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Starbucks attacked my 3 week old Macbook... ARGH

P

pamon

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 12, 2006
305
88
I just recently purchased a new macbook, less than 3 weeks old. Sitting at a starbucks working on some emails and I accidently hit my cup spilling a 1/4 cup of black coffee all over it... My heart stopped.... I raced over to the napkin counter and tried to dry it off asap, but it's dead. System shut down within a second of the spill and now it won't restart..

Stopped by the genius bar and now its $800 to repair. Called my VISA card holder but they said they cover $500 but not on spills.

Now its a macbrick... Argh......

This just sucks...
 
That would happen to any computer, you could have had a Toshiba, or a Dell.

I'm sorry for your loss right now, but technology is delicate, you have to be careful, and I know from personal experience it's the stupid little accidents that screw it all up.

The first thing you should have done was tipped the MB upside down, and let it drain out, instead of sinking in.
 
Let it dry out for a week and see how it goes. I spilt soda on a MacBook I had almost a year ago and it worked after I took it apart, cleaned it up with some water and let it dry for a week. The iSight died about a month later along with the optical drive and the warranty repair center fixed it for me within a day.

Give it a shot!
 
pamon said:
I just recently purchased a new macbook, less than 3 weeks old. Sitting at a starbucks working on some emails and I accidently hit my cup spilling a 1/4 cup of black coffee all over it... My heart stopped.... I raced over to the napkin counter and tried to dry it off asap, but it's dead. System shut down within a second of the spill and now it won't restart..

Stopped by the genius bar and now its $800 to repair. Called my VISA card holder but they said they cover $500 but not on spills.

Now its a macbrick... Argh......

This just sucks...
Click to expand...

This is kinda off subject but just out of curiousnesses why would you call your visa card holder? I'm not trying to be nosie I'm just wondering if most visa card holders or maybe even master card holders company's would pay for something like this, if it wasn't a spill?
 
well that sucks. As posted before dry that puppy out. Dismantle it only if you think you can handle it. Laptops are very delicate and very complicated more often than not. But if you're persistent and got a bit of time carefully dismantle it. Clean it if necessary and if you see burns or melting your in trouble.

edit: I'm not sure could maybe an insurance of some type cover this?
 
I recommend buying ISkin which protects your keyboard from dust, spills, food crumbs whatever from touching the keys at all. I paid 2500 for this new MBP and I would cry if I by accident spilled something and I lost my investment. I have a clear iskin on the keyboard and it works great you dont feel no real differnce typing and its worth it because you know your keys are protected from anything getting spilled on them for me its piece of mind and taking care of the money I spent.
 
island said:
Let it dry out for a week and see how it goes. I spilt soda on a MacBook I had almost a year ago and it worked after I took it apart, cleaned it up with some water and let it dry for a week. The iSight died about a month later along with the optical drive and the warranty repair center fixed it for me within a day.

Give it a shot!
Click to expand...

Problem with that is he already went to Apple, so they know very well what he did. If he managed to get it working again himself, and then things started dying, they'd know immediately what was going on.

pilotkid said:
This is kinda off subject but just out of curiousnesses why would you call your visa card holder?
Click to expand...

There should be coverage on things you purchase with visa, depending on what sort of card you have, your coverage is a lot more, so it's insurance on what you buy.

Rokem said:
edit: I'm not sure could maybe an insurance of some type cover this?
Click to expand...

Home and contents insurance might do the trick, can you pretend you spilt your coffee on it at home. Be aware than your premiums will go up if you claim for this though. Oh and it's a federal crime or some such nonsense.
 
JSmoove05 said:
I recommend buying ISkin which protects your keyboard from dust, spills, food crumbs whatever from touching the keys at all. I paid 2500 for this new MBP and I would cry if I by accident spilled something and I lost my investment. I have a clear iskin on the keyboard and it works great you dont feel no real differnce typing and its worth it because you know your keys are protected from anything getting spilled on them for me its piece of mind and taking care of the money I spent.
Click to expand...

Bit unhelpful seeing as he's already gone and spilled coffee on his laptop yes?


I think you're going to be stuck forking out to get it repaired i'm afraid. But I agree that you should try and let it drain and dry for about a week and see if that helps. Good luck! :(
 
Osarkon said:
Bit unhelpful seeing as he's already gone and spilled coffee on his laptop yes?


I think you're going to be stuck forking out to get it repaired i'm afraid. But I agree that you should try and let it drain and dry for about a week and see if that helps. Good luck! :(
Click to expand...

It certainly helps it from happening again.

:apple:
 
So you spill your coffee over your Macbook and then open a thread that says "Starbucks attacked my 3 week old Macbook..."? :p

Quite frustrating, though.
 
pamon said:
I just recently purchased a new macbook, less than 3 weeks old. Sitting at a starbucks working on some emails and I accidently hit my cup spilling a 1/4 cup of black coffee all over it... My heart stopped.... I raced over to the napkin counter and tried to dry it off asap, but it's dead. System shut down within a second of the spill and now it won't restart..

Stopped by the genius bar and now its $800 to repair. Called my VISA card holder but they said they cover $500 but not on spills.

Now its a macbrick... Argh......

This just sucks...
Click to expand...

I don't see why apple didn't just replace the machine. You've only had it for three weeks. My friend dropped his blackberry in the toilet (long story!) and he was sent a new one.

Call them again and insist - there's no harm in trying
 
zanlyons said:
I don't see why apple didn't just replace the machine. You've only had it for three weeks. My friend dropped his blackberry in the toilet (long story!) and he was sent a new one.

Call them again and insist - there's no harm in trying
Click to expand...

If there is a problem with the MB (through no external source), then yes, Apple would be obliged to replace it. However he spilt coffee on it, so he did something to it. And you have to take responsibility for that.

If you could damage anything you liked and get free replacements, what sort of world would we be living in ?
 
on the semi-bright side, $800 is a reasonable amount to have that machine repaired. it's still cheaper than buying a new system altogether. but again, sorry for your loss. :(
 
Assuming you've little to lose, take everything apart and clean it all, letting it dry for days. With luck, only one (probably vital, though) element was damaged, and you could try to find it second hand on ebay. Or, you could try selling everything separately.... I mean, you can always try to make some money out of the LCD, Superdrive, hard drive, RAM... the power adapter is also worth something...
But first take it apart, clean, let dry...
G' luck :eek:
 
An injection of caffeine is NOT a recognized way of overclocking the CPU. :)

Seriously, as a previous poster mentioned, try letting the computer dry out completely before doing a restart. (take the battery out while it is drying out)

If you can open the case up (and you're comfortable with doing so) then that will help the drying process.

If you have been able to open up the case then after the circuit board is dry, clean all of the boards, contacts and the key bed with isopropyl alcohol. The alcohol will evaporate completely and won't leave any residue. (I've done this process on several electronic items that have been subjected to liquids, i.e. a Nokia cell phone in a swimming pool.....worked just fine afterwords)

Sopranino
 
What to do`?

I did the exact same thing with my SonyEricsson k750i. Only it wasn't coffee it was vodka, and I didn't brick my phone.. :rolleyes:

But what you have to do in a situation like that is.

1. Hard shutdown(Hold the power button), then take out the battery,
2. Tip the computer upside down without getting liquid into the screen.
(If you have a vacuum machine, then try to suck out some liquid)
3. Let it dry for at least 3 days to a week depending on the amount of liquid.

Happens a lot for me, when I attend out of control parties, and It has always worked for me, :D
 
Wow. I had to do a double-take to make sure I hadn't started this thread. I had something similar happen a few weeks ago, though it wasn't my fault.

I sat down at a table outside starbucks and put my powerbook down, only to have the table-top collapse and dump my computer on the ground and my full cup of coffee on top of it.

Long story short...starbucks paid and I'm typing on a new macbook :D
 
toxic-waste said:
I did the exact same thing with my SonyEricsson k750i. Only it wasn't coffee it was vodka, and I didn't brick my phone.. :rolleyes:

But what you have to do in a situation like that is.

1. Hard shutdown(Hold the power button), then take out the battery,
2. Tip the computer upside down without getting liquid into the screen.
(If you have a vacuum machine, then try to suck out some liquid)
3. Let it dry for at least 3 days to a week depending on the amount of liquid.

Happens a lot for me, when I attend out of control parties, and It has always worked for me, :D
Click to expand...


Yes, but did you try drinking your phone?

But in all seriousness, you were at fault for the incident. As a fellow coffee drinker, I can sympathize with you need for delicious caffiene intake, but you have to be careful around you Mac, man! You can try letting it dry, and try getting parts replaced, but two things: 1) It's not quite legal, and 2) Even the repair guys at Apple will be able to smell the coffee and/or see the stain on the components.

Next time, spend the extra $15 and buy a spill-proof coffee mug. :rolleyes:
 
I've done this too. I was lying on the ole bed, PowerBook open and spilt pretty much a whole mug of coffee over the trackpad and keyboard. Let it dry for a week with the keyboard and battery out and the trackpad still didn't work. Now, about two months later, the trackpad magically works again.

It's just a matter of luck; we all know laptops aren't too fond of any liquid. I s'pose coffee's better than coke though.
 
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