SOLVED - Minor water damage on MacBook Pro; it won't turn on.

I know this post is super, super long. I spilled water on my MacBook pro, mid 2010 and it wouldn't turn on, but, after a span of 5 days, my laptop is back to normal!!! I did NOT buy anything or leave my laptop at ANY stores. I think everything I have to say about my issue is relevant... So, if you have the same issue I did, bear with me. I hope you will benefit and learn from my mistakes and my successes!!

I have a 13" MacBook Pro mid 2010. On November 22 (5 days ago), I decided to do something very stupid. I was doing the dishes and instead of wasting my time washing the dishes, I thought I could multitask by watching TV at the same time. I know, I know, very, very stupid. So anyway I'm scrubbing away at a dish and water splashes everywhere. A few droplets flew onto my MacBook Pro, but I didn't think anything of it because it wasn't a lot of water. I kept scrubbing, and as I the movie I was watching progressed, I accidentally splashed more water droplets on the keyboard of my Mac. Again, I didn't think much of it, but I did wipe off the keyboard this time and the next few times that water fell on it. I did notice that some of the water seemed to seep through the keys of the keyboard.

So, after I finished the movie (it had a horrible ending, by the way), I set the laptop down on my desk and went off to do some other work. I came back a few minutes later to look up something on my laptop and it was working fine. This was sometime around 6 o'clock. Later that night, I tried opening my Macbook Pro, but it wouldn't turn on! I pressed the power button about a million times, but nothing worked. I plugged the laptop into the charger, and the green light did show up... It was very puzzling and I was very nervous that I had stupidly ruined my laptop. So, I set the laptop down on my desk, right side up (the Apple facing up). If you are having the same issue as I did, FLIP YOUR LAPTOP FACE DOWN IMMEDIATELY.

I went to bed with a terrible ache in my stomach. The next morning, November 23, I woke up and the first thing I did was open up the laptop and press the power button several times. Nothing happened. This is when I started to get really worried. On top of a damaged laptop, my DVD was stuck in the disk slot, and it was a library-borrowed DVD. So, I started looking up solutions to my problem online. Almost instantly, I realized that, if, indeed, it was water that had damaged my laptop, I should have flipped the laptop upside down immediately and powered it off. At this point, I was smacking my head against the wall for being so foolish and careless. I continued to search the internet and found a bunch of videos and answered questions in computer support communities, but nothing proved to be a definite solution to my problem. I tried a bunch of keyboard resets, but nothing worked.

I decided to take a risk and I unscrewed the back side of the MacBook. I had seen some videos that said that something about the mother/logic board being the key to my problem. I was a little iffy to touch the logic board because I thought I would mess up the laptop. I am definitely not a computer expert of sorts! But, eventually, I took the risk and unattached all the wiring/cords that were hooked up to the board. Here was an additional problem that arose: the screws holding the logic board in place needed a special star-shaped screwdriver. I didn't have the means to come by that special screwdriver. I thought I was screwed... Which I was, at the moment.

But, a little creative thinking helped me. I used two thin, screwdrivers––not the Phillips, the other kind with one edge, I'm not sure what they're called––and put them both in the star-shaped screw backing. Simultaneously, I pushed the two screwdrivers down and counterclockwise, which caused the screws to unscrew!!!! I was feeling a little better about myself at this time. The only problem was, one screw was VERY hard to twist out. So, I stopped doing what I was doing and, though I didn't screw back in the other star-shaped screws or re-attach the wiring/cords, I did replace the back cover of my laptop.

Next, I tried unplugging the battery and powering on the laptop. It didn't help. I played around with the charger and the battery, but that did not help either. So then, I left it flipped upside down, as I should have done from the start and which I really, really, really, really, regretted not doing.

I chatted with the Apple Support team on the website and spoke to them about my problem. They said that the best way to diagnose the issue would be for me to take it into an Apple Store. So, I looked up appointments and they were all booked for about two weeks! I called Cornice, which was on the list of Apple authorized stores, but they said that they would charge me $100 for my laptop to be looked at. Furthermore, they would charge me $200 for a diagnosis and, on TOP of that, they were 'backed up' so they wouldn't even have the time to check out my laptop for 10 business days! How ridiculous!!!!! Although they were very polite, I declined their offer for me to stop by the store.

Fortunately and fatefully, my sister had made an appointment at an Apple Store for that day, November 23, because her laptop had been acting up. A classmate of hers had fixed her laptop, so she offered to give me her appointment and I gratefully accepted! The people at the Apple Store were ultimately SUPER, SUPER, SUPER unhelpful. They 'looked' at my MacBook Pro. What I mean by that is, first, I explained my issue, then they tried a few things. In the end, they opened up the back to take a look at the motherboard. They didn't even take it apart or really touch it or anything!!!! They just assumed it was the logic board that was damaged. I wanted a second opinion, obviously.

I made an appointment with Best Buy and their Geek Squad for November 25. In the few days that I had to wait for my appointment, I made sure to leave the laptop upside down. Eventually, I reconnected all the wirings/cords and re-screwed all the annoying star-shaped screws and the back cover.

BUT GUESS WHAT. IT WAS BLACK FRIDAY THE DAY of my APPOINTMENT. I DIDN'T REALIZE IT UNTIL I DROVE INTO THE LOT AND HAD TO WAIT ABOUT 25 MINUTES TO find a PARKING SPOT. I was really upset. People are crazy on Black Friday. But anyway, I walked into the store, which was PACKED. And I made my way to the Geek Squad area. A rude worker told me that I had to wait at the end of a long, long, long, long line to even speak with the Geek Squad EVEN THOUGH I HAD AN APPOINTMENT. After a few minutes, I left the store, ******. I had driven half an hour to the store.

Anyway, I came back home and oh my God I was so disheartened. BUT THEN I TRIED TO POWER ON MY LAPTOP. And the gray apple screen came on!!!!!! But, then it crashed while the laptop was loading??!! So I pressed it again and again and the same thing kept on happening. A weird clicking noise also happened every time the laptop crashed. On a weird hunch, I maneuvered into a position where I held the laptop, while it was opened, face down. It looked like a number 7 shape, if you didn't get what I meant. Then, I pressed the power button. The laptop turned on! It also powered on all the way, to the login screen! I had figured that something with the wiring or the water damage was in better shape when the laptop was face down.... Or something... Anyway, it worked! But... Guess what. It crashed. So, I did the same thing, and then I quickly ejected the DVD when the login screen came on! By this time I was thanking God like crazy. Also at this time, I promised myself and God that if my laptop ended up fixed and in a good working condition, I would share my crazy story with the Apple community so that perhaps I could help somebody else out.

Upon turning the laptop face up, the system crashed. I did multiple keyboard resets that I found on the internet and messed around with the battery again to see if I could fix anything. It didn't. The same thing kept happening. Crash. Crash. Crash. But then, I read something that said to click shift while the laptop was booting up, to put it in a Safe Boot. This worked! To an extent. It allowed the laptop to stay powering on for a longer time, and multiple times, this turned out to be up until the login screen or until I logged into my account. Note that this was with the laptop sitting down and facing normally. I also tried accessing the Disk Utility by pressing Command R during the boot up. This didn't really help, although it did the same thing Safe Boot did: elongate the time it took for the laptop to crash.

I had almost given up hope, because the internet offered no answers and Apple was of NO help at all. So, I left my laptop face down on November 24, 25, and 26. I'll admit, I did try and mess around with it some more. Each of those days, I made the laptop turn on and crash at least 10 times, if not quadruple that.

Today, November 27, I was able to get the laptop not to crash for a little while longer than usually. By this, I mean, I was able to log into my account, and access Safari for a few minutes. I don't know how or why. It might have been the miracle of time. It could have been all the times I messed around with resets and powering on the laptop. I think it was time though. If I had just been patient for a few days, my laptop probably would have been fine and I would've worried less. But then, as always, it crashed.

That was in the morning. A few hours ago, I was feeling very fed up with all the nonsense. I was feeling very helpless. Please note that I am not normally a violent person. But, I was sitting on a chair with the laptop on my lap and I forcefully, although not very powerfully (I'm a small person), I smacked the laptop on the right side of the keyboard, on the left side of the keyboard, on the right side of the touchpad, and on the left side of the touchpad. And then a few minutes later, I power on my 13" MacBook Pro mid 2010. And it POWER ON FULLY AND DID NOT CRASH. AT ALL. AT ALL AT ALL. I WAS SO, SO, SO HAPPY. Still am. And still am thanking God for this miracle. I am keeping my promise and posting about this.

I hope this helped someone. I know it's an unorthodox method of fixing a device. Ultimately, time will help you, though. My mom had told me to put it in a box of rice because that's the way you can fix your phone if it has water damage. I didn't try it because I didn't have a huge bag of rice handy, but maybe you will find that it will help you.

If you read through this all, I really do wish you the best. Don't give up hope.