Macbook and coffee damage

I received a laptop which has suffered from liquid damage, coffee to be exact. I tried to clean motheboard and keyboard as much as I could (I took the machine apart and removed motherboard for cleaning).

The machine does not react to power button, all it does is battery recharging. I have noticed that if I leave power cord attached for a while processor and chipset heatsink gets warm which is weird.

Suggestions, is it simply a dead laptop?

 

probably a fried logic board and maybe more.... nothing cheap to fix...

 

dead mainboard. as doh said not a cheap fix

 

There is some things you can try, however, coffee and anything with sugar isn't going to be easy.

First off, I hope you removed ALL POWER. Battery and power supply as QUICKLY as possible, and wait 2 days... don't try to restart it, you will just destroy your computer.

Open up your computer.... if you don't know how goto iFixit: The free repair manual they have excellent manuals.

Physically look at the mainboard itself. Its possible that you may just have a bad top case. In that case its about $150.

If you can identify the spill area, you can try to fix the damage yourself, although, it doesn't always work its worth a shot.

You need: Isopropyl Alcohol, Q-tips, and a regular pencil eraser.

First test the board your working on with the alchohol and make sure your not taking up the coating on the board, it would turn green, but I haven't had a problem with the apple's before.

Second, dampen the q-tip... don't drench it. Clean the affected area lightly. Do not put anything on the capacitors, since they text to absorb the alcohol, and eventually could break down all the glue they use on certain things.

Third, let it dry for at LEAST 24hours. I know it appears to dry fast, but wait.

Fourth, if you see any corrosion on your board, use the simple pencil eraser to remove it. BE VERY CAREFUL.

Fifth, use compressed air to clean the board off.


After all this you can put it back together to see if it will turn on. If your topcase is fried, you can "hotwire" your computer to run without the top case. You would have to look up on how to do it however. (its marked by a small power symbol, and you would need a screw driver to bridge the two soder points.)


DISCLAIMER: Not only does this void the warranty, but this is ONLY a last resort measure usually done by professionals... Please ONLY do this if there are NO options left to you.

 

You can also remove the top case
Disconnect the ribbon cable from the top case and connect
the other end of the ribbon cable back onto the logic board as normal.
Now just brush the other end of the ribbon cable contacts with something metallic for a split second such as aluminum foil.
This will trip on the momentary power switch of the logic board.
IF it powers on, you know the upper case "Keyboard - Trackpad, Power switch failed due to the spill. "eBay for a replacement"

Look closely at the ribbon cable, if it did not power on, less likely but i have seen a trace within the ribbon burn out as well.

If you find corrosion, normally on the underside of the logic board near the pram battery and the unit IS dry.
In most cases it is BEST not to try and clean that off as doing so usually will make things worse as it will likely then destroy the traces underneath.

A little baking soda and water on a q-tip will dilute any possible acid corrosion from the pram battery.
Since there was no means to disconnect the pram battery in a timely fashion without removing the logic board, i have found many times the small amount of electricity from that battery develops some surface board corrosion.
If you try to remove it, you are likely going to damage traces.

 

0.0 umm idk if I would try to hotwire it that way. Ribbon cables aren't always the best to scratch aluminum foil against.

 

Have done it for years.
The end if the ribbon has the necessary contact points.
Put it this way, I had one water damage unit that was also in very bad physical case condition. The owner dropped it a few times.
So the case had several breaks and the screen was cracked.
They used it like a desktop due to the broken screen.
Then they spilled onto it.
When i received it for parts.
Not worth fixing up.
The top case was bad, pulled that ribbon cable, had it routed into the battery compartment, taped it in position so that you could reach under it without looking and press the ribbon onto the metal case/underside of the keyboard within the compartment, this would turn it on with NO ill effects, there is only one very low voltage lead there on the cable to trip the power.
used it as a mac mini like desktop media player DVR for a few years connected to a big screen and a couple HD Homerun network tuners.

My point is, the average user is not really interested in investing $s into something that may or may not last at this point.

This can be done at no cost.

The only part sold on that unit was the battery.

Now i have a few top case ribbons, when i see someone local selling their unit, i invite them over for free test.
If it turns on, i give them the choice to sell or lead them to eBay for the right top case.

It has saved many of sellers.

 

*Shrug* I just go by the two solder points... mostly because Apple put them their for a reason, plus you don't have to wonder about the ribbon being bad.

Plus there is no extra cost to try to jump it that way, you just need a screwdriver. When in doubt I will always go by what is intended.

 

I have 2006 model which does not have the power symbol printed on the circuit board, there is however text "PWR BTN" and those contact pads, but there is already a resistor soldered connecting them. Apparently Late 2007 has different motherboard.

Picture: http://lolled.net/kuvaus2/out.php?i=8150_pic.jpg

 

Actually almost all the models have a slightly different board.

http://forums.macrumors.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=254301&d=1286070213

taken from this thread

http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=396807

Thats what it looks like... but your right after looking at the 2006 board doesn't have that on there...

I am kinda in a weird spot cause the only information I can give you is the stuff I find on the web, not anything from Apple sources or trainings that I have or haven't received

Try the ribbon cable, cause I can't find a source for it.

 

Okay, I will the ribbon thing. I had left the machine with battery connected (no charger) and again it has gotten warm... weird.

 

Hmm a bad sign, means something is conducting and absorbing the power in your computer to create that heat...

 

Sorry about my english, but do you mean that there could still be coffee stains or something similar responsible for that or do you mean that some capacitors etc. have permanently gone bad?