spilled water on my laptop, trackpad doesn't work

I would turn the computer off first if i were you.

Turn it off, remove the battery if it's removable, disconnect the charger, remove the bottom cover, let it dry for a few days. Then test again. There's a chance it might be OK.

You can also take your computer to an apple store or an apple specialized provider and they can run some hardware tests on it.

Spill Cleaning

Some liquid has just spilled into your Mac. What should you do?

STEP BY STEP SOLUTION:

You will need: Printer or notebook paper, rice (or silica gel), and a small, sealable box that can hold your laptop (preferrably, the cardbord box in which your laptop was sold).

(1) Turn off the computer; disconnect power cords.

(2) Blot off any water that got on your laptop. Quietly mutter swear words to yourself (optional), but know its going to be okay because you are following these instructions.

(3) Tear off a small strip (~2 in. x 0.5 in.) of paper from a piece of printer paper.

(4) Feed the strip of paper into the gaps between the trackpad and the laptop body. Doing this will absorb water that got into the computer and under the trackpad.

(5) Repeat steps 3 and 4 on all sides of the trackpad, until the paper is no longer picking up any water.

(6) Open your box, and take out anything in it.

(7) Put your laptop in the small box, with the screen propped open.

(8) Spread an handful of rice onto the trackpad and the gaps between the trackpad and the laptop body. Pour a few cups of rice into the box around your laptop. (Explaination: Rice is a desiccant, so it will aborb the humidity in the air and dry out any residual water that may be in your laptop.)

(9) Close the box. You may need to lower your laptop's screen to make it to fit inside the box.

(10) Leave the box and laptop undisturbed at the very least overnight, if not a full day. Your rice-box is now a dehumidifier. Let it do its thing.

(11) Open the box, wipe the rice off your laptop, and remove your laptop. Turn your computer on. **If your curser is moving about erraticly, turn your laptop off and repeat steps 7-9.

(12) Open Safari, go to this thread, and give this post a thumbs up.

lwl you responded to a post that is almost 9 months old. I'm sure the OP has taken care of the issue since posting it on Aug. 8 of last year.

Never use rice. While it is a desiccant it will get into ports and gum up the works. Duh...

First, I'm sure he fixed it. I'm talking to anyone who came to this thread looking for a solution to the same problem.

Second, I've spilled water on two different occations. I used this clever method both times. Worked both times, and the rice never was a problem. If anyone is as worried as sig seems to be about the rice 'gumming up the works,' then place the rice into a sachet bag or tube sock to keep it from making direct contact with the computer.

Third, the trite adivce to "bring it in to an apple store" is unhelpful. Your proposed solution is to ask someone else for a solution. And if a person posted/searched in an apple support thread, she probably don't want to go an talk to a "genius" who will ship her computer off to apple for weeks of expensive repairs. My method can be done at home with $2 of rice and 10 minutes of effort.

Wonderful. And if you feel my initial post to the OP was lacking in originality or freshness you need to understand the consequences involved with liquid damage to electronics and the resultant disaster of the "do it your selfer." Just hang out at the genius bar when they bring in their Macs with orange juice, coffee, coke and a miriad of other spills. Read forum posts here for at least a month regarding spills. If it worked for you fine. For everyone else, take it to an Apple store.

I have no idea if anyone is reading this, so...here goes nothing:

I also spilled water on my trackpad. It works 15% of the time, the other 85% it's going super crazy. Would any of you happen to know how much it costs to have the macbookpro trackpad repaired/replaced? (If apple can even repair it, of course.)

Thanks.

Genius Bar will know when they look at it. We can only tell you that $1000+ is possible.

It will not cost 1000+. Even replacing a Motherboard on my MBP was only $400. If worse comes to worse and you can'f fix it and can't get a machine just pick up an external trackpad for $69.

I do not want to guarantee anything. Depending on where the water went, what it is already corroding or not corroding, only a person looking at it will know.

I would rather be guilty of scaring a person than be guilty of giving false hope.

lwl209 ~ worked like a charm.... Thank you!

Thanks!! I spill nail polish remover on my trackpad and the cursor went crazy. I put my laptop, leave the screen up, in a plastic box with some wood charcoal. Next day, I turned it on, and my macbook acts like nothing had happened 🙂

@lwl209 this worked like a charm for me as well. Thank you!