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Duh: Spilled hot lemonade all over it!

B

BessRNY1

macrumors newbie
Original poster
May 28, 2007
2
0
Hi Y'All,

And words of wisdom to a Mac-Idiot?

I spilled a large mug of hot, sugary, lemonade --yup, sticky AND acidic -- all over my laptop. It instantly shut down.

I did my best to follow instructions posted online in response to similar cries of "Hhhhhhelp, I spilled something!":

1) I turned it upside down to drain it
2) Unplugged everything
3) Removed the battery (it was wet
4) Removed the hard drive (following the instructions in the online MacBook manual -- it was, thank you gawd, dry).

BUT: DO YOU THINK I'VE DONE THE RIGHT THING SO FAR??????

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE I CAN DO???

The tech support lines are closed now, so I can't speak to an Apple person till tomorrow.

And, naturally, my entire life's work is on there... SERIOUSLY. And, as I'm a freelance editor -- 100 percent computer-based!-- I won't be able to work tomorrow. Sigh.

If anyone can share any advice, I'd be really grateful.

Thank you,
BessRNY1:eek:
 
Leave it to try for a few days, leaving it somewhere warm and dry.

How much actually got spilt on it? If you're feeling brave, you could follow the guides at www.ifixit.com to take it apart and give it a complete clean, removing all traces of the lemonade and then leaving it to dry completely while apart. Then put it back together and hope for the best.
If you tell Apple what's happened, they'll void your warranty and charge you a fortune to get it fixed. If you take it apart and thoroughly clean it out and dry it and it still works then you should hopefully keep your warranty (as long as you never tell Apple what happend.

If you do take it apart, for each step, draw a diagram of what you're doing on an A4 piece of paper. Pierce the diagram at all the points where you're taking out a screw and when then put that screw in the piercing of the paper, it should stay there if you've done it right. Number each page in order too. That way, when you put it back together, there's no chance of getting the screws mixed up or doing things in the wrong order. - A method I developed after much trial and error in disassembling and reassembling laptops.
 
Never done that to mine, but have read the posts where people have. Usual recommendation is to let it sit for 2-3 days, then try again, but that was with water. I don't know if you want to get the lemonade out of there by "washing" it or just leave it and hope for the best.

As far as work, you can easily remove the Hard Drive and mount it in an external case and use that with another computer.

Worst case scenario, ebay it and describe what happened (honestly), people will bid it up as crazy as it sounds. Not enough for a new one, but a sizeable portion of one.

Best of luck to you, my thoughts and prayers are with you and your mac!

Kellen
 
OUCH...the good news is that you got the hard drive out, so your data is probably safe.

Are we talking actual hot lemonade (which just sounds gross) or something along the lines of theraflu?
 
Before you eventually turn in on, you're going to want to think about all that sticky residue all over the logic boards.
perverse as it may sound, you may need to wash your mac, so get rid of all that lovely potentially conductive crap and acid.

**Disclaimer** i've never spilled anything into a laptop and have never done this, I would recommend further reading/checking and probably taking it to a repair place for this.

Make sure all power is disconnected and stays disconnected (cable and battery),
Turn it upside down and drain it out.
(this is the tricky and potentially harmfull bit)
open it up, clean it with distilled water. Get all the sticky crap off.
Leave it to dry (no hairdriers, you don't want to melt any of the solder) for a few days.
Replace the battery and hope!

In the meantime you may want to look into renting another macbook and sticking your hard drive in that so you don't lose productivity time as your laptop is your work.
 
Yes, actual lemonade... try it, you'll like it....

Thank you all SO MUCH for the incredible, super-helpful replies!~!!!

I'm relieved that at least it sounds like taking out the hard drive was the right thing to do -- and since it seemed bone-dry, I'm guessing it's fine. (And my life's work -- wasn't joking about that! not one but two novels on there, in various stages of disarray!-- is safe and sound on the hard drive.... Finger's crossed...)

I'm actually out of the country at the moment, and there's no Mac store for a thousand miles, but tomorrow I will bring it to a computer repair place listed on the Mac website, with my tale of woe, and see if they can wash it/flush it out somehow....

To the person who asked about the beverage in question: It was a large dose of fresh lemon juice, with a big ole tablespoonful of sugar, with boiling water poured over it. (It's delicious!) And it was still hot when it went over on the keyboard..... Yup: Pretty much the worst thing I could think of spilling on a laptop, huh?

But thank you all so much, once again!

BessRNY1
 
DrAtheist said:
Before you eventually turn in on, you're going to want to think about all that sticky residue all over the logic boards.
perverse as it may sound, you may need to wash your mac, so get rid of all that lovely potentially conductive crap and acid.

**Disclaimer** i've never spilled anything into a laptop and have never done this, I would recommend further reading/checking and probably taking it to a repair place for this.

Make sure all power is disconnected and stays disconnected (cable and battery),
Turn it upside down and drain it out.
(this is the tricky and potentially harmfull bit)
open it up, clean it with distilled water. Get all the sticky crap off.
Leave it to dry (no hairdriers, you don't want to melt any of the solder) for a few days.
Replace the battery and hope!

In the meantime you may want to look into renting another macbook and sticking your hard drive in that so you don't lose productivity time as your laptop is your work.
Click to expand...


You can use a hair dryer as long as it is on the cold setting and not on hot.

And I would say just get an external hd cage rather than a new mb.
 
BessRNY1 said:
To the person who asked about the beverage in question: It was a large dose of fresh lemon juice, with a big ole tablespoonful of sugar, with boiling water poured over it. (It's delicious!) And it was still hot when it went over on the keyboard..... Yup: Pretty much the worst thing I could think of spilling on a laptop, huh?
Click to expand...

Actually that sounds a lot tastier than I was imagining (which was microwaved powdered lemonade)...I was kinda hoping it was Theraflu because it is sweetened with an artificial sweetener (which, while not a good thing, would have been better than sugar).

Hopefully they can clean it out really well for you, let us know how things turn out!

Good Luck.
 
never had hot lemonade. what's that like. sorry that's why i clicked your link

btw sorry about your computer. I once had one of those markers with silver ink have the top come off and ALL the ink went all over my laptop.
 
I'm sorry about your computer, but since you were worried about losing your life's work, if you don't have a backup of it make on as soon as possible, then you won't have to worry as much if somthing like this happens again.
 
BessRNY1 said:
(And my life's work -- wasn't joking about that! not one but two novels on there, in various stages of disarray!-- is safe and sound on the hard drive.... Finger's crossed...)
Click to expand...

I couldn't help but relate this to Ben Stiller in Duplex, his macbook pro got a similarly harsh treatment with his novel on it, luckily for him (or it wouldn't be a comedy) everything turned out okay...

Okay, maybe a bit worse : (couldn't find it on youtube, guess you have to get it for yourself).
 
I'd probably make a backup of that hard drive before you do anything else to it. Especially if it's your life's work.

I had to learn the hard way about backups. People were always telling me to do it but I never had any problems with data storage so I ignored them. Until I dropped my hard disk. Oh boy that sucked. You know, even if it hurts, you can always buy another mac, but you can never get those picture (in my case) back.
 
Well I guess we wont know if the laptop has survived until a couple days time, but keep us posted. Best of luck
 
some advice from a man who spilled hot chocolate in his mb

do NOT turn it on, wash the machine in demineralized water.
this saved my macbook, and as a bonus saved my keyboard as well, your keyboard takes the first hit, and is actually pretty expensive to replace

i´ll keep my fingers crossed for yah =)

kind regards Morten Lindegren, Denmark
 
With water you can let it dry for a few days, with anything else it will require cleaning. The water will evaporate, but the sugar and acids will still be all over. You took the correct first step. If you comfortable with it, open the computer and try getting any spot you can see. If it's on a board or something you may not be able to get it.

I spill things all the time myself. Luckily I never have spilled on any of my computers. Keyboards yes, desk yes. I only have a glass of water next to my computer as I am afraid of my clumsiness.:eek:
 
Backup , backup backup BACKUP!!

The only copy of your life's work?? and you let it exist solely on a couple of micromillimeters of highly vulnerableness HD platter surface?

cartoon13.jpg
 
Good luck, hope it all works once it has dried out!

Am I the only one to notice a sudden increase in the number of posts relating to spilling stuff over computers? I think I will keep my coffee cup far away from now on.
 
This is the saddest thread ever :(

I still don't understand why it was hot lemonade...

I'd just toss it in with a load of laundry. Prob towels. They are soft so the notebook won't get damaged.



:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
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