ginger ale spill

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Level 1

8 points

ginger ale spill

spilled ginger ale on a late 2008 MBP. it was still working when I unplugged it and pulled the battery out - probably within 2 - 3 seconds of the spill.

i have a keyboard cover and i don't think anything got there. i'm worried about the speaker holes and power button/fan vent. and some liquid may have gotten underneath it.

it's been upside down since the accident. i think i'm going to open it up and check if i can see any traces of the stuff. i'm hoping it didn't even get through the coating behind the speaker holes.

any advice?

MacBook Pro 5,1

Posted on Feb 13, 2011 12:46 PM

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Answer 1

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,500 points

Feb 13, 2011 12:58 PM in response to faroos87

Let it sit for at least 2 weeks to dry out however I suspect if you spilled a decent amount on it you probably have killed it. While I've had the good fortune to have never had a need to use these folks many have with pretty good results. If you're interested get in touch with them.

Best of luck,

Roger

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Answer 2

faroos87 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 13, 2011 1:03 PM in response to rkaufmann87

i don't think that much got onto it to begin with. and the keyboard was totally dry. i looked at ifixit and it seems as if there's a black cover under the speaker holes. disassembling the speaker seems easy so i'm going to do that and see if i find anything.

i just looked through my renter's insurance and it seems that i might be covered...

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Answer 3

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,500 points

Feb 13, 2011 1:43 PM in response to faroos87

It's not the liquid so much that will kill it it's the sugars in soft drinks. They don't manifest themselves until the liquid has dried out and when they do they wreak havoc on electronics. I'd urge you not to do this yourself, use professionals that stand a chance of saving it. Yes it will cost money but if you're insurance covers the cost of repair then who cares.

I just hope you have a recent backup of your data.

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Answer 4

faroos87 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 13, 2011 3:57 PM in response to rkaufmann87

yeah, i know it's the sugar. i'm just hoping none of it got to the board. given the laptop's construction and the fact that i immediately flipped it over, it seems very possible that it didn't.

i'm going to take it to an apple authorized place nearby and have them disassemble/clean it. hopefully that plus a week drying off will do the trick

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Answer 5

faroos87 Author

Level 1

8 points

Feb 13, 2011 4:28 PM in response to faroos87

Now that I think about it actually and look at the internal diagrams, the spill happened entirely over the very right side - the logic board starts at least an inch or two to the right of where the liquid would have gone even had it gotten through the speaker. I'm willing to bet the logic board is safe, as long as the liquid that spilled onto the table didn't get to it from the fan vents. My keys aren't sticky so it seems like the keyboard cover did its job

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Answer 6

rkaufmann87

Level 10

148,500 points

Feb 13, 2011 4:30 PM in response to faroos87

Good luck!

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