When spilled water on MacBook Pro keyboard?

My cat spilled beer on my keyboard last night. Directly onto the keyboard. It spilled onto the keyboard and I immediately picked up the bottle back to standing position and took my computer and just flipped it upside down so that all of the beer spilt onto the floor. I then did a hard shutdown as it was still on and running, wiped it down with a towel while holding it upside down still and held it in front of the fan for a minute. I then didn't know what else to do, so I put it upright into a paper bag and just layed rice all over the keyboard in hopes that it would absorb a little bit throughout the day. I haven't turned it on yet, but I'm kind of freaking out and didn't realize you had to take out the battery. I'm hoping to go home and take out the batter later, but it's already been sitting upright for 15 hours. I don't know what else to do but wait and try not to cry, as I just bought that Macbook Pro a year and a half ago. Please help.

It is unlikely that your Mac will survive, but leave it off for several more days (not hours) then try to switch it on.

Don't allow your cat to drink beer.

If I were to baptize one of my MBP's, I first would turn it off before it did so on it's own. (Otherwise one is on a fools errand)

Take out the battery.

Then deluge it with non-residue electrical cleaner so that the invasive liquid is immediately washed away with its contaminants.

Then I would let it dry. (If you do not get rid of the contaminants, they will harden and adhere in the nooks and crannies of the MBP innards.)

While it is drying, execute a chicken sacrifice.

If I am lazy, reinstall the battery and turn it on.

If I am ambitious, take it apart, clean the parts with the non-residue electrical cleaner and a soft tooth brush.

Reassemble and turn it on.

Ciao.

Sophisticated cats drink wine, not beer.

My cat prefers Brandy, but I make him use a childs cup and a straw 🙂

But your advice (if executed in a timely manner) is good.

What is a brand for non-residue electrical cleaner? Is it too late to do this now rather than right after the incident occurred?

It's too late to do anything about the initial damage (liquid and electricity do not get on well) dismantling your Mac will make it ineligible for service from Apple so that should be considered. The future is unclear, this must be your decision.

As for a cleaner? products from CAIG are good, check this page. http://www.mcmelectronics.com/browse/Contact-Cleaners/0000000447

so i just spilled some water on my rMBP that I bought a month ago and it appeared not as bad as some of you described (mine didn't turn itself off). The water spilled on the lower part of the keyboard (I'd say up to the second row of the keyboard and down about half of the trackpad). I flipped the laptop upside down immediately and turned off the laptop (yes, from a very awkward position) and wiped the water away with paper towel blablabla.. I accidently turn it on twice while I was cleaning it and it's now sitting on my drying rack being fanned now.

Anyways, I know it's best to have it checked up, but I'm very afraid that the genius will ask me to replace the logic board no matter what 😢. And I know the corrosion might be setting in as I'm typing, but heck, that's the only thing I can do now. My laptop turned on fine when I pressed the power btn (and TWICE!) so I have high hope that it will turn out fine. I'll report back after couple of days.

Don't get me wrong tho, if you have the cash to pay apple to have everything replaced, by all means, go for it. Because you never know how much damage you have done and it's best to replace them all at once.

But if you are like me who have no extra buck to spend, my suggestion is to

1. turn it off and flip it upside down asap (the liquid will create short circuit and fry your board so turn it off before that happens)
2. unplug power cord and other devices that are connected (take off the battery if you can)
3. use towel to dry out any reachable liquid
4. DO NOT turn it on until it's fully dried (by fully dried I mean leaving it for at least a day or two)
5. DO NOT use hair dryer to try to speed up the process (the CPU is very sensitive to temperature and heating it would only shorten its already shortened life)
6. I would suggest not to put it in a bag of rice tho rice is known for absorbing moisture. The rice or its dust might go in through your mac's vents and sticked on the water that's still there. When the water drys out, the dust will then stick to the mac's component causing possible overheat of the component in the future. With that said, if you just happened to have a bunch of moisture absorbing silica gel packs laying around, I wouldn't mind dumping my mac in there.
   

Something you should know tho, I'm not saying following these steps will definitely bring your macs to life -- the TYPE of the liquid, the AMOUNT, the LOCATION will be different for everyone so I can't guarantee you anything. I'm giving these advises simply because, coming from a computer engineering point of view (excuse my grammer), these steps make sense; plus, I dumped my cellphone in the toilet twice couple years ago and it's still working without a problem 😊. But as someone pointed out already, once the liquid goes in, your mac is damaged. Following these steps will only, and maybe, let you use it for another while (maybe weeks, months, years). But that's all I can do now tho.

Good luck to you all, my liquid damaged pal 😉

This brand of cleaner works very well. The success rate with electrical contact cleaners is not that high. The best is to get an ultrasonic cleaner, pour in some alcohol, wash the logic board and then flush it with the electrical contact cleaner and after that, then leave it to dry. I wrote some things to do in my blog.

https://macplussg.wordpress.com/2015/08/20/what-to-do-if-you-spill-water-on-your -mac/

Apple Store geniuses or the case in my country, where we only have Apple Authorised Service Providers in Singapore, usually dismiss any chance of recovery and declare the Mac as dead because the logicboard has corrosion. Most of the time, the logicboard are hardy even after water spills and can be revived.

hey! same thing happened to me.

did ur mac end up working? what else did u do?

thankss!

I recommend that you turn it off, unplug the ac adapter and turn it upside down.

If the battery can be removed, do so. If not, unscrew the bottom case and unplug the internal power connector to the battery.

Next take it to an Apple-authorized technician or the Apple store asap.

A few year ago, I accidentally spilled water on my MacBook. I followed all of the steps above. The battery was removable. The technician kept the laptop overnight. I think that a cold fan was blowing on it. The only lasting damage was that my ctrl key didn't work.

Howard

Good news to you! I'm typing with the very same mac that I had spilled water on and it's working perfectly fine. I opened the back case couple days after and I didn't even see the liquid contact indicator change its color (yes all of them and it took me awhile to find). So I guess even if I have problem later and bring it in to the apple store, the genius can't even tell what's wrong.

hopefully mine ill turn out fine too! how long did u leave it alone for? its been 24 for me and im dyingg to open an see whats up

I was out of town over the weekend so I left it out for about two To three days. Depends on where you are, for example I'm in California where it's super dry, and how much water you spilled. i would say leave it alone for like a two days just to be safe.

Hopefully yours will turns out fine! 🙂

It was about 24 hours.

Howard

I ended up going with an ebay retailer, who does this work and replaces the keyboard..my nephews machine (which he spilled god knows what on) would only boot and the keyboard nor mouse did anything. I put it in the freezer, cooled it down just enough to do a backup. Sent in the machine, and the guy took pictures. It was gunked up.. he did a whole bunch of ultrasonic cleaning and de-gooing of the internals, fans, etc..

All in it was 99$ which included shipping back to me (and out bound I THINK)..had it back in four days total.

For the money I think it was very worth it.

I'm not going to advertise here, but if anyone wants a link email me @gmail. or pm.