MacBook Pro used for hours after tea spoll

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MacBook Pro used for hours after tea spoll

Hi folks. I just created an account here because I’ve likely made one of the biggest mistakes of my life! I’ve come here to maybe see if by some miracle I haven’t completely ruined my MBP and killed it. Please bear with me. Would love any advice.

I’ve been using my 15-inch Retina MBP 2014 normally for almost 6.5 years. Never spilled anything on it or any other laptop I’ve owned.

A few hours ago, I spilled quite a bit of hot tea on my MacBook and I took my sweet time getting paper towels to begin drying it off. I cleaned it a bit and put on the side and got to cleaning the rest of the mess. I then went back to using it casually then closed the lid and went about my business. I also plugged it in and let it charge fully. I then used it some more about an hour later and then began to notice that each time I hit space, the keyboard backlight thing would pop up on the screen and go up each time I hit the space button.

A few minutes later, it finally dawned on me to actually Google (on the MacBook) what I was supposed to do in case of a liquid spill. This is about 2 hours after it happened! As you can expect, every single comment, post, forum said I had to turn it off within seconds, soak up the liquid, and all the other steps...

2.5 hours later, I finally opened the back, cleaned it a bit (never once opened it since I bought it), and used some isopropyl alcohol to wipe everything down. I eventually disconnected the battery as well. I don’t have the right tools to take it apart and get to the logic board and we don’t have Apple here in my country!

I’ve now left it with the back removed, keyboard facing down and don’t plan on touching it for at least 3 days.

Now...is there ANY hope that I will have my MacBook back? This contains everything in my life from the last 6-7 years - from college to work to all else. I can’t imagine not having this machine and I’m unable to sleep now.

I don’t know what got into me to react so slowly and think that somehow the MacBook is waterproof! I know this is 100% my fault and even though I’m usually good with maintains tech stuff, I completely lost the plot on this. However, any advice, info, etc. would help me a lot.

Sorry for the long post and thank you!

MacBook Pro 15″, macOS 10.15

Posted on Apr 24, 2021 7:35 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

rcosta887

Level 4

3,604 points

Apr 24, 2021 8:57 PM in response to Lknight1218

Spilling the liquid very likely caused some immediate internal damage. On the small chance that it didn't, using the MacBook further before it was fully dry hugely increases the likelihood of damage. Even if you had turned it off and let it dry immediately and for a couple days, the fact that it was tea (which is acidic) would cause damage in the coming weeks/months due to corrosion.

So you eventually did the right things, but only after you did the wrong things I'm afraid.

You can look up the iFixit guide for your specific model and it will tell you what tools you need. It's a very long shot that anything you can do at this point could fix it.

If your MacBook though doesn't turn on and isn't at all usable, you can still likely get to your data. If after the 3 days you find it won't turn on simply get an enclosure that can handle the drive and you can remove the drive pretty easily and place it into the right USB enclosure. For example, this one would work for any MacBook Pro 2014-anything model:

https://eshop.macsales.com/item/OWC/MAU3ENPRPCI/

Just keep in mind there are about a half-dozen different drive formats for 2013-onward MacBooks. You could probably find a cheaper one. As long as it says it will work with your 2014 MacBook Pro drive...specifically... then cheap is fine. You could then use that enclosure with another Mac to read the data off the drive. 90% chance the drive itself is still good.

If the drive wasn't encrypted and was using the traditional macOS format (not APFS) you could even potentially do this from a Windows PC using the free trial of Paragon:

https://www.paragon-software.com/us/home/hfs-windows/

Otherwise, you would need to use a Mac, like if you have access via a friend or work/school.

I hope you get your data back!

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Answer 2

Apr 24, 2021 8:30 PM in response to Lknight1218

Hey,

You did the right thing by opening the back and cleaning it, few hours after the spill occurred. There is a very high chance your MacBook Pro will turn on but will show some weird quirks. Liquid spills mostly affect the keyboard, so you might have some weird keyboard multi-presses, backlight glitching and some more. After you leave the Mac for at least 24 hours, turn it on, and disable some features.

Open System Preferences and click on the Keyboard tab
Uncheck the box next to Adjust keyboard brightness in low light
Press F5 repeatedly until the backlight turns off

It's better to disable the backlight, instead of using it with liquid damage.

As your MacBook is really old, it will not be worth it to go to an Apple Support centre, and because there aren't any in your country. They will charge you a lot and might not even fix it.

I hope this helped.

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MacBook Pro used for hours after tea spoll

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