Water + MBP. How screwed am I?
September 23, 2015 9:08 PM Subscribe
Water (a couple spoons, tops) got into my one-month-old MBP. How screwed am I?
My water bottle was in a bag with my MBP (in a shell, not a sleeve- I'll be rectifying that soon) when it leaked- luckily, I noticed right away, and was able to rescue it immediately. I estimate a spoonful or so of plain water got into the keyboard. I immediately shut everything down, towelled the MBP dry as best as I could, and laid it upside down to drain with the keyboard in a layer of rice.
Long story short: How screwed am I? I did turn it on for a few minutes yesterday (I know, I know, but I'm in grad school with professors who don't accept dead computers as excuses) and it seemed to be working fine, no flickering screen, all keys working. I'm planning to take it to the Apple Store on Saturday, but I'd like to be prepared for the worst anyway. My computer is only about a month and a half old- any chance AppleCare will be of use?
TIA!
My water bottle was in a bag with my MBP (in a shell, not a sleeve- I'll be rectifying that soon) when it leaked- luckily, I noticed right away, and was able to rescue it immediately. I estimate a spoonful or so of plain water got into the keyboard. I immediately shut everything down, towelled the MBP dry as best as I could, and laid it upside down to drain with the keyboard in a layer of rice.
Long story short: How screwed am I? I did turn it on for a few minutes yesterday (I know, I know, but I'm in grad school with professors who don't accept dead computers as excuses) and it seemed to be working fine, no flickering screen, all keys working. I'm planning to take it to the Apple Store on Saturday, but I'd like to be prepared for the worst anyway. My computer is only about a month and a half old- any chance AppleCare will be of use?
TIA!
Nothing was ruined by the time you turned it on. And then you turned it off again. It's really unlikely that something got ruined while it was off since then.
The reason you're supposed to turn it off when you get water in it is that water can cause short circuits, which can cause current to go places that can't really handle that much current. If it's off, there's a lot fewer places that can happen. If it worked when you turned it back on, then nothing got damaged, and it's extremely unlikely that it broke itself while it was off since then.
The point of the rice is to dry it out - I don't know how that interacts with humidity and so on, but once it has dried up completely, any damage will already be done, and, there's no reason to think this is going to cause some subtle long term damage that won't manifest until later. There's a good chance it's already 100% dry. If it worked yesterday I think you're probably completely fine. By Saturday it should be completely dry, and if it works, I'm not sure what point there would be in bringing it to the Apple Store. What would you want them to do to it?
posted by aubilenon at 9:21 PM on September 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
The reason you're supposed to turn it off when you get water in it is that water can cause short circuits, which can cause current to go places that can't really handle that much current. If it's off, there's a lot fewer places that can happen. If it worked when you turned it back on, then nothing got damaged, and it's extremely unlikely that it broke itself while it was off since then.
The point of the rice is to dry it out - I don't know how that interacts with humidity and so on, but once it has dried up completely, any damage will already be done, and, there's no reason to think this is going to cause some subtle long term damage that won't manifest until later. There's a good chance it's already 100% dry. If it worked yesterday I think you're probably completely fine. By Saturday it should be completely dry, and if it works, I'm not sure what point there would be in bringing it to the Apple Store. What would you want them to do to it?
posted by aubilenon at 9:21 PM on September 23, 2015 [3 favorites]
Response by poster: Last point, and then I'll stop threadsitting.
The MBP was on when water got into it. I'm freaking out a little because before I could shut it down, the screen was flickering like crazy. It did seem to be okay last night, though.
posted by Tamanna at 9:23 PM on September 23, 2015
The MBP was on when water got into it. I'm freaking out a little because before I could shut it down, the screen was flickering like crazy. It did seem to be okay last night, though.
posted by Tamanna at 9:23 PM on September 23, 2015
Seconding aubilenon. The other thing is, if you bought it with a credit card, you might have accidental damage protection that would cover this. It doesn't sound like you'll need it, but hopefully that gives you some extra piece of mind.
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 9:25 PM on September 23, 2015
posted by matildatakesovertheworld at 9:25 PM on September 23, 2015
Well it does sound like something was shorting out. What you saw was power going through the water instead of through the backlight. But again, if it works now, that has stopped happening, and you can be confident that wherever it came out of the water, it didn't permanently damage something.
Again there's not really a good chance that something in your computer was ... weakened by this. The two most likely outcomes are (in no particular order): Fried, and Fine. You'll know if it's fried, because something that's supposed to work won't work.
I guess once you've decided it's long enough that it's dry, try all the things. All the keys, wifi, bluetooth, speaker, all the ports.
posted by aubilenon at 9:32 PM on September 23, 2015
Again there's not really a good chance that something in your computer was ... weakened by this. The two most likely outcomes are (in no particular order): Fried, and Fine. You'll know if it's fried, because something that's supposed to work won't work.
I guess once you've decided it's long enough that it's dry, try all the things. All the keys, wifi, bluetooth, speaker, all the ports.
posted by aubilenon at 9:32 PM on September 23, 2015
Anecdata: 2 drops of water in the seam around the trackpad of an MBP - 1 year later - suddenly no control over the mouse pointer, pointer jumping and twitching all over.
3 days after that trackpad had to be replaced, everything is fine now.
Conclusion? You just never know. Advice? Maybe buy AppleCare while you still can.
posted by Zedcaster at 10:30 PM on September 23, 2015
3 days after that trackpad had to be replaced, everything is fine now.
Conclusion? You just never know. Advice? Maybe buy AppleCare while you still can.
posted by Zedcaster at 10:30 PM on September 23, 2015
I once spilled a beer into the keyboard of a MBP. It wouldn't start up at first, but after leaving it alone for a couple days it started with no problem. I'd say give it 24 hours for that small amount of liquid. YMMV.
posted by bendy at 12:26 AM on September 24, 2015
posted by bendy at 12:26 AM on September 24, 2015
For whatever it's worth, I worked through lunch earlier today and spilled half a glass of Genesee Cream Ale on the keyboard of my laptop. It's fine now, but I was able to take the laptop apart and get all residual moisture out of the case, and found I was lucky in that it didn't really hit the motherboard (much). As others have said, if nothing fried at the time of the spill, you're probably ok, but if my thinking that a MBP is a lot harder to disassemble is correct, you might want to give it longer to dry. (I also have no idea whether this is a service they'll perform at the Apple Store, but it doesn't seem like a crazy thing to ask.)
I also used a shop vac on my keyboard to pull out some moisture. I can imagine this being a bad idea for static-related reasons or something, but it seemed to work.
Might be worth seeing if you have some silica gel packets around.
posted by brennen at 12:33 AM on September 24, 2015
I also used a shop vac on my keyboard to pull out some moisture. I can imagine this being a bad idea for static-related reasons or something, but it seemed to work.
Might be worth seeing if you have some silica gel packets around.
posted by brennen at 12:33 AM on September 24, 2015
If you have any data on there you care about make sure you back it up (preferably in two places).
This is always good advice, but even more crucial with questionable hardware.
Data that does not exist in two places does not exist.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:56 AM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
This is always good advice, but even more crucial with questionable hardware.
Data that does not exist in two places does not exist.
posted by cjorgensen at 5:56 AM on September 24, 2015 [2 favorites]
I spilled probably about a quarter cup of orange juice on my MBP a few years ago. Save a few sticky keys for a few days, I have had no further issues.
posted by futureisunwritten at 7:13 AM on September 24, 2015
posted by futureisunwritten at 7:13 AM on September 24, 2015
Do you have a backup? If not make a backup now.
(I worked as an Apple hardware tech for a few months, and we sometimes saw water damaged laptops that would work perfectly for a week, and then suddenly stop working. I think the corrosion took a week to grow big enough that it shorted things out.)
Water damage is not covered by warranty or Apple Care. If components in the laptop fail then you have to pay for them out of pocket.
I would let the laptop dry for another day and then use it as normal, but backup once a day or after you do something important. If it runs for a couple weeks without problems you should be fine.
posted by gregr at 11:19 AM on September 24, 2015
(I worked as an Apple hardware tech for a few months, and we sometimes saw water damaged laptops that would work perfectly for a week, and then suddenly stop working. I think the corrosion took a week to grow big enough that it shorted things out.)
Water damage is not covered by warranty or Apple Care. If components in the laptop fail then you have to pay for them out of pocket.
I would let the laptop dry for another day and then use it as normal, but backup once a day or after you do something important. If it runs for a couple weeks without problems you should be fine.
posted by gregr at 11:19 AM on September 24, 2015
Even if everything is fine now, it is probably worth having the machine opened up and cleaned with distilled water. Depending on your locale, "plain water" can have a significant mineral content. Those minerals can cause corrosion down the road.
posted by Good Brain at 11:50 AM on September 24, 2015
posted by Good Brain at 11:50 AM on September 24, 2015
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posted by Tamanna at 9:10 PM on September 23, 2015