Water damage. Works again but turns off a few minutes in.

[rosaca]

So, I was drinking a glass of water when I spilled it over my Macbook Air 2016.
I immediately turned it upside down but did not turn it off. Then put it on top of a cotton towel upside down and it turned off by itself. Left it there during the night (9h).
This morning I tried to turn it on again and the power button won't work but turns on by clicking the enter key repeatedly. It works perfectly fine (speaker, keyboard, trakpack, charges fine) but turned off like 5 mins in. Tried again and same thing happened.

What could it be? How much do you estimate the cost of fixing?

 

[44267547]

So, I was drinking a glass of water when I spilled it over my Macbook Air 2016.
I immediately turned it upside down but did not turn it off. Then put it on top of a cotton towel upside down and it turned off by itself. Left it there during the night (9h).
This morning I tried to turn it on again and the power button won't work but turns on by clicking the enter key repeatedly. It works perfectly fine (speaker, keyboard, trakpack, charges fine) but turned off like 5 mins in. Tried again and same thing happened.

What could it be? How much do you estimate the cost of fixing?

Don’t attempt to power it back on. It Appears the logic board already has damage due to it intermittently powering off or Eventually the water will short it out completely. As for pricing, I would contact Apple directly.

 

[ZipZap]

It may still be wet inside so stop using it. Apple will tell you its a total loss as they do not do board level repairs except when trying to prep a machine to sell as a refurb. Wait a week and let it dry, or open and use a hairdryer. You may need to find a shop that can repair the board. See Lou Rossmann videos on Youtube.

 

[rosaca]

It may still be wet inside so stop using it. Apple will tell you its a total loss as they do not do board level repairs except when trying to prep a machine to sell as a refurb. Wait a week and let it dry, or open and use a hairdryer. You may need to find a shop that can repair the board. See Lou Rossmann videos on Youtube.

I am very unlucky and it is only 4 months old. Is it not worth letting Apple replace the board?

 

[yngwietiger]

Check out this guy's channel on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCl2mFZoRqjw_ELax4Yisf6w

He has a ton of videos where he fixes Macs. He may have some advice.

Or search YouTube in general.

For a little anecdotal advice....let it dry completely, and maybe you'll get lucky. I have an Apple external keyboard. One day, the ";" and "/" keys stopped working. I had spilled a couple of drops of water on my desk, very little. Best I can guess is that a couple of tiny drops got in the keyboard. I turned it upside down, tried a couple of days later with no luck. Tried again, about a week later, and it was working.

 

[ZipZap]

I am very unlucky and it is only 4 months old. Is it not worth letting Apple replace the board?

Its a 2016...its not 4 months old.

 

[Audit13]

The machine may be salvageable.

I recommend dismantling the unit as much as possible, clean the affected areas with pure isopropyl alcohol, leave it to dry for a few days, reassemble, and try again. I've performed this procedure for a couple of Macbooks and they came back to life and have continued to work perfectly for the past few months.

 

[Ma2k5]

Out of curiosity, why didn’t you turn it’s off?