My cuz fed liquid refreshments to her 13" MacBook and now, according to the Genius Bar guys, it’s officially dead. It was just a glass of water, nothing sticky or alcoholic, so is there a chance it might recover when it’s dried out properly?
Advice very much appreciated, please. Jen
when did this occur? have you tried rice?
I read on http://www.mac-forums.com that someone had a similar problem. They left it in the sun for several hours and then it started working again normally.
As with all spills of just water, there’s a pretty good chance it will pull up just fine, only with the caveat that it may stop working at any time for apparently no reason at all due to internal oxidation and/or other unforeseen damage to internal components.
kerr, mick132 and bennyling, thank you so much for the input.
It’s not my computer so I haven’t tried anything but I’ll pass this information along right away.
Kerr, what do you mean by ‘trying rice’? Put it in a bag with some rice to absorb the water?
Thanks again. The input is very welcome. Jen
Don’t put rice in it, or on it as rice contains starch which will damage components. I recently saw a person who drowned their expensive DSLR camera then filled it with rice in the hopes of saving it, but destroyed the sensor because of the starch stains on it.
Put it in a zip-lock bag with rice surrounding it. Rice is a desiccant. It’s a cheaper alternative to those specific desiccant sachets and the silica gel you can also get, it will absorb the moisture around it and dry it out.
It may even sound counter-intuitive but its not, you can rinse it off with demineralised water particularly if its anything sticky or gooey like coffee or any sugary drinks after you’ve switched the machine off.
Your problem is simple, if it were demineralised water it probably wouldn’t do any damage but tap water is contaminated with oxidants that cause corrosion and rust and they will eventually kill the components over time.
It is salvageable but in the long term you should look for a new machine.
Rice does absolutely nothing but accelerate corrosion. Simple reason being the minerals suspended in the water cause the most damage as the water evaporates and the minerals settle on the board, surrounded by fresh circulating air. The minerals react with the metals already present on the board to cause oxidation, and components still connected to power are certainly more prone to corrosion.
When these minerals are suspended in water, they haven’t yet settled on the board and the affected components are essentially insulated from the surrounding air. I have a computer that was submerged in dishwater for over an hour here that was successfully revived, and a machine that took only a minor spill and was left in rice to dry that is completely dead. The difference between the two is the submerged machine was still wet when I received it and the board could be cleaned before corrosion set in.
The best solution is always to tear the machine down and clean the parts, ideally with an isopropyl alcohol but the readily available methylated spirits also works well. Clean any affected areas with alcohol and a cloth or cotton swab, and for difficult to reach areas or stubborn corrosion, a soft toothbrush dipped in alcohol works alright.
Most internal parts come good after this. The Logic Board is always hit and miss and could fail again, but I have seen a good deal of them survive if attended to early. The later they’re attended to, the worse off they are and the less likely they are to remain reliable, but some still manage to work afterward. Optical Drives, Hard Drives, Cables, Batteries and the like usually don’t work immediately after or continue to work fine indefinitely, there’s rarely an in-between.
The keyboard is the worst part to address, because it can’t really be cleaned as such. Straight water isn’t bad, and sometimes a demineralised water rinse can help, although the keyboard backlight (where fitted) may not always be the same afterward. Sugary or acidic drinks like Coke, Coffee or Wine tend to stay in the keyboard and can cause discolouration of the backlight, sticky lifters, loss of key function, intermittent power issues (power button) or a machine that turns itself on or off at random. Whenever a keyboard sustains liquid damage like this, I normally turf the keyboard or top case - it isn’t worth the hassle or time of removing every single key and cleaning them all only to discover the keyboard doesn’t work again after anyway.
Leaving with a fun story, I worked on a 15" Retina recently that fell into a bath. The owner then proceeded to leave the computer in a drawer for two months before deciding to turn it in for an insurance assessment. When I removed the bottom case the machine was absolutely full of corrosion and rust, but none-the-less curiosity set in and I removed the board to inspect and clean it, just to see if a machine this badly damaged could possibly be revived. Wouldn’t you know it, the damn thing booted up into OS X after, albeit with an extremely patchy screen and dead battery. Almost tempted to have the board framed after that one.
Orestes and iMic, thank you very much for the very detailed responses. I’ll pass that along pronto and will report back when I know the outcome as I’m sure some people will be curious to know.
Good story about the 15" Retina! How does one drop a computer in the bath? I know we’re all supposed to be working longer and harder but slaving away in the tub…? Hope it was running on battery if it joined the owner in the water.
Thanks again for all the good information.
From what I could tell, the owner was relaxing in the bath while marathon watching a TV series. Sounds like it would have been heavenly, before the computer went in that is.
If you need any more info or assistance let us know, I’ll see what I can find out or do to help.
Dismantling a computer can sound rather daunting, but these days with YouTube and other resources, you can easily find great tutorials to follow, and if you do need special tools (ie tri-wing screwdrivers etc), Amazon/etc can have them at your door for just a few dollars and within a few days…
Even without dropping it in the bath, that sort of behaviour is only going to cause problems in the long run. I know someone whose relatively new phone started to rust around the charge port. It was a baffling condition, until it turned out that they’d been using it in the bath to read, which meant being held for long periods of time above steaming water. 
Thanks so much, iMic. I’ll pass that kind offer along.
I suspect the thinking now is that a new laptop might be the preferred option.
(He…he…emergency crew called to rescue electrified prune…)
Thanks cosmic…will pass that along but I think a new laptop might be coming.