Don't panic: Liquid damage, and what to do about it

Someday I'd love it if a journalist actually did the research to determine exactly how much it would cost to replace every part in a MBP individually... maybe I'll write that article. I find it disturbing that replacement parts are so explotatively expensive... and we're not talking the labor to put the part in, just the cost to replace an LCD panel, or board, or keyboard... I'd be ok with them making the same profit on parts they do on a unit, but I swear it's got to be a 200% mark-up.

My friend spilled Bailey's on my unibody trackpad when we were doing car bombs this st pattys. I turned it upside down and everything, but not before he tried to brush it from the safety of the glass covered track pad off of the front, thereby sending a bunch of baileys down the front of my mac and in the crevice between the trackpad and the body.

The click stopped working the next day, but that's it. I was actually able to get the whole machine replaced after wiping up the inside. I don't feel I cheated as it wasn't my fault.

I had my MacBook next to my Time Capsule when I spilled a glass of Mountain Dew right between them. I managed to lift both to safety right before the liquid touched them, so no harm was done, but I never take any drinks over to that desk any more.

A very bad reflex is to tilt to have the superdrive closer to the ground. While you might think it is a good idea, saving your precious files and your harddrive, it's actually one of the most expensive part if you need a replacement from apple. HD: less than 100$, Superdrive, more than 400$.
Do your backups, and tilt it on the other side. Chances are your hard drive will survive, since it is air tight sealed.

The motherboard is the part where you keyboard sits, so be sure there is no water there and that you don't use it as an evacuation point.

As always try at your own risk, but I have recovered wet electronics by quick removal of all power (even MB battery if easy to reach!) and then rinsing in distilled water. Then take said electronics (open notebook if a notebook) wrap with nice terrycloth or non-linty cloth/towels. Preheat oven to 200 degrees F. Not C ... please not C!!!! turn oven off. Insert electronics wrapped in cloth. Close door. Wait 4-6 hours. Remove.

Don't put the battery in the oven. NO NO NO. And this can damage some capacitors. (the heat)... So you risk loss of the equipment.

It will work sometimes. It allows residues to be removed. The worst I recovered from was an accident involving dishwasher detergent solution that a part was soaking in that miraculously moved 4 feet and down onto some electronics (cats are wonderful aren't they). This is a very caustic solution. It will destroy the PC etch if not removed. This method saved the electronic device.

This same method killed (re-killed, made finally and totally dead) a keyboard from an orange soda spill. So ... YMMV. Really really last resort.

If you have a 10% humidity or so environment, just wash with de-ionized/distilled water and let dry in the low humidity environment.

Tjp

I onced spilled half a liter of beer over my Macbook Pro. Did mostly what you are advising. It turned out that the Keyboard was totally soaked, and after even disambling and cleaning the keyboard, the macbook wasn't able to turn on anymore. So I decided to buy a new keyboard on ebay for 20$US, and here I am one and a half year later, writing on a completley functional Macbook Pro

I let my daughter use my laptop to watch a movie cuz i wanted to watch something on tv and she wouldnt leave me alone about watching this movie... about 20 min later she came and told me that the movie stopped working, all she did was try to clean the laptop with a wet rag... FmyLife...
I let cleand it up and let it dry out... almost following these steps... it boots and work ok... just the letters in the keyboard go crazy and will run "e's or w's" accross the screen.,...

I bought a MacBook last March to replace my first generation iBook G4 which finally died. After just 8 months I spilled coffee all over the keyboard early one Saturday morning. Quickly unplugged the AC adapter and took out the keyboard. Flipped the MacBook upside down and drained the coffee.

The MacBook wouldn't start for two days and later, when it did start, it would fall asleep before fully loading Mac OS X. I tried all the usual tricks but nothing would fix it. Apple quoted me $1,100.00 so I bought a new aluminum MacBook. A couple of weeks later I was on eBay and came across a listing for a repair service that promised to fix water damaged MacBooks for just $175 including return shipping. Sent it off and a week later it came back 100% operational. Money well spent.

Funny thing, about two weeks after that I cracked open the iBook G4 and reflowed the solder on the chip that caused it to fail. Fixed it right up and now I have three Mac portables, though the iBook G4 is certainly showing its age.

Sloshed coffee on the MBPro. I immediately turned it upside down and pulled the battery. I used an absorbent microfiber towel to try to pull as much liquid as possible out of the keyboard (leaving it upside down). I left the machine hanging off the edge of a table--screen hanging, keyboard on the towel, changing towels periodically until I saw no liquid at all. Many hours later I put the whole thing into a small trash bag with a cloth bag of silica gel (it's a sachet for dehudifying closets). I left that for more than 24 hours.

I did take it to the Apple Store. They quoted me $1200 to replace the top case and logic board. I then took it to a local independent Mac store (Mac Outlet in Denver), where they told me they would replace only what was damaged. Based on their evaluation of the disassembled machine, they ended up replacing only the keyboard and trackpad. Total bill: about $200.

It's been 8 months. I have some trouble with USB hard drives not mounting, but no issues with other USB devices; no problems with any other ports. Every now and then I get odd behavior from the keyboard--missed or repeated keystrokes--but that could certainly be blamed on the silicone keyboard skin I installed!

I spilt a glass of red wine in my MacBook while on holiday in Trinidad. I switched it off, removed the battery and tried to mop up as much as I could. Being very humid I wasn't sure if the thing would dry out. I left the computer on it's side on a cloth. When we travelled to Barbados a few days later I left the MacBook outside in the breeze. I had tried switching it on and nothing happened. On the last day in Barbados I switched it on and it worked.

When I upgraded the memory recently I had to clean the old SIMM's and remove the red wine before photographing and selling them on eBay.

The only problem I have now - almost a year later - is a very noisey fan. I'm going to get the laptop taken to bits and washed when I can afford it. Also I bought an external HD just for Time Machine.

Now when I sit at my computer the drink goes behind the laptop, but usually I leave my desk to have a drink and then come back.