[MAlan]

Tonight water was spilled all over my 12 " powerbook. The powerbook was sleeping at the time. I immediately woke it up from sleep and it seemed fine for a couple minutes. I was trying to shut it down when it went beserk. A major screeching sound emanated from the speaker and the screen went blank. At this point I removed the battery pronto. I guess I probably should have done that first. Anyway, I need some advice.

We have new baby pictures on the powerbook that are not replaceable. The amount of water that was spilled on it wasn't that much. The data on the hard drive could probably be retrieved. I want to know what the best course of action would be. Here are some ideas I had.

1) I have an old ibook (white 500 MHz) whose hard drive is hosed. I was thinking of opening up the powerbook, taking the hard drive out, hook the PB HD to the ibook. Then try to boot the ibook in firewire target mode from the PB HD. Then I could copy all the important files over to my iMac.

2) Send computer or just hard drive directly to a data recovery place.

3) Go to the local Apple store and get their advice. They will probably send the computer away and I'm afraid they may wipe the hard drive by mistake.

Does any one have any suggestions?

Thanks.

[Randman]

You should have unplugged it and let it dry. It may have caused serious, serious damage by starting it up.

Give it a few days, totally shut down with no juice then see if you can boot it. You can also try FireWire mode then.

You could try a data recovery if the above fails but it'll be expensive, most likely. Only take it in when you are ready to have it repaired. If it didn't short out, it should be fine after a few days (luckily it was water and not soda or juice or something sticky).

[robby818]

First, let it dry out and then try to start it up. It might just work. If so, don't take chances and get the important data off the drive.

The data on the drive is probably ok. if you want to do it yourself (warranty may be voided if you open it yourself), you can remove the drive and hook it up to a desktop mac and retrieve your data.

these 2 pages show disassembly of a 15" powerbook. should be very similar to a 12"

http://www.bit-tech.net/bits/2005/10...e_apart/1.html

you also need one of these adapters to connect your notebook drive to a desktop.

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=HD-108&cat=HDD

[tie]

From your description, there is no particular reason to think that the hard drive should be damaged, so you should be fine.

You can get a case for the hard drive that will let you connect it to any computer, either USB 2 or Firewire.

Or you can try installing it in the iBook. Last time I had to do this (but with PC notebooks), it was an easy 30 second job to unscrew the drive and slide it out. Be sure to let everything dry first, and have the computer unplugged, battery removed, and ground yourself.

[urrl78]

Some people use hand held hair dryers to aid in the drying process.

[MAlan]

Thank you all for the replies. I'm going to buy a firewire drive enclosure for 2.5 " drives. I searched newegg.com but didn't see any 2.5 " enclosures. I did a froogle search and found many manufacturers. The lowest prices were for StarTech.com and ADS Pyro. Can anyone recommend a manufacturer?

Thanks.

[mad cow disease]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817123107
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817146604
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817123106

There are three there, only one of which is in stock. They're fairly pricey, though.

[lagarto]

OK, this is probably more for future reference:

* Take the battery out straight away!
* Place the laptop on a flat surface like a table with the screen open and hanging over the edge. Ideally place it on a towel. Consider detaching the keyboard if you can (this works for an iBook) and removing RAM.
* Pop open any other openings such as the DVD drive (if it is a tray).
* Now use a hair dryer to blow COOL air through all the vents and openings. If the hair dryers can be set to warm (not hot) then fine, but watch the temparature!
* Do not use conditioner !

Water alone should not corrode anything, the real danger is shorting some electrical connection. Laptops are built very compact, so you need patience to dry them out. I've used this technique on everything from an iBook to a TV where I spilt a vase of flowers down the back!

Good luck!

[iBorg]

Originally Posted by lagarto

OK, this is probably more for future reference:

* Take the battery out straight away!

Let me reemphasize this point: If you spill liquid onto your laptop, DO NOT start it up, wake it up, etc. - IMMEDIATELY cut the power (unplug, and remove battery), and let it dry out. Powering any electrical component with water contamination, is asking for trouble.



iBorg