Trackpad destroyed after one drop of water?

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Christina70 Author

Level 1

7 points

Trackpad destroyed after one drop of water?

Hello,

I've had a 2010 MCB (warranty expired last month):

1. Water on my trackpad:

Yesterday I wiped my keyboard and trackpad with a moistured cloth/paper.

After restarting the computer, my trackpad (cursor) suddenly started acting up. I've seen this issue before on Lenovo when a friend spilled water over his keyboard.

I figured that somehow one or two drops must somehow gotten into the trackpad. I took out the battery, wiped everything around. There was no visible residue of water or a problem as far as I could tell.

Anyhow I used hair fan to dry the area and then put it for 3 hours (open without the battery) under hot flowing air from an aircon.

Screwed everything together after a few hours. First two minutes, everything was fine, then the trackpad started acting up again. Now sometimes it's fine(worked 2 hours without any issues, perfectly responsive), other times it doesn't work - like now when I got up and tried to use the computer again.

What else can be done? The amount of water was truly miniscule. Where I should look to clean it? What else to do?

I've tried to browse older threads and some people said this should take care of itself after a while..I don't understand how though. If there is some water residue somwhere on the contacts, how would it fix itself?

I am now using external mouse while with trackpad turned off.

2. Failed ATH hard ware test from CD

I tired to run the ATH test, stopped at 4.33min, got stuck. I could click on "stop test" button and move the cursor, but no response. Had to abort with shut down. Didn't attempt again.

btw. the trackpad acted up also in this "mode"..ie. excluding the possibility that it's a software issue.

Please help - i.e. tell me how to clean this thing.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6)

Posted on Aug 6, 2013 6:59 PM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

PlotinusVeritas

Level 6

14,878 points

Aug 6, 2013 7:21 PM in response to Christina70

I assume since youre posting this in the Macbook forum youre talking about the trackpad on your Pro, and not the wifi trackpad powered by 2 AA batts.

You should NOT continue to try to use it, you can easily cause further harm, a daisy-chain of shorts and damage.

Takes even LESS than 2 drops of water to damage it the trackpad, heres a pic of the Mac trackpad, ....there are a lot there to damage.

When you wiped it, likely too hard, you squeezed water around the seam and into the TP circuitry. 😟

make a Apple store appointment for repair/diagnostics,.....you should NOT continue to try to use/dry it out.

*Since its out of warranty, if you or someone else is skilled enough you could remove (IF youre skilled enough) the trackpad, and use desicant on the trackpad in a sealed box with a heating pad under it (repairmans trick). At worst, youd need (assuming nothing else is damaged) a new replacement trackpad.

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Answer 2

Aug 6, 2013 10:01 PM in response to Christina70

that depends on ambient humidity. i assume you have it and the rice sealed in a bag etc? give it a heating pad on medium treatment for a day

cracking open the trackpad is a one way process to get to everything...dont do that. Yes. you can use a mouse if you want. however thats an undesirable option im sure

if it turns out dead you can get a working used trackpad online from an apple part repair store or parts dist.

once its dried out totally you can still have residue that could block a contact.

or if a microresistor or contact bridge is already burned out,... then all the drying in the world isnt going to help it work

they sell desicant in hobby stores hardware stores etc

if it turns out dead a used working trackpad is relatively cheap fix

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Answer 3

Christina70 Author

Level 1

7 points

Aug 6, 2013 7:55 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

PlotinusVeritas,

thank you for your message. Yes I think you're right with the following: "you squeezed water around the seam and into the TP circuitry. 😟"

I don't have a warranty on this anymore so I need to fix it myself.

I'd like to try one ore thing..what do you think about it: take out the trackpad (i can do it, not totally new to computers..) and put it into a box with rice..I've heard that this works wonders too.

I don't have a desicant with me right now.

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Answer 4

Aug 6, 2013 8:03 PM in response to Christina70

RIce is extremely sloooooow to do that and a bad idea, the rice dust can get onto contacts and burn out a component......

For 5$ go to the hobby store and buy desicant and do the "box trick" i mentioned.

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Answer 5

Christina70 Author

Level 1

7 points

Aug 6, 2013 9:43 PM in response to PlotinusVeritas

I See...well I have left my house already...with the trackpad now firmly planted in a rice bag....can't do anything bout it now just hope it will be okay. I am in Japan currently so buying a new trackpad might not be as easy here as in the U.s. where you can order one from amaon for 40usd. Would you if Genius Bar sells such prts as well? In case I need a new one. I can install it myself, no need to pay another 50dolllars for 5min. Work. As for the desiccant...where would you look for it? In wht kind of a store? I don't have ny experience with this stuff nd would need to have a better idea before hitting the streets here.

one more question...or two if you allow me...supposedly it wil eventually dry out...how long will it take? A day, two, three? I have read somewhere on the web that some people experienced the same thing and that it sort of fixed itself after a while?

secondly, I really need the laptop for my work..cannot afford not using it for more than 2-3days. Suppose it won't get fixed but I would continue using the computer with the trackpad switched off while using a USB mouse, would that be a possible solution?..ie. I want to avoid harming my computer further.

BTw. I suppose I can't open the trackpad itself to look inside and potentially look for water reside? Well the part seems pretty sealed off two me but the picture above suggests there s more to it than the thing which is currently in my rice bag.

thabks for your help.

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