Spilled liquid on my Mac, need advice please

So today I was in bed, watching an episode of friday night lights on my mac book pro, when i shifted, wires moved and my full class of water spilled right onto my baby. The screen turned black and the computer made some funny noises. I tipped it, and water came out. I left it like this until nothing else came out. I unplugged it and then took out the battery and started to blow dry the computer, then realized it might not be the best of ideas. So no, its standing, kind of like a book, on my floor with a fan on it. Is there any hope of me getting my computer back, or is it dead forever. Im a terribly broke college student with 200 dollars to my name, so any help and advice would be GREATLY appreciated!

OK, first off, don't panic. You've done the right thing so far.
To recap:
1. Unplug it.
2. Remove the battery.
3. Get as much water as you can out by wiping it down.
4. The blow dryer is a very good idea.
Next steps.
You need to get the book as dry as you possibly can before you plug it in again. This could take 2-3 days. Don't rush it. The good news is that if it was just water, you stand a good chance of getting your machine back. Even if not, you stand a good chance of being able to salvage the drive and contents.
However, the situation is pretty serious and you need to be careful and take it a step at a time.
If you've got as much liquid as you can out of the machine, I would leave it in a warm, dry place, and blow dry it with the hairdryer or a fan or something.
Search on these forums for more specific tips - there are a lot of posts on this topic.
Good luck.

Including this one here

http://forums.macnn.com/69/mac-noteb...er-on-macbook/

im sorry i started a completely new thread, i just panicked and wanted to find advice as soon as possible, and didnt want to waste time searching. ive gone through a bunch of the other threads, and i have a few questions...
1. the water spilled kind of along the back of the keyboard area-ish. is this worse than other places? Im not really sure where my logic board is, but with my luck, its exactly there
2. was the blow dryer a bad thing? should i keep that up?
3. I already had previous damage to the casing of the computer. I just havnt sent it in for repair because i couldnt be at school without a computer (ha, look at the situation im in now!) From what im reading though, someone taking apart my computer would probably be good for it. is there any chance i could send it in for the casing repair, and no one would notice that theres water damage and in the process of taking it apart, dried things up? (hey, a girl can dream cant she?(
4. last question, whats the best position for the computer to be standing in. ive heard upside down, but i really dont get what that means

Don't worry about it - it's a stressful thing - searching these forums will provide the answers to most these questions though.
The logic board pretty much fills the entire area beneath the keyboard.
As long as you don't bake the thing, the blow drier is a great idea. Keep it up.
It may well help to take it apart to vent and dry it further. You do risk further damage if you don't know what you're doing though.
No.
It's hard to say - you want to get the maximum ventilation and airflow. It probably doesn't matter that much - I think 'upside down' means with the keyboard facing down, so that any fluid that got in that way could drip out that way too.

Lesson learnt ?

Always keep liquids at arms length from computers etc, why compromise £100's if not £1,000's of equipment for pennies worth of drink ?

Whilst working with electronic equipment, I always kept drinks on the floor, in a safe area.

Just not worth the risk.

People always look at me "funny" when I ask them not to place a drink on the same table as my computers. I ask them in the best way I know how, as politely as possible, and when they give me the "look", I then ask them, "why did you just give me 'that look'?". A reply I have heard tooooooo often "What's a drink of water going to do to your computer?".

:eek:

Seriously, people. WATER and ELECTRICITY do NOT mix.

But distilled water and electricity do (well, they do nothing together) - In response to railroader. Its water that get stuck in components that could be a massive problem depending on how much went into the laptop and how long it took you to react to tip the laptop upside down.

After reading this thread, I just got a drink and had it away from my computer instead of sitting down next to it, because I don't want to ruin my computer!

I really don't think it matters that the water is distilled or not. The water is going to cause short circuits regardless if its distilled or not.

I never have liquid near my laptop and like RR I politely ask people to keep their drinks away from my laptop.

My friend did the same thing as you are doing and it worked, so keep up the good work

It does matter. While both will cause shorts, non-distilled water can leave salts and minerals that can cause permanent problems when it evaporates.

I think I'm right in saying distilled water doesnt cause short circuits? Cos it's got no ions in it or something (chemistry knowledge coming in handy here..), so there is nothing there for current to flow.

Looks like you've now got a good Aqua Mac...see Aqua Wiki !

And Google..

It's possible that that would be true if it was 100% pure, but no commercial distilled water will be safe to immerse your laptop in.

I am not positive this is correct. It is true that it is not the water itself that conducts electricity. It is the ions in the water (minerals etc..). Water that has been distilled, has been boiled and the steam is condensed into pure water. That being said, I am not sure if there is any chance of ions remaining in the water.

Deionized water, on the other hand, uses a physical process to trap and remove any ions from the water (minterals etc..). A fully de-ionized water is actually a very resistive material. Properly deionized water has on the order of thousands of times the resistivity of your average unfiltered tap water.

The problem, however, is that it only takes a few ions to conduct electricity through water. So even if the water was deionized, it very well may have picked up ions from its container, or even ions that are sitting on the computer itself.

But a high end, commercial deionized water, that has been tested for resistivity, and is in a proper container would be OK. In fact, in some (rare) cases, this is exactly what is used as a direct-contact coolant for high voltage circuits.

Mark, I agree with you in theory, but in practice there is no type of water that it is a good idea to pour into your laptop.

Lol yeah, just dont go putting water in your mac and youll be alright, unless you happen to live by/work in some hi-tech lab where perfectly ionised water in ideal conditions is possible, in which case, go for soaking your mac with loads of the stuff!

Oh yeah, cause so many people are drinking distilled water... :rolleyes:

The Dumbest Thing I've Ever Done: Corona Meets MacBook

I assure you that triple distilled, deionized water will dissolve dirt, grease, and other contaminants that have found their way into your computer. Normal air pressure changes cause air movement carrying these contaminants. So just relax and let it dry for a few days and pray that nothing bad happened. sam

So my computer spent the last 4 days upside down with a fan on it, and today i took the plunge and tried to turn it on. Nothing happened. Nothing at all. After reading all this stuff online where mostly everyone's came back to life after taking the steps i took, i was optimistic. Now im depressed and distraught.

Is this it? is it completey over? Any advice for what my next course of action should be? Buying a new computer is not an option, because I wasn't kidding when i said i only have 200$ to my name

Nothing good has ever come from watching Friday Night Lights.

If you spilled water on your machine and now it won't turn on, the most likely problem is a bad logic board. We see it all the time. Unfortunately, this won't be covered under warranty. A replacement logic board will cost you on the order of $700 or so. Now, your parents may have home owners insurance that could pick up some of the cost for you.

erroneous. that show is gold. (this though coming from a girl who knows zero about football.)

there was already previous damage to the computer that shook up the hard drive real bad. this happened a few weeks ago. theres no way i could take it to the apple store, try to pass my problems off as stemming from that, and never have them realize there was water damage is there?

I love this kind of advice.

To go along with it, look both ways before you cross the street and always wipe thoroughly.

As I said before, no.
However, there is no harm in taking the machine into the Apple store and getting a quote on what a repair would cost.

I'm a certified Apple Tech that works at a University and I see my share of spills on students laptops. If it was only water you may be ok. However, the fact that the system was on when it got wet is not a good thing since water conducts electricity. As far as the repair goes, for a MacBook Pro, Apple will most likely charge you the Tier 4 (highest) accidental repair price which is $1,140 plus $100 labor. This is the price to replace a main logic board which is most likely damaged from the spill. Depending on the amount of parts that need to be replaced, Apple may decline the repair deeming it "beyond economical repair".

If you take it to the Apple store and don't mention the spill (Honestly, it just stopped working...) they will mail it in for repair and spills are pretty easy to spot when the system is opened up. The repair facility will contact the store with their findings and charge you for the accidental damage repair price (with your approval of course).

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but...

Honestly, it was nice to hear some realism. everything i read online was along the lines of "oh just let it dry out, and itll be fiiiiine." yeah, thanks a lot. there's already $600 of damage from BEFORE the water, so adding up all the damage costs, im thinking it might be easier just to buy a new computer. any advice on salvaging my hard drive?


Also, to everyone who's advice was "don't have liquids near your computer." gee thanks. that advice helps sooo much now. also, try keeping the two far away from each other when you live in a 8x6dorm room, with a bed and a desk, the desk which serves as a desk/table/counter/everything other than a bed.

Committing fraud doesn't bother you?

salvaging the hard drive

Get a 2.5" firewire hard drive enclosure. When you get your new Mac it will ask you in the startup process if you want to transfer any data. Hook up the drive and it will suck over all your data and applications and it will be like you were never down (or close to it, the migration assistant has gotten REALLY good).