The unthinkable happened. A spill on my 36 hour old 2.2 SR base model MBP. My baby niece knocked over a glass of a sugar-free milk based sports drink (A Japanese product...I live in Japan). The liquid spread across the entire keyboard and speakers in the 2 seconds before I got it flipped upside down. It was running on battery power at the time and I immediately removed it, but not before the computer shut down. I feared the worse because in that instant, it looked like a lake on my computer, and it shutdown before I got the battery out which made me think there was a short somewhere.
I kept the computer upside down and gently shook it to get the remaining liquid out. A few hours later, I followed an ifixit guide to remove the top case from the computer. I was surprised to only find a few drops of liquid in the computer. 1 on the RAM, and a few on the top of the Superdrive. The rest of the computer was completely dry and had no stickiness from the liquid.
I used rubbing alcohol to clean anywhere that seemed touched by the liquid and then reassembled the computer. I let it dry out for about 3 1/2 days with a fan pointed at it on low.
Fast forward to last night and I finally turned it on. First I plugged it in and was happy to note the charging light illuminate on the power adapter. It took quite awhile to startup, not unlike after updating to 10.4.10, rather than the 15 seconds it had been taking. Everything seemed to be working. The screen was still pristine. Airport connected. The hard drive was fine. Even the speakers seemed ok. Only the keyboard backlighting was a problem.
Onto my questions:
1. Will it be expensive to replace the keyboard? All the keys work fine, but the backlighting is obviously not working. The keys in the center are lit normally, but 2/3s of the keys on either side are very dim. I have no problems paying out of pocket for the repair because the spill is not covered by the warranty.
2. Will I still have a warranty on the rest of the computer? I'm not a trained specialist or anything, but the inside of the computer seemed untouched by the liquid for the most part. I cleaned up what tiny bit I saw. The keyboard and speakers have a plastic backing that stopped just about all the liquid from getting into the computer. If there is no "moisture damage" past the keyboard, do you know if Apple will still void the entire warranty because of the spill?
3. I tried running the diagnostics program on the install DVD that came with the computer. The simple version checked out fine, but 3 times when I ran the full version it got about 5 minutes in and then the timer never moved again. What does that mean? The drive read the disc fine, so I don't think it's damaged. The timer jumps every few minutes, the so the time elasped doesn't move slowly, but is this normal? I finally shut the computer down with the power button after 12 to 15 minutes of nothing happening.
Thanks for reading my long post and I appreciate any knowledge you might have. I will contact Apple after work today but I was hoping to be a bit more informed before I call them. Feel free to lecture me about liquids and computers as well because it seems I didn't get the memo.
I kept the computer upside down and gently shook it to get the remaining liquid out. A few hours later, I followed an ifixit guide to remove the top case from the computer. I was surprised to only find a few drops of liquid in the computer. 1 on the RAM, and a few on the top of the Superdrive. The rest of the computer was completely dry and had no stickiness from the liquid.
I used rubbing alcohol to clean anywhere that seemed touched by the liquid and then reassembled the computer. I let it dry out for about 3 1/2 days with a fan pointed at it on low.
Fast forward to last night and I finally turned it on. First I plugged it in and was happy to note the charging light illuminate on the power adapter. It took quite awhile to startup, not unlike after updating to 10.4.10, rather than the 15 seconds it had been taking. Everything seemed to be working. The screen was still pristine. Airport connected. The hard drive was fine. Even the speakers seemed ok. Only the keyboard backlighting was a problem.
Onto my questions:
1. Will it be expensive to replace the keyboard? All the keys work fine, but the backlighting is obviously not working. The keys in the center are lit normally, but 2/3s of the keys on either side are very dim. I have no problems paying out of pocket for the repair because the spill is not covered by the warranty.
2. Will I still have a warranty on the rest of the computer? I'm not a trained specialist or anything, but the inside of the computer seemed untouched by the liquid for the most part. I cleaned up what tiny bit I saw. The keyboard and speakers have a plastic backing that stopped just about all the liquid from getting into the computer. If there is no "moisture damage" past the keyboard, do you know if Apple will still void the entire warranty because of the spill?
3. I tried running the diagnostics program on the install DVD that came with the computer. The simple version checked out fine, but 3 times when I ran the full version it got about 5 minutes in and then the timer never moved again. What does that mean? The drive read the disc fine, so I don't think it's damaged. The timer jumps every few minutes, the so the time elasped doesn't move slowly, but is this normal? I finally shut the computer down with the power button after 12 to 15 minutes of nothing happening.
Thanks for reading my long post and I appreciate any knowledge you might have. I will contact Apple after work today but I was hoping to be a bit more informed before I call them. Feel free to lecture me about liquids and computers as well because it seems I didn't get the memo.
