Disaster! Spilled beer on new macbook pro!

I have had my macbook pro for 2 days and I love it! Then my friend knocked over my beer and it went all over my new macbook :mad: ! Probably about a quarter of a cup went on it. I unplugged it and removed the battery put it upside down and let it drain and of course wiped the screen since it happened to get some beer on it. Once everything seemed dry I set up a fan and put it on my powerbook for 24hrs. Then I turned it on and it works! The only problem seems to be the lcd screen. Some must have leaked through the frame it is the bottom right. It seems a little lighter than the normal screen. But seems to be drying out a little as the corner is the normall darkness. Above all I am happy it is nothing catastrophic and I can live with my computer!

Another thing is my friend who is really aggravating me hahah. Thought he knew how to take the keys off so we could clean under the keys broke my tab key and the scissor :mad:. Does anyone know if the keys are the same as the 15" powerbook? Thanks

Did you break his legs? Or at least punch him in the face?

yes, take my advice and :censor: kill your freind:mad:

http://img228.imageshack.us/my.php?image=e71403ec.jpg

Sell it! I'll be the first to offer $200 for it. Lol..
On a serious note.. i'd try to take it apart and clean it off with alcohol.

1. dont drink beer near your notebook, unless said notebook is on an icurve or other stand of some sort.

2. dont try to fix things you dont know how to fix.

3. take care of your $2000 toy.

this has been a lesson in 'taking care of your macbook pro' with iREZ.

i would do is i would take it to apple store. ask them how much it would cost for a full repair. and ask your friend pay that. and then make him sign a contract - legal and binding - where he promises to pay for this and any future repairs directly related to this beer spilling incident.

its harsh but thats what you have to do. i had a friend who broken something brand new of mine (not a laptop, it was worth $500), i didnt make them pay for the repair and just "put it back together" as best i could. and when i continued to have problems down the line this "friend" refused to do anything or provide any $$$ help.

Just disassemble it and wash off the beer residue with distilled water and canned air. Let everything dry for at least 3 days (24h is NOT enough!) and then reassemble.

As for the keyboard... did he actually break the parts, or did they just come apart? The big keys like tab are a little more complicated, but you can just put everything back in place and off you go.

tooki

someone spilled wine all over my Ti 667 powerbook back in the day on new years eve, it never ran again.. and I never found out who was responsible for it (It was setup recording abunch of friends putting on a concert at my cousins house)... I took it apart adn cleaned every part of it, applecare wanted $900 to fix it... instead I jus stripped it apart and sold it part by part on ebay except the mother board, I think I got about $900 for it in total......... too bad it had cost $2200

He already tried to clean it with alcohol, Doh! :P

hey yes, he actually broke the key and the scissor part and there is no way of putting it back together, when i get back to college this weekend I will take it to an apple store and see how much it will cost to get a new key.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

Your homeowners or Safeware.com will cover it under accidental damage. Safeware has no deductable!

I recommend soaking the Powerbook in a bucket of fresh water. This will remove any residues of the beer, and leave your Powerbook smelling good!

Maybe i wasn't clear enough...

"take it apart" and clean it off with alcohol

here is an update

So I let my computer dry for 3 days. The screen looks a lot better. When the computer starts up the grey screen is the only time i can see were it is a tad bit darker on the bottom right corner. But when I am using it I can not tell at all.

The only real problem I am seeing right now is the back light of the the keyboard. The letters t,h,f,c,b are really bright and all the other ones are really dim. Unfortunately I can not turn in any insurance claims through my homeowners insurance as I had my 12" pb stolen about a month ago and lost my cell phone last week and I did claim both of them. But a family friend said to check with your credit card company because they do sometimes cover within 30days accidental damage or stolen items. So since my dad put it on his credit card (master card) it looks like they will pay for a repair and may even get me a new one! :D But I have a feeling it will take a long time for apple to repair it as parts will be scarce for the next couple months. :mad:

OK, I nominate ryanbrown345 as the unluckiest person on the MacNN boards with the worst friends ever. But I think I speak for everyone here when I say we are really sorry about your awful luck recently. No one got hurt (yet), so things can only get better.

Steve

yes some cards do, all mastercard CHARGE cards, (not credit cards) do. and many more "elite" card like platinums, blacks, premier passes, and others. basic cards, like student, greens, silvers, golds, and many others usually do not.

wow i am long winded.

I knocked a margarita into one of the first "clamshell" iBooks or whatever - it was my roommate's. I had cleaned and fixed to the tune of $300. A month after it was fixed, she herself poured coffee all over it and ruined it, and just tossed it out. Sigh.

You think it should be able to withstand a spill. I've been researching a lot on laptops and have read a lot about how the IBM thinkpads can take all kinds of abuse. They are made of titanium too. Why can't Macs be made that well?

We had titanium a few years ago, remember? It's expensive (both materials cost and machining) and doesn't really work any better than aluminum for this purpose.

What Apple and many others use internally for the structural frames is magnesium alloys.

Regardless, what combinations of titanium, aluminum or magnesium alloys are used is irrelevant to water resistance. For that, circuits and other components need to be sealed (which I think would raise cost and possibly make cooling more difficult, and certainly increase size).

tooki

Scroll down this link to find the story of the woman who decided to fresh bake her Titanium Powerbook in an oven:

http://www.pbzone.com/archive/0203_8thru15.shtml

Old story, but a reminder about trying to quick dry your MBP's.

did you recover the beer?

Just sell it on Ebay for a great price and mention what happened and then go and buy another one and make you friend pay the difference for the money you lost on the Ebay sale. You have to keep this machine a long time and it will be a long time before you can get over what happened since this is such a prize machine.

No I didn't know about the titanium. I've been a Windows guy. I'm still a Mac virgin.

But I've read where people have spilled coffee on their IBM thinkpads and let it dry and kept on typing or whatever. They take lots of abuse according to many.

That may be so! But the fact that they're titanium has nothing to do with it! ;)

But yeah, we had titanium laptops from 2000-2003.

tooki

Christ all mighty! Way to work those insurance policies. If mastercard doesn't pay up, just claim on your homeowners and get a new policy somewhere else when they cancel you.

Ha! I work for IBM (thankfully not in the Lenovo PC division), and probably 25% of our laptops fail in the first few years (that is, in our department, not for our customers!). The plastic parts of the case crack, screens die, batteries especially die, etc. While I love the company itself, I'd never buy a Thinkpad. Hell, we were passing around an internal document about how you shouldn't hold them one-handed as it will stress the frame too much.

In my experience with 4 Thinkpads and 3 Powerbooks/iBooks (if you don't count the three old Duo's I started on), the Macs had one (1) problem - a Duo screen died. I have three dead Thinkpads (one motherboard, three batteries, one screen, one keyboard, bad power adapter), and I treat them just as well as my Macs (spotless, nearly scratchless).

Apple quality all the way. Just don't abuse them. And kick your "friend's" ass. He's no friend if he's not offering to fix it.

Safeware doesn't cancel you for use just ABUSE of policy!

Yup. They may raise the deductible a tiny bit (mine went from $0 to $100 after I made a claim), but that's reasonable, I think.

tooki

I feel your pain. I spilled coffee all over my TiBook last week. Took the case bottom off and it looked like a minimal amount of liquid got into the case. Took the hard drive and dvd out and cleaned up around them. Let everything dry for 3 hours over a heating vent, put it back together, started 'er up and made it to my login screen when it just shut down. Place favorite curse word here.

Took it completely apart and found a little dried coffee on part of the motherboard that I couldn't see without taking everything apart. Cleaned with alcohol and cotton swap then rinsed with distilled water. Let it dry for 48 hours. Working like a champ now.

Moral of the story: If you spill liquid on your laptop don't take the easy way out and clean up what you can see. Best thing you can do is a complete tear down and be completely certain everything is clean. And also make sure you give everything plenty of time to dry out completely. PBfixit (which is now iFixit? http://www.ifixit.com ) Has some great guides for taking your laptop apart.

Double.

Not directly, obviously. But if they're trying to build a more durable laptop, sealing/protecting the keyboard or monitor from "accidents", and building it out of stronger material would all be part of a better design, no?

Interesting. I've heard very different from a lot of users. I haven't used either though. So I'm only going on reviews and research. I'm still going with a Mac eventually.

But I think you're confusing me with the original poster. I'd still be :cry: from the wasted brew.

Geez, no wonder my insurance is so expensive... :cry:

I used to work for Solectron and we were one of IBM's major repair nodes. Every now and then we'd get a laptop that had "foreign substance" that was "squirted" on it.

Oh dear gods.

Suffice it to say, everyone got really busy all of the sudden and couldn't work on that particular laptop. Eventually we ended up just drawing straws every time a "foreign substance" laptop came in.

Note to self..always buy New Laptops.

euch, that's grim.

Hope it was Miller LIGHT!

I'm sure I saw an advert when I was in Taiwan back in August for a laptop that was liguid-resistant. The guy just poured stuff over the keyboard and it ran straight off. If that was actually real, it would be great for Apple to use it on their laptops. Sealing the keyboard would solve most problems, wouldn't it?

Hey another update. While I am waiting for my credit card company to file paper work. I wanted to see if I could find a key replacement for the macbook pro. I took it into the santa monica apple store and they said that they do not have any keys in yet. I asked if the 15" powerbooks keys are the same. The guy said they are different. Well I thought I would try and see, so I just ordered a 15" powerbook key online and it fits perfectly! Why would these guys at the genius desk not know this? aaa agrivating but at least I have all my keys working now!

My thoughts also.

The real tragedy is the wasted beer! Oh the humanity! :D

hahah, yes i did recover the beer! But I don't think i finished it because I was in such a rage!

Note to self: Do not buy PB off of eBay or parts either.

No Steve, I nominate ryanbrown345 as the LUCKIEST person on the MacNN boards, since he has a dad who is willing to pay for a new MBP on his credit card for his son .... ohh ryanbrown345, you are a lucky boy!!
On the other hand as far as alchohol is concerned, American beer is so damn weak the MBP probably didn't feel a thing ....!!
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