3 Problems with my macbook air after some water drops

[rafahol]

Hi all,

I would like to have some advice and what could be the cause of the issues my macbook air is experiencing after some water drops that felt on the keyboard.

My macbook air worked perfectly in the past. Only some drops were on the keyboard and used some paper to absorb them. The problems I have now are the following ones:

1) When I press on the keyboard the letter P nothing is happening. All other keys works correct

2) Screen is black. I type this via an external keyboard connected to my MBA and an external screen. That works correct, if you some LED lamp you can see that actually the blacklight is not working

3) The battery is not charging although it's connected to an external power supply.

I would like to have some advice what to do as this laptop is very useful for me as I travel a lot..do I need to replace the logic board?

Regards,R

 

[Jozone]

You will probably need a logic board and potentially will need a new inverter for your display.. in order to get the key fixed you are looking at getting the entire topcase replaced.. all of this is going to cost $1000+

 

[rafahol]

3 Problems with my macbook air after some water drops

Hi,

Thanks for your answer but why should the logic board be replaced? When I connect it to an external LCD screen there are no problems at all. Do you know what kind of piece is not working correctly of the logic board from my description?

For the rest I assume the drop felt just under the letter P and destroyed some of the connection lines so there is no voltage measured when you would use a multimeter?

About the inverter I have a question as I own the first model of the macbook air. Do you know where I can find the inverter in a macbook air and if this type of laptop has one as it's using a LED screen?

Regards,
Rafael

 

[jdechko]

There aren't any "pieces" to the logic board. Replacing it is an all-or-nothing affair. Could be a short-circuit, could be any number of things. Could even be unrelated to the drops of water: 2 or 3 drops may not have even caused the damage.

Ifixit.com should have all the parts you're looking for, but before committing to any repairs yourself, why not have apple take a look at it?

Don't tell them about the spill or they'll jump to the conclusion that it was the cause, mark their system and refuse any service. They have ways of knowing if there is water damage, while you have no way of knowing if the spill caused the damage. I wouldn't offer that information up front.

Best case is that they fix it under warranty, and worse case is that they conclude that the water damaged the machine.

NOTE that I'm not advocating fraud, but really, if only a few drops of water fell on the outside of the machine, I'm not sure that would have caused the damage you're describing.

 

[Scottsdale]

If anyone ever spills water on their computer. One, turn off the computer. Two, turn the computer upside down to let water stream out instead of into the computer. Three, go to iFixIt.com and download an instruction manual for teardown and rebuild.

Remove everything. Let it air dry for at least a week. One could also help assist the air drying with a hair dryer. I wouldn't use it for two or three weeks. I wouldn't plug it in or do anything for several weeks.

I have damaged a Dell computer via water. It wouldn't even power on. I took it completely apart and left it apart for a few weeks for a thorough drying of the complete main board. One of the keys is to not power it back on until it's completely dried.

I would think it could just need dried out for some time. Give it a break, and then try it again. But give it enough time. Don't expect it to work tomorrow.

Good luck!

 

[halledise]

Don't tell them about the spill or they'll jump to the conclusion that it was the cause, mark their system and refuse any service. They have ways of knowing if there is water damage, while you have no way of knowing if the spill caused the damage. I wouldn't offer that information up front.

Best case is that they fix it under warranty, and worse case is that they conclude that the water damaged the machine.

NOTE that I'm not advocating fraud, but really, if only a few drops of water fell on the outside of the machine, I'm not sure that would have caused the damage you're describing.

fully agree - simply say 'it's the strangest thing, all of a sudden this started happening; can you take a look at it under warranty please'.

they're the experts, let them figure it out and come back to you.
you stumped up your hard earned readies after all - may as well get some free repairs.
then if they happen to say, looks like water damage, you can still act all innocent and say 'sh*t eh' or 'really!' or some such.

best of luck

 

[Theclamshell]

I spill drops on my macbook all the time and it still works fine. I would definatley take it to apple and not say anything because theres a chance it could be completely coincidental

 

[curmudgeon99]

You're Screwed

I had a 3--week-old MBA die when two drops of coffee hit the keyboard. Therefore, I am not at all surprised at your experience. Don't expect any sympathy from anybody though. Most people will just laugh... until it happens to them. My 3-week MBA is a total loss. I thought protection from water was an automatic when it came to laptops but I guess not.

 

[silverblack]

Guys, get yourself one of these if you like your coffee or water around your MBA.

http://store.moshimonde.com/clearguard-mb-us-layout.html

 

[BeyondtheTech]

This is freaking me out, knowing I could kill the whole shibang with one drop of water on the keyboard.

Anyone know of a US-seller, retail or online, that sells an 11.6" keyboard skin?

UPDATE: LOL, someone provided a link as I was composing this post! $24 is a lot versus $4-13 on the ones on eBay. Boy, these US vendors are really extortionists!

 

[Narkotiq]

Wirelessly posted (Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_1 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/532.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0.5 Mobile/8B117 Safari/6531.22.7)

I had a 3--week-old MBA die when two drops of coffee hit the keyboard. Therefore, I am not at all surprised at your experience. Don't expect any sympathy from anybody though. Most people will just laugh... until it happens to them. My 3-week MBA is a total loss. I thought protection from water was an automatic when it came to laptops but I guess not.

Dont be ridiculous... Have apple made any claims that MBAs are waterproof or water resistant? Does any standard laptop/pc manufacturer make this claim apart from specialist models?

Take a long hard look at your MacBook air... It's the thinnest laptop in the world incorporating state of the art technology and and cutting edge design never before seen... Does it look like it has a tolerance for water or any liquid for that matter? Absolutley not.

Your right, not yourself or the OP is going to get any sympathy... Keep liquids away from any laptop, that goes for a 1300 dollar MBA or a 300 dollar netbook.

 

[Hellishness]

I had a 3--week-old MBA die when two drops of coffee hit the keyboard. Therefore, I am not at all surprised at your experience. Don't expect any sympathy from anybody though. Most people will just laugh... until it happens to them. My 3-week MBA is a total loss. I thought protection from water was an automatic when it came to laptops but I guess not.

Why in the world would you think that? Does your car's warranty cover you backing into a pole?

 

[KnightWRX]

I had a 3--week-old MBA die when two drops of coffee hit the keyboard.

I'm sitting in the bath right now, the MBA is on the side, and it has about 5 drops of water on it. Works like a charm. Maybe you should try to be truthful about the amount of coffee you spilled if you want sympathy.

 

[Apple OC]

I spill drops on my macbook all the time and it still works fine. I would definatley take it to apple and not say anything because theres a chance it could be completely coincidental

sorry ... just noticed this was an old thread

 

[hcho3]

Just don't drink. Problem solved.

 

[ctak]

I had a 3--week-old MBA die when two drops of coffee hit the keyboard. Therefore, I am not at all surprised at your experience. Don't expect any sympathy from anybody though. Most people will just laugh... until it happens to them. My 3-week MBA is a total loss. I thought protection from water was an automatic when it came to laptops but I guess not.

2 years ago I spilled an entire cup of coffee on my 1st gen MBA. Not surprisingly, most of the keys stopped working. Apple said it would cost up to $1500 to repair!! Anyway, I sent it off to MyService Mac Repair in Santa Clara, CA. They replaced the entire top case for $249, and this included tax/shipping! Turnaround time was just a few days (I was living in Seattle at the time). Unbelievably excellent service when I called them on the phone too. They UPS you a box customized for your laptop. Drop it in the box.. wait a few days, and another box arrives at your door with a working laptop. They'll call you with the repair cost (assuming it'x fixable). If you do not agree, you pay $49 for diagnostic/shipping.

 

[PirateP]

I'm sitting in the bath right now, the MBA is on the side, and it has about 5 drops of water on it. Works like a charm. Maybe you should try to be truthful about the amount of coffee you spilled if you want sympathy.

What he said.

 

[Synchromesh]

Take a long hard look at your MacBook air... It's the thinnest laptop in the world incorporating state of the art technology and and cutting edge design never before seen... Does it look like it has a tolerance for water or any liquid for that matter? Absolutley not.

No Apple laptops have any liquid spill protection no matter who thin/thick they are. In fact, it's the other way around. To determine if any liquid was ever inside the machine they built in special sensors that change colors specifically so they can refuse service. Welcome to Apple.

My friend's T61 Thinkpad incorporates special draining channels that route the spilled liquid to exit underneath the laptop so if one was to spill small amounts of liquid on it, the most that could happen is that keyboard would die (those are about $25-40 online and take 5 mins to install). Welcome to NOT Apple.

Your right, not yourself or the OP is going to get any sympathy... Keep liquids away from any laptop, that goes for a 1300 dollar MBA or a 300 dollar netbook.

Why? Stuff happens. It's silly to expect an item that often sits on a table by definition to never ever have any contact with liquids. And Apple knows it. The difference is how they use that information in their design implementation.

 

[gwsat]

I'm sitting in the bath right now, the MBA is on the side, and it has about 5 drops of water on it. Works like a charm. Maybe you should try to be truthful about the amount of coffee you spilled if you want sympathy.

I suppose it's possible, that an MBA might be able to withstand an assault from no more that a few drops of water but liquids are nonetheless the mortal enemies of all computers, particularly an ultra thin and light laptop like the MBA. When it comes to that, I am an around the bend paranoid and go out of my way to keep my MBA as far away as possible from anything wet, even 5 drops of water. Good luck with your 5 drops of water, you may need it.

 

[Narkotiq]

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I didn't claim that any apple laptop besides the air had water protection, he spilled the water on a MacBook air, not a pro or standard MacBook so naturally I'm only going reference the air.

And for your second comment u have contracticted yourself, If all other laptops have these special drainage channels and the MacBook air dosent, then why would u have liquids beside it? Simply saying that accidents happen will feel very bitter especially if u have been haphazardly keeping any liquid near a laptop that costs upwards of $1300. accidents can be avoided.

 

[Synchromesh]

I didn't claim that any apple laptop besides the air had water protection, he spilled the water on a MacBook air, not a pro or standard MacBook so naturally I'm only going reference the air.

What I was implying, if you read carefully, is that the fact that MBA is the thinnest and lightest has nothing to do with what happens to it when liquid is spilled on it. Granted, it might be more difficult to implement certain liquid-protecting measures on a thinner system but in Apple's case they go the other way around on all their laptops regardless of thickness.

And for your second comment u have contracticted yourself, If all other laptops have these special drainage channels and the MacBook air dosent, then why would u have liquids beside it? Simply saying that accidents happen will feel very bitter especially if u have been haphazardly keeping any liquid near a laptop that costs upwards of $1300. accidents can be avoided.

Not all other laptops have drainage channels, some do and some don't. But I've been working with laptops for a long time and no other laptops are so susceptible to water damage more than Apple's and purposely so. There is nothing contradicting about that. Yes, the OP wasn't particularly smart by spilling liquid on his machine but not everyone is aware of Apple's demeanor from the get-go.

 

[KnightWRX]

I suppose it's possible, that an MBA might be able to withstand an assault from no more that a few drops of water but liquids are nonetheless the mortal enemies of all computers, particularly an ultra thin and light laptop like the MBA. When it comes to that, I am an around the bend paranoid and go out of my way to keep my MBA as far away as possible from anything wet, even 5 drops of water. Good luck with your 5 drops of water, you may need it.

I use it in the bath everytime I go in there to relax. Heck, it gets liquid on it everytime I use it at the same time I'm eating and I dirty up the trackpad and then use a damp cloth to wash it.

All my laptops I've treated the same, none died from water damage, including my MacBook I had prior to this MBA. You need more than 2 drops of coffee before you kill a computer, even an ultra portable one (maybe by 2 drops of coffee he means he dropped 2 coffees on it. Now that I would understand).