When spilled water on MacBook Pro keyboard?

Question for you guys - This has happened to a friend who indicated it was juice spilled by her child. That said, I wasn't informed about this until last night, so I'm assuming that she hasn't done anything with it for a number of hours.

I'm tempted to try the "rice" option as a last resort. Some questions:

1. Does this require removing the casing or do I keep the MBP assembled as-is if I'm "submerging" in rice?
2. I plan to fill up a large tupperware container with rice. Do I place the MBP upside down?
3. Follow up to the last question - if I do submerge the MBP in a ton of rice, do I keep the MBP closed (screen shut closed) or should I have it open?

Thanks,

Ed

Spill Cleaning

And, don't think that just because it was two teaspoons and not a glassful that there is a difference.

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

Do

• Immediately shut down the computer and unplug the power cord.
• Remove the computer's battery (if you can)
• Disconnect any peripherals (printers, iPods, scanners, cameras, etc.)
• Lay the computer upside down on paper towels to get as much liquid as possible to drip out.
• Note what was spilled on your Mac.
• Bring the computer into an Apple store or AASP as soon as possible.

Don't

• Don't try to turn it back on. Liquids can help electrical current move about the components of your Mac in destructive ways.
• Don't shake the computer (this will only spread the liquid around).
• Don't use a hair dryer on it (even at a low setting a hair dryer will damage sensitive components).
• Do not put in a bag of rice in as much as rice will get into the ports and optical drive and do further damage.

Reasonable dos and don'ts. However, the whole point is surely to avoid that very costly visit to the Apple Store is it not? If they tell you the mainboard needs changing how are you gonna know whether it really does or not? Their procedures probably say to change it anyway as the risk of damage from liquid ingress is high. Plus once you take it in they have all your data and have you over a barrel - you either pay the $1000 or lose the machine and the data.

Water damages any laptop because it is an ionic solvent and it therefore conducts electricity. Therefore if the machine is powered on then the water (or other liquid that contains water such as milk or juice) may short circuit the mainboard and any other components it comes into contact with. The key factors are whether it was powered on, how much you spill into it and what you do next.

These would be my actions:

1) Turn it upside down IMMEDIATELY, even before you power it off. By the time you have wasted 5 seconds shutting it down, the liquid will have drained much further in.

2) As soon as it's inverted (i.e. keyboard flat to the table or whatever) hold the power switch to force a hard shutdown as quickly as possible. It it hasn't died before you do this there is a good chance you have been lucky.

3) Remove the back cover and use absorbant paper towels or similar to absorb as much water as you can see, and place towels under the keyboard to absorb what drips out. If very little or none is evident from this side, this is good news.

4) Place the unit in a warm place for several days such as in a closet near your hot water boiler. You can speed up the drying process by using a hair dryer or similar on warm (not hot). You can use rice or any other hygroscopic material such as silica gel in with it - just make sure it or the dust can't physically get inside the Mac, e.g. by placing in a bowl next to it in the confined warm space. Also, change the orientation of the machine during this period several times (e.g. flat, on each edge) so that any trapped liquid pooled in a particular area runs away and dries. For the last day, leave it with the keyboard face up i.e. in the normal orientation.

5) If you have a lot of valuable data on your Mac, consider buying a cheap external drive caddy that accepts 2.5 inch drives (either directly or with an adapter) and during the drying period remove the hard drive from your Mac. Copy the contents to an iMac or other laptop. It is highly unlikely that the hard disk will have been affected by the liquid ingress unless there was a lot of it and you have been very unlucky. Replace the hard drive in the Mac.

6) Now the moment of truth. Replace the back cover and power on the laptop. If it works normally then you have been lucky. Consider buying accidental damage insurance for it via your house insurer in case you spill something else on it or if it does have some damage that just isn't manifesting itself yet. The machine's own heat and fan will continue to dry any residual fluid that may remain over the coming days/weeks.

7) If it doesn't power on then it's a visit to the Apple Store for you. However, if you have backed up your data (or you had a Time Machine backup anyway) then at least when the eye watering quote comes back you have a choice of whether to simply buy a new one and restore from the backup or to bite the bullet and pay. Many repairers will not entertain the idea of diagnosing and repairing components of the mainboard, so they will simply replace the whole board, which Apple prices at 80% of the cost of a new machine of course, making it very poor value for money.

You've obviously spent a lot of time and effort writing this but if you've actually followed your process you'll discover it is fraught with errors.

Look at sig's advice. What you advice can only aggravate a situation that might be salvaged be the Genius Bar.

Ummm guys i was cleaning my mac keyboard and anyways now my mac keyboard now dosent work and well when i go to press u and f to log in my mac will not write those leters what happend and how can i fix it

I'd take it to the Genius Bar if I were you and be prepared for a hefty bill 😉. There's absolutely nothing you can do.

quick story...

I've never posted here. I'm 42 and was in corporate america (if that exists anymore) since 96 when I graduated from UNC. I was a PC guy (Dell). If something went wrong with the equipment, my employer paid for some sort of protection where I would simply contact Dell - they would ship a box - and the equipment was sent out returned REPAIRED. No questioins asked. I'm sure it wasn't inexpensive.

I was gifted an Iphone and then a MacBook Pro (20011). Ive semi converted to Mac). I appreciate the genius in making a product that is sexy, sleek and very very fragile. Brilliant. Bottom line minded, contracts that surely can't be fullfilled without an accident to the very fragile hardward. And ultimatley the replacement costs of said hardware. I Broke an Ipod, a Nano, 2 iphones(salt water damage living in Charleston SC) and ultimately a MacBook Pro (15 - non retinal). I'm sure that pushed the stock price a pinch.

I was vacationing - needed a movie to put me to sleep, rested a glass of water on the deck of the MacBook and mid evening spilled it. The LOGIC BOARD!!! TERROR. Flipped it over and disengaged it from the power source. That's common sense around the horn. PC or MAC.

Long story short

Its alomst been 3 years. IT is ACTION- that saved this piece of equipment. I don't care whether it was a PC or Mac - the fact of the mater is that I was negligent with it. There is no place for a glass of water or a Margaritta anywhere near something that costs as much as a used car. A Lesson and My fault.

I'm happy to report ... that I'm posting from that machine. Yes. I have a few issues.. Sticky keys

Yet it survived. So In short.... the drainage ports cost me a couple of key strokes but Im Good.

It dried out.

I had a long road identifying which keys may be sticking.... weird characters (alt option) being stuck, but I'm still happy and still banging on a Mac while my PC sits in the closet.

For what its worth.

Some drunk stupid moron knocked a full glass of what was probably half flavored vodka and half water with all the melted ice. At least more than a full cup saturated the whole keyboard of my 2012 macbook pro 15". I would've punched the stupid idiot in the face but it was my girlfriend so I didn't. I immediately picked it up and turned it off and turned it over. I opened the back and it full of liquid on the inside. The logic board was all wet. I disconnected the battery. I would've removed the motherboard but it was a real pain in the *** to do. It smelled like rasberry pomegranate on the inside. I guess if you're gonna spill something on it I would definitely want it to be vodka, just not flavored vodka. Who knows what residue it left behind. At least it was sugar free. I let a fan dry it out for 2 days and put it back together. It works perfect! I was so scared. I wanted to turn it on sooner so bad but I restrained. I guess that warranty is void but it's a year old anyway.

It's easy to fix sticky keys. Just pull the left corner up with your fingernail, then the right. Then you can pull the key off. Then, with a toothpick, you can pop the white foldy things little tabs out of the bottom. Wash that and problem solved.

Possibly toast, sorry.

Take it in to Genius Bar and get an estimate of repair. You will have to pay if you want it fixed because liquid damage is not covered by warranty.

Keep it turned off, keep it unplugged.

Good luck.

Steve359, you don't give up do you?

Despite another two posters basically agreeing with my post that you can dry the machine out and save yourself $1000, you keep trotting out the same Apple line.

By the way my post was removed for a month and I had to complain to Apple to get it reinstated, so I don't expect a fair discussion here.

You WILL pay your hard earned money to Apple, whether it's necessary or not, that's their philosophy, and it seems that of several who post here.

What test do the "Genius Bar" do to ascertain whether it's safe to switch the machine on? Answer - they don't have one, they charge you anyway for a new board.

Halogen headlights need to be installed with care. Getting body oil on the bulb can cause the bulb to explode (literally) because halogen will boil that fluid. I one found after a long drive on a rainly night that a rock had broken the plastic cover and the bulb exploded because of water on it.

The logic board is covered with material that will heat up over time, and you cannot wash it clean.

Despite the last posters insistence that "it works for now!" means it will work after the foreign material heats up and causes damage, you should have it checked out.

The boiling point of body fluids is around 100 degrees C (212 F for those Stateside) or thereabouts, and any normal light bulb will boil them, that's why you may burn your hand if you change a light bulb with the switch on and aren't quick enough screwing it in, halogen bulb or not.

Did it occur to you that the rock might have broken the bulb too? i.e. at speed the broken bits of cover or the rock smashing against the very fragile bulb might have broken it?

Despite these manufacturer's warnings, I've never had a new halogen bulb blow on me, no matter what fingerprints I get on it before switching it on - I changed 4 in my kitchen last week. The glass of course has a metling point way above the boiling point of body fluids, so what is the issue? Differential expansion of the glass? In any case quite what halogen bulbs have to do with motherboards is beyond me - sounds like you're clutching at straws!

You say "the logic board is covered with material that will heat up over time". Obviously the logic board gets hot as it was designed to do, so no surprise there. Of course you can wash it clean - why wouldn't you be able to? It's not as if the juice or whatever chemically bonds with it - it's just like spilling the stuff on your coffee table - you can wash and/or wipe it off and then dry it. The damage is only done when the board is powered up with a liquid ionic solvent laying between the PCB tracks, thus short-circuiting the board and hence damaging it. Once the solute has been evaporated the ions cannot move, even if they remain on the surface, and hence a short-circuit cannot occur.

The point is that "checking it out" will be very expensive, and often unnecessarily so. Apple will have no way to determine the extent of the damage before powering it on, and when they do, they will simply tell you that you need a new board, whether you do or not, just in case it fails later.

Sugar-fluids on a logic board designed not to be coated in it, running hotter than 150 degrees F.

Stop being contrary and accept that the person should have the unit checked.

Nwo do yourself a favor. Coat the halogen headlight bulbs, high and low beans, in thick-sugar-water and go driving tonight. But pick up replacements before you leave. Your experience will be enlightening.

Goodbye.