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Spilled soda on my Macbook--- HELP!!! WONT TURNBACK ON !!!

Hi,

Just spilled soda on my macbook and the screen went black and I can't turn it back on.. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks

macbook, Mac OS X (10.4.7)

Posted on Feb 11, 2007 1:51 PM

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Posted on Feb 11, 2007 1:55 PM

I think you are SOS (Suddenly Out Of Luck)!

You may want to take it to an Apple Store or a Geek Squad at a Best Buy and see if they can do something about it.

Try taking the battery out and letting it dry out.
14 replies

Feb 11, 2007 2:09 PM in response to thefalkon1960

DON'T try to turn it back on! Take out all removable parts like the battery and dry them with a soft cloth. Then turn it upside down in an open position like an upside-down V and wait a couple of days so it can dry out completely before trying to turn it back on. If it still won't turn on then, you can take it to an Apple repair place and see if there's anything they can do.

Feb 11, 2007 5:57 PM in response to dobes918

Dobes, thats good advice. A few years ago, I spilled a beer in my old clamshell iBook. I immediately turned it off, took out the battery, and let it dry a few days. Luckily, it was fine afterwards, although it had a fairly malty smell when it warmed up. My then 2 year old also decided to give a Dell laptop a drink of iced tea (about a quart). Did the same routine, although when it dried out the keyboard had to be replaced due to sticking keys. I'd think with soda that would also be the case.

As far as the Zcovers, are those really a good idea? I thought the MacBooks took in air for cooling through the keyboard.

Feb 11, 2007 11:22 PM in response to Joe Cleghorn

Yeah, I also learned about that the hard way. I once tripped over the carpet on my way into a room where my tiny Sony laptop was on and waiting for me, and splashed water all over it. I freaked and sent it to Sony repair, and they told me it needed a new motherboard, which would cost $800. The laptop was 3 years old at the time, so I just bought a new one, though I couldn't afford it, and told Sony to send the old one back unrepaired. A week later, I tried to turn it on just to see if I could get it up long enough to get data off my hard drive, and it WORKED! Of course, I don't know how much longer it would have worked before rust from the spill corroded the circuits, but at the time I was a little upset that I had just spent so much on a new one.

Another time I put my cell phone in the washing machine, and again, 3 days later, after a thorough drying-out, it worked, and this time it worked for 2 more years, with the only damage being a slightly sticky #9 key.

Since then, I've read that the key to preserving any possible recovery of a wet laptop is NOT to turn it on until it's completely dried out, and to take out and wipe off any removable parts, including battery, hard drive, memory chips, and keyboard keys, as soon as you can.

And, of course, you shouldn't eat or drink or put glasses or bottles down near a laptop. But ** does happen.

And the reason I didn't suggest going to Apple straight off is exactly what other people said -- the spill will void your warranty, and repair is likely to be as expensive as a new computer.

Feb 12, 2007 12:21 AM in response to dobes918

Do not try with your computer, but my wife spilt some cranberry juice on a cell phone. Did some research, and it was mentioned if you dunk you cell in water on accident, they you could dunk it in rubbing alcohol? right away and it would displace the water. Leave it do dry a few days, and should work. It seemed that it worked for a few ppl, but we did not try it as it was too late.

After a while her phone eventually died, and Sony very 'nicely' pointed out to us the corrosion inside. Off to the store. Maybe I can get the iPhone next if 'accidentally' spill coffee?

Spinner

Mar 22, 2007 7:06 AM in response to thefalkon1960

I am in the same situation as you, foolishly i tried to turn on my Macbook after the screen went out but i tried it after i dump all the mountain dew out and unplugged the power and everything else. It didn't work. I freaked and went straight to a Mac reseller which told me it would be $125 to take it apart and clean it and see if anything needed to be replaced. Well after a week of waiting and about 100 emails to the Techy it turns out that all they intended to do was take off the keyboard and just LOOK at the board, no cleaning whatsoever. He said he saw some corrison on the board and it would be $250 to clean it completly and then i would be charged for all the parts needed to fix it. So i came to my senses and took it back home. About 2 weeks later i tried to power it up with just the power adapter and amazingly it worked. I took it completely apart and everything was sticky but i took some alchol to it and reduced it a lot. I then looked at the connection from the logic board to the battery connection and it looked like it was fried i am going to try and test the actual battery and hope it isn't my logic board because if it is I just made my nice Macbook laptop into a nice Macbook desktop. If anyone has any suggestions on how to go about cleaning it further to remove all the stickiness and troubleshooting the battery connection it would be VERY much appricated.

Spilled soda on my Macbook--- HELP!!! WONT TURNBACK ON !!!

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