Water Spilled on new MBP...Help!!

Hi guys,

After 7 months trying to get a refund for my faulty Asus R1f I finally bought an MBP. 5 days later my workmate (and I now use the term with reservation) has just spilled an entire cup of water through the right speaker. What the hell do I do now? Even if I dry it off what are my chances of having a working laptop from everyones experience? Can Apple track the watermarks on the motherboard (which will void the warranty). How much is a replacement motherboard (in Europe preferably) and does anyone know where I can get one from.

Oh please god help.

Thanks in advance.

 

well, take the battery out... and fan that sucker for like 10 days strait... use canned air.... DONT PLUG IT IN OR TRY TO TURN IT ON!!!!!!! and after a week or 2 of drying it, then try it..... if it dont work.... go to the apple store

 

Stick it in the airing cupboard for at least a week, of its side so any water can drain off out through shortest exit

 

I say go make your workmate buy a new one!

 

This is gonna sound really stupid but I'm in a frenzy (my assignments are due in 1 week and without this laptop it is gonna go bad = end of career).

If water enters the speaker grill will it hit the motherboard?

The photo here, 2nd down, seems to show the motherboard protected by some plating. Is this perforated or solid plating to protect from this kind of thing.

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1697,2119531,00.asp

 

This sounds like sabotage to me but if you are in need of a laptop fast and have some documents to write and they are already on this MBP, buy a cheap new notebook and take the harddrive of the MBP and put it on to the new notebook.

 

Yeah, I'd say you have to let the MBP dry out for a few days. In the meantime, is there any computer in say the library or something where you can get it done?

 

Definitely do not turn that thing on for at least a week if you want to be sure it will survive. Any sort of power right now could damage it. As long as it is just water you should be fine as long as nothing shorted already when the battery was on. If it is any other liquid, especially sugary, you could be in trouble.

As for your work stuff, try to find a loaner somewhere. Friend, colleague (the doofus that spilled the water maybe?), library, college, etc.

 

Go buy a cheap laptop from one of the big stores and use it for a week or two... then return it when you think your MBP has dried up

 

I hope your workmate feels real bad. Is there not a computer repair business in your town that could take care of the problem and hopefully do all that is possible to ensure your MBP stays in working order. It was quite an investment I don't think I would want to take care of that on my own...I would invest in repair service and have our workmate pay for it.

-Mike

 

man there was jus a thing on this in PC world a few months ago but i dont really remember it. the onlything i remember is jus try to take it apart asmuch as you are comfortable doing so the water can evaporate. and also if you can get the HDD out put it in a external case and try to save all your files to another computer.

 

my girlfriend spilled hot sauce on my macbook pro...

she made the sad puppy face. there was nothing i could do.

but it didn't get inside the machine; just to the left of the trackpad.

im not sure what will happen to the physical components inside the machine when water strikes. ie- the speaker might be damaged.

as for the electrical components, as long as they were not powered on when the water contacted the components, and as long as they are not powered on when water is on them, they should be fine. even if the machine was on, if it was turned off really quickly that could still be true.

i have literally submerged a (desktop) motherboard in water to clean it. im crazy, i know, but it worked.

 

That has always been my greatest fear. I remember when I got my first laptop my first thought was "If I spill water into this keyboard, I'm ****ed."

Luckily YOU learn to be careful around such valuable and expensive, and for some of us irreplaceable equipment.

It's a shame we can't say the same for our friends and colleagues, which is why I trust no one. Beverages are never allowed near my machine or any object that could "leak" any liquid onto this puppy. Also, objects must be properly weighted and secured, we don't want anything falling onto this delicate machine.

Anyways, enough rambling. If you're handy with a screw driver, you could take the MBP apart and let each piece air dry. After you're positive that the components are dry, reassemble them. Plug it in and power it up. Beware though, as disassembling the MBP will void the warranty.

As someone else mentioned, if there is very valuable date on your hard disk, you may want to remove it from the damaged MBP temporarily and install it into an external cage so you can copy the contents of it. Since there's a real possibility that the logic board could short out and damage any devices connected to it once you power it up.

Let us know how this progresses. Since it's just water, there's a possibility that it'll be just fine.

 

If you shut it off realitively quick and it was just water, then it should be fine in a day or two. If it was pure water the damage potential from shorting is pretty small, especially if it was distilled water, distilled water doesn't conduct very well at all. if you leave it a warmer area of your house with air blowing on it, it will dry out pretty fast since its just water. the most potential for damage is if liquids ground power terminals, thats what kills things quick. but since the main power board is on the other side from where you said the water was spilled, i think it will be fine.

 

unfortunately, i doubt that anyone spilled a glass of DI water lol.

normal water does have electrolytes and does conduct electricity.

 

and don't forget the delicious levels of chlorine! Though it may not have been distilled water, more than likely it could have been bottled water, with less chlorine.

 

Take it apart, air it out.

http://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Mac/MacBook-Pro-15-Inch-Core-Duo/Hard-Drive/85/5/

 

dont forget the minerals and metals in water .

but part of my point is that with just pure water (distilled or not), there is much less of a chance of it causing a short then say soup or soda. Water is weird that way in that some times it will short things instantly, and other times it doesn't. It partly has to do with the voltage and current that is flowing.

For example, a car can become submerged and the electrical system can stay operative for a while. It really depends.

and for the guy that said he washed a motherboard with water, i've done that many times to my microcontroller dev board, and then dryed with a towel and started using it again right away. it doesn't hurt, and thouroghly cleans it (except for that darn solder flux, that stuffs a pain to get off).

And on another segway, I once saw a site that sealed a tower and filled it with cooking (veggie oil?, not sure) for cooling and it worked just fine since it didn't conduct electrically, just thermally (no moving part devices left in)

also i personally i wouldn't bother opening it. just a warm location with a fan blowing on it would be sufficient to dry it in a day.

 

I've worked in computer repairs, the bad thing about water is how freely it flows, it gets easily inside everything, while sugary beverages often only wreck the keyboard (so viscous that they don't even flow properly! yummy).

A good technician can see that it's water damage, there may even be water sensitive stickers in choice places to aid with diagnostics (haven't taken my MBP apart to check).
The damage can be from none to complete. You HAVE TO dry it out for a while, if you don't take it apart, 1-2 weeks. If you can rip it to shreds, one day or so. However, before ripping it apart, check if either you or the "saboteur" has any insurance coverage that might take care of this. If so, DO NOT TAKE IT APART at all. That would mess up the insurance claim.

 

The MBP is actually pretty resistant to water.
I had a roof leak that spilled a bunch of water on it. While it was on.
My ferret also knocked over a full glass of water onto it. Unplugged it, removed battery and drained the water.
Don't remember if I did anything else, but let it sit for about a day and it worked fine.