in, and the OS booted fine, but then took about 5 minutes "Calculating..." the battery before it finally gave up and said there was an error or no battery available.

So essentially what I have here is a watermarked MB which works fine, a MB battery which says it works fine, and the two won't work together. Any ideas? Anyone ever heard of this? I haven't yet tried a different battery, but I doubt it'll be any different. Also, the battery contacts are all fine on both sides, so I'm assuming something shorted on the logic board with regard to power supply?

Any ideas or humor is welcome, thanks everyone!

OH! And almost forgot, when I opened the MB 3 little grey plastic tabs fell out, about an inch long each and seemingly unneeded in the reconstruction. I have them here in front of me and have no idea what they are for or where they came from... ideas?

Don't know about your tabs, have yet to open my MacBook.
Did drop my phone in water last week. Took it apart and let it dry out.
Went to put the battery back in...nada
Plugged in the charger with that battery in it...nada
Put in a new battery...works great, no prob...
Kinda weird that it fried the battery and not the phone.
Here's hoping you'll be as lucky with the MB.

Well, since you say you have a Macbook as well, have you tried your battery in her MB?

I'd guess the battery is shot somehow. The LEDs on the battery only indicate its charge, but if something inside short-circuited, you're better off buying a new 129$ battery than risking it blowing up due to a short circuit.

It is very common for the battery itself to get fried with water damage. If your model is the same, swap the battery. You did exactly the right thing in taking it apart and letting it dry for as long as you did. I think you dodged a bullet!

Well thanks for the support everyone, here's the update.

My MB battery doesn't solve the problem, so I conclude at this point it to be something battery-related that shorted out on the logic board. Like I said the power adapter works and the computer works fine but won't recognize, use, or charge a battery.

So here's my new set of questions for you all:

- Should she contact Apple (Japan) to get it repaired? She has Apple Care but this is obviously not covered. Will they quote her for a fix before they fix it?

- Should I try to install a new logic board? I don't know exactly where the problem lies, so although I assume this would fix it I can't be sure at all.

She's not in the market for a new computer, so she could hold off and not fix it, but that's kind of a pain-in-the-neck. Thanks everyone!

Well, if you're not too technically challenged, you could try fixing it yourself.

Since everything else seems to work, I'd start off by replacing the battery connector:
http://www.ifixit.com/MacBook-Parts/MacBook-Battery-Connector-Sleep-Sensor/IF186-015

If you're feeling ambitious, you could try putting that part from yours into her Macbook first to see if it cures the problem before you have to spend money on it. If that doesn't do it, you might need to replace the logic board, as it could be the connectors on that board that are playing up.

But go through the guides on that site to get an idea of the size of the project first.

Hmm, ok, thanks for the advice! Is it just something I can pull off mine and try on another MB? I guess I'll have to find the appropriate guide. Thanks a ton!

Get a new girlfriend........

theGFfriedherMB said:

BUMP for an update and more questions...

So after nearly 4 days under a heat lamp and fan, we put the MB back together and to my astonishment the thing boots up just fine! No apparent hardware issues at all, save for...

Then we put the battery in (which was responding with 5 LED's on its built-in tester) and the thing wouldn't start. We plugged it in, and the OS booted fine, but then took about 5 minutes "Calculating..." the battery before it finally gave up and said there was an error or no battery available.

So essentially what I have here is a watermarked MB which works fine, a MB battery which says it works fine, and the two won't work together. Any ideas? Anyone ever heard of this? I haven't yet tried a different battery, but I doubt it'll be any different. Also, the battery contacts are all fine on both sides, so I'm assuming something shorted on the logic board with regard to power supply?

Any ideas or humor is welcome, thanks everyone!

OH! And almost forgot, when I opened the MB 3 little grey plastic tabs fell out, about an inch long each and seemingly unneeded in the reconstruction. I have them here in front of me and have no idea what they are for or where they came from... ideas?

Click to expand...

I had those fall out for me last night when I redid the thermalpaste on my macbook, they go to the right side of the macbook, right about the optical drive. they slide in, and make it so the keyboard won't put up I guess. not really needed, however I would put them back in just in case.

Thanks, digitaln, that helps a lot for when I open the thing up again this weekend.

LOL,

if you decide to frequent the forums, will you keep that username the whole time?!
Just wondering lol.
Hope she doesn't see it! ;D

MaDDoG said:

Get a new girlfriend........

Click to expand...

He can't, he would have to change his user name!

Tanner31593 said:

LOL,

if you decide to frequent the forums, will you keep that username the whole time?!
Just wondering lol.
Hope she doesn't see it! ;D

Click to expand...

Like I've said, I've been reading the forum for almost a year and will continue, so yes, I'll be sticking around with this user name! I kind of like it.

She's actually read the thread, but doesn't appreciate comments like "get a new girlfriend." Maybe we can keep the thread about the MB.

I'll swap battery connectors this weekend and post results.

theGFfriedherMB said:

Like I've said, I've been reading the forum for almost a year and will continue, so yes, I'll be sticking around with this user name! I kind of like it.

She's actually read the thread, but doesn't appreciate comments like "get a new girlfriend." Maybe we can keep the thread about the MB.

I'll swap battery connectors this weekend and post results.

Click to expand...

A thousand apologies. It was very tongue in cheek.

hahaha.. anyways, im in for the update about the battery connector swap.

not that i would EVER SPILL something on my MB.

sippy cup! hahaha

Haha I thought the sippy cup was funny too!

Time for an update...

So up until now her MB worked fine but only when plugged in. If unplugged, it turned off. When plugged in, the battery indicator in the upper right hand corner had a battery with an 'X' through it.

Just tonight that stopped. She accidentally knocked the power cable out and the computer didn't turn off... so she checked and the battery said fully charged. She plugged it back it and it worked just as it should.

Unreal. I don't know what happened, but her MB is working like she never spilled a full Nalgene bottle of water on it when it was on. It's like it never sizzled, steamed, and shut down.

Thanks for all your help everyone. I think by acting on all your collective wisdom I was able to save this one and now by some luck too her computer is totally back to normal. Let's hope it stays that way!