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I know this was asked a day or two ago, but my dilemma is a little different...

A

apekhutan

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 31, 2007
5
0
I'm a complete iditio and just accidently just spilled water on my macbook pro. it was on and I immediately wiped it up and went to see if my touch mouse worked, which it did, then went away to get a blow dryer and paper towels and it stopped responding. I turned it off and (yes I know, a stupid move) turned it back on, and got the blinking question mark folder of death. I immediately turned it off, took the battery out, and set it in front of a fan.

any suggestions? should I let it dry a few days? remove the keyboard? take it in tomorrow? it's somewhat imperitive that I have access to it, as I need it for school and such...ugh, but I have learned. I feel like *such* an idiot...
 
Let it dry a for a few days (make sure that wherever you keep it isn't too humid or it won't really dry that well). Believe it or not, but I'd take the blinking folder as a good sign. The computer turned on, so it doesn't appear that any major components were damaged, though the fact that the machine can't find an OS leads me to believe that the HD was damaged.

After it's allowed to dry, try to boot from a CD. If that works, run the Apple Hardware test. I suspect that mostly things will be okay, other than the HD. If that's the case, then find a repair shop to replace the HD, or just do it yourself.

Or if you need it that badly, taking it in to Apple might be your first step, but remember that the Apple warranty doesn't cover spills.
 
Technically, the "best" thing to do would be to dissassemble it into the maximum piece you can and let it dry for a couple of days.

But, it is only the best thing to do if you are sure to be able to open it and remove the pieces without harming the device.

The safest thing to do would be (in my opinion) to pay for a technician for these manipulations.
 
jdechko said:
Let it dry a for a few days (make sure that wherever you keep it isn't too humid or it won't really dry that well). Believe it or not, but I'd take the blinking folder as a good sign. The computer turned on, so it doesn't appear that any major components were damaged, though the fact that the machine can't find an OS leads me to believe that the HD was damaged.

After it's allowed to dry, try to boot from a CD. If that works, run the Apple Hardware test. I suspect that mostly things will be okay, other than the HD. If that's the case, then find a repair shop to replace the HD, or just do it yourself.

Or if you need it that badly, taking it in to Apple might be your first step, but remember that the Apple warranty doesn't cover spills.
Click to expand...

Alright, alright. Thanks for the advice. I'll leave it in front of the fan for at least two days, I just have to be patient I suppose. This was my first Mac (and unfortunately the victim of my first computer + liquid spill heh) so I guess I'm not 100% familiar with what exactly is meant by the HD being damaged. Would that most likely mean all of my information is lost? Is it in any way recoverable, to your knowledge? :\

Thanks again.
 
/V\acpower said:
Technically, the "best" thing to do would be to dissassemble it into the maximum piece you can and let it dry for a couple of days.

But, it is only the best thing to do if you are sure to be able to open it and remove the pieces without harming the device.

The safest thing to do would be (in my opinion) to pay for a technician for these manipulations.
Click to expand...

Alright, thanks. I'm going to wait it out as patiently as I can the next two days, at least, then take it in to my local Mac shop, I think. This is my first Mac so I don't really think I'm skilled enough to open it up myself, after looking at some tutorials online. But still, thanks so much for the help.
 
I would wait for more than just 2 days. I would personally wait a week to be sure everything is dried out.
 
Sherman Homan said:
Open that baby up as far as you are comfortable:
http://ifixit.com
The MB Pro is fairly easy to crack at first. Keyboard, hard drive. Let it breathe!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the link...I've looked at both taking the HD and KB out, but I'm still a little hesitant. I have her drying in a moderate temperature in a dry room at the moment and I think I'll try and boot her up in two or so days. Thanks for the advice though, if I had the guts I would, hehe.
 
apekhutan said:
Alright, alright. Thanks for the advice. I'll leave it in front of the fan for at least two days, I just have to be patient I suppose. This was my first Mac (and unfortunately the victim of my first computer + liquid spill heh) so I guess I'm not 100% familiar with what exactly is meant by the HD being damaged. Would that most likely mean all of my information is lost? Is it in any way recoverable, to your knowledge? :\

Thanks again.
Click to expand...

This link describes what I was talking about.

If all the steps (for Mac OS X) fail, the HD may have been fried and your data is most likely lost, unless you pay thousands of dollars to have it recovered. I'm willing to bet you don't have a backup either, do you? But after this is repaired, for your own sanity, at least go out and get yourself a 120GB or so external USB/FW drive and copy your home directory over once a week. I have a 60GB partition on an external FW drive and I copy my "My Documents" folder over so at least I've got all of my pictures and really important docs backed up.
 
You shouldnt have turned it on right away, any electricity in there can use the water to jump around and damage things.

Blinking folder icon that means bad harddrive, really only means that the rest of the system couldnt read the harddrive properly, so it might be a bad harddrive or it might be whatever the harddrive plugs into. I think the latter is more likely because the HDD is under the left wristrest and probably would not get wet.

If you can it would be better to have it apart while drying, but it sounds like youre not capable of doing that safely (no offense, really). let it dry and keep your fingers crossed the entire time.
 
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