Water got on your MacBook - what to do in this situation. MacBook won't turn on: possible causes and solutions to the problem

Like probably any person, until recently I believed that trouble could happen to anyone, but not to me! But as they say: “you can’t escape fate”! In this publication, I want to talk about how I flooded my native MacBook with coffee, giving both him and myself, in the literal sense, a “black streak in life.” I hope that such nonsense does not happen to you, but in any case, forewarned is forearmed! So, first things first.

I have long and unequivocally “sold myself out” to Apple, in the sense that I work only for , without recognizing other brands. No, you understand correctly, I am not at all downplaying the merits of other laptops, but my personal experience and informed judgment will remain on the side of the Apple device. Quality, ease of use, aesthetics, performance - this is just a short list of reasons to choose Mac. At work, I have to constantly be online, developing and maintaining Internet projects. Therefore, my MacBook Air has become a constant companion, whether working in the office, at home, or at a table in a cafe. Naturally, working on a laptop gradually began to be accompanied by drinking drinks and eating food, so to speak, “on the job.”

Several friends warned me about the dangers of such a pastime, and there is a lot of information on the Internet. Filling a MacBook with water or any other liquid is the most common problem, the consequences of which can be very different. From light drying and cleaning, to replacing the mother card, keyboard, track pad, etc. and so on. But as mentioned at the beginning, I didn’t want to believe that something like this would happen to my laptop. And then... It seems that that day the coffee was especially strong and black. And then, as luck would have it, a message arrived on Skype, followed by a careless movement of the hand and... Half a cup of first-class Americano ended up on the keyboard!

The first thing you feel at such moments is probably slight bewilderment. Hmm, how so, what a bungler. And then panic begins! With the speed of lightning, I turned my laptop upside down, frantically groping for napkins. To shorten the story, I will say that my MacBook still passed out, after which it stopped showing any signs of life. I am technically savvy enough to understand that there was a short circuit somewhere inside, which means some elements burned out. This could be anything from the contacts of countless transistors, capacitors, to entire sections of electrically conductive paths. Or as the professionals call it - food chains.

Imagine the state of a person who, literally before his eyes, has a magnificent device worth a thousand dollars turned into a useless pile of iron! Although the owners of the new Pro for 2-3 thousand probably feel even worse. I was incredibly lucky that I had friends from the Apple service center (BashMac in Kyiv), whom I immediately called. The guys promptly advised not to waste time on independent attempts to “revive” the dead “beast”, but to come to the service center. And it is right! If you are not an experienced Apple engineer with a whole set of special screwdrivers and other tools, then don’t even try to restore your “tarnished reputation” in the form of a laptop. Some users try to dry their device on the radiator, cover it with rice, or even worse - blow it with a hot hairdryer. Looking ahead, I convince you that this is absolutely useless!

First of all, the guys opened the bottom and turned off the battery. Until this is done, the entire laptop system is under voltage, which means further short circuits and accelerated corrosion are possible. Then the MacBook was left for complete disassembly, cleaning, and of course damage diagnosis. The rare luck did not end there; it turned out that my Mac could be restored through component repair, that is, the board did not have to be changed. Within a week I received a fully working device back, although I had to replace the keyboard as it was hopelessly damaged. Often the keyboard is saved by drying and cleaning, but as they say, each case is individual. The moral of this story is this - be extremely careful with drinks near your laptop, and if trouble happens, contact a specialist immediately, this will save you money and time! That's all, may the techno force be with you, and see you again!

And I’m quite happy about it. But there was one “trifle” left behind the lines.

A month before, a colleague poured champagne all over my MacBook Pro and took it upon himself to fix it.

The most offensive thing is that the champagne was so-so. Moet, brut, moderately acidic water - I don’t like this, but in honor of someone else’s birthday, why not refuel.

The bottle was successfully opened next to me. They flooded half the table, the camera and a bunch of other things. The only thing that suffered was my MacBook Pro 2017: its entire right side was flooded.

After laughter and initial drying, the mood subsided. A colleague was good at repairing my MacBook. If it had just been filled with water, then a quick visit to the repair shop could have cost everything. But, alas, this story continues to this day.

What broke in my MacBook Pro IMMEDIATELY

After 10 seconds, the laptop was lying in a towel. We wiped it dry and began to inspect the damage. At first glance, the screen got the most attention.

To be honest, I didn’t expect that in the MacBook Pro so easy to flood the display. I'm not talking about the train now. In some unknown way, the champagne got between the glass and the matrix from the lower right edge.

Perhaps literally one drop was enough for such a trace - after all, the distance between the matrix and the glass is very small.

It was not possible to remove this stain with simple pressure. We decided to wait, in case it dried out.

While we were waiting, the right side of the keyboard started to stick. We tried blowing it out with compressed air, but to no avail. After an hour, many buttons were either not pressed or were triggered several times. Not surprisingly, alcohol and sugar will not evaporate without a trace.

Somewhere at 17:00 in the afternoon, the laptop went to our friends at the service center, who promised to carry out a complete ultrasonic cleaning of all the insides, including the keyboard unit. Minus 10 thousand rubles.

The spot on the display had actually decreased by that time, but it still remained large and very noticeable. The forecast was moderately positive!

Then it got worse, and I even got upset

24 hours later we picked up the MacBook that had been cleaned of alcohol. We started to look around. The keys actually clicked perfectly, just like before. Nothing got on the motherboard or the hardware itself.

As explained in the service, despite all the fragility of the keyboard of the new firmware, filling them tightly is a little more difficult due to the internal design. The splashes are not as bad as they used to be. If it were a standard MacBook Pro or even a MacBook Pro Retina, then it would already be dead.

The spot inside the display, although it became several times smaller, still strained the eyes. All the stains around the edges evaporated, and what remained was a thick dot sitting quite deep inside. He had nowhere to go.

This story could have ended here, but the MacBook decided to take revenge.

A few days later the keys started sticking again. Not all, but a few really important ones: the T button, spacebar, Enter and almost everything in its immediate vicinity. I had to take it to the service center, again minus 10 thousand rubles.

However, repeated cleaning helped for a week. By the end of the May holidays, the crunching of the keyboard returned, some buttons stopped being pressed normally... well, you understand.

It would be stupid to carry out further cleanings, so we came to a simple conclusion: we need to replace the entire topcase.

The solution was this: replace the top case in the MacBook Pro 2017

Just in case, topcase called the top of the bottom half of the MacBook. To access it, you will have to “gut” the entire laptop, and this work is not easy or cheap.

The topcase includes an aluminum lid and a one-piece keyboard unit, plus accompanying cables. The latest generation models also have a touchpad and Touch Bar.

This is not a complete MacBook with motherboard, so it seems that the spare part itself cannot be expensive. Well, ten, fifteen thousand maximum. Yes?

Nothing like that, because replacing the top case in MacBook Pro 2017 costs 35-45 thousand rubles along with work. These are not inflated prices, it’s just that the spare part is really so expensive, and there are virtually no Chinese “analogues”.

By this time, 20 thousand rubles had been spent on cleaning, and the final cost of repairs if the top case was replaced would be close to the cost of a new MacBook Air or a used Pro Retina on the secondary market.

After walking around with this idea for a couple of days, we found an alternative solution. It's not very honest.

But they offered me a gray MacBook repair scheme

Some Apple service centers in Russia make money on the side. For a fee, they take your device, create warranty damage to it, and then submit a request to Apple for the necessary spare parts or even a new device as a replacement.

The price of such “repairs” almost never falls below 10-15 thousand rubles. And in the case of my MacBook Pro requested 30 thousand rubles.

The essence of the procedure was explained as follows: for a tortured MacBook, almost all spare parts, except the motherboard, will be ordered under a fictitious warranty. Of these will be collected Frankenstein, which will be returned to me.

They provide full guarantees, and the device will even remain under warranty. Everything else was left behind the scenes, they say, if you don’t want this option, we don’t insist.

From the point of view of a pragmatic consumer, this option much more profitable than replacing the topcase. But I decided not to spoil karma. Moreover, this is not my problem in the first place, and my colleague is to blame.

Therefore, my laptop in its current form went to him, and I got his similar MacBook Pro. We have almost identical models, except that the body colors are different.

Now he himself is considering whether to hand over the laptop under such a “black guarantee”. Leaning towards this.

Morality?

In a similar situation, do not invest in successive expensive cleanings. If the first one does not help, it is better to immediately think about repairing/replacing the laptop.

And if you also flood or break your MacBook, know that there is a way to “fix” it cheaper than standard out-of-warranty repairs at a service center. Decide for yourself whether to use it or not. I personally resolved the issue of legality and morality for myself, and you too will figure it out without my help.

I won’t give you contact information here, sorry.

Now a distance of one meter is maintained between me, the laptop and any liquids. I wish the same for you. And yes, I hate brut even more than before.

You just filled up your MacBook. What to do? What is happening to him now and what are the chances of recovery? How to properly prepare for the inevitable repairs? About all this in our emergency article for those who have been overtaken by universal failure. God forbid you read these lines after New Year's nights...

I filled up my MacBook. What to do?

If there is little liquid and nothing gets on the display, sharply turn the laptop over with the keyboard facing down. Not at an angle, but parallel to the table. Further and in any case: rule number one.

Turn off your MacBook IMMEDIATELY.

To do this, hold down the power button (in the upper right corner) until the screen goes blank. Happened? We continue, time ticks by in seconds.

We grab a towel from the bathroom and place the still upside-down laptop on it, keyboard down. There is no need to press down on either the laptop or the towel! Carefully lift the resulting “sandwich” and confidently but easily shake it down without pulling it back. Can be repeated two or three times.

Now we take off the towel (no need to hold it for long), place the open laptop on the table with the keyboard down and go get dressed. It's time to go to the service.

Ethnoscience?

The smartest Kulibins, home-grown repair experts and Google experts have already prayed: how can this be, why immediately run to the service? After all, there are many effective methods for solving the problem at home! For example, placing a laptop in a container of rice. Or just carefully pour it into the problem area! After all, rice absorbs moisture, which means that after a while the laptop will be like new...

For all such amateurs, there is a short and simple answer. If you flooded a $1,000 laptop and are trying to fix it using traditional methods, you are a fool who very soon won’t have a laptop at all. This discussion of the issue can be safely completed. Suggestions to “save or copy important data”, “wait for the first consequences to appear” (maybe you’ll be lucky) and “let him lie wrapped in a towel for a couple of hours so that everything works out” are sent to one basket of cereals. In the latter case, you will only aggravate the problem by saturating the entire laptop with fumes.

Leave traditional medicine for the case when professionals admit they are powerless. Fortunately, this happens extremely rarely.

How will your laptop be restored?

To solve such problems, you should immediately contact a reputable service. Still, the equipment is not at all easy to repair, including in terms of cost. The other day I was just at the salon iCases, which is located in Moscow on Nizhnyaya Radishchevskaya, house 10, building 1. They have a service center at the store, which is very popular among our readers. That time we fixed the strange one and did a little digging into those Macs that are waiting for a quick repair (or special spare parts).

Not a day goes by without a person coming to the service who has redeemed his MacBook in the most skillful ways. The funny thing is that some even try to lie: they say, I don’t know anything, he switched off on his own. Admitting that you foolishly spilled water on an expensive laptop is really difficult - but there is nothing wrong with that. The technician will be prepared in advance to solve your problem and will not waste time on diagnostics.

However, when it comes to water, serious diagnostics are not carried out immediately. First you just need to replace the problematic components, some of which no longer work. They bring all sorts of devices: quite frequent guests on the master’s table are MacBooks, which had been lying in the owner’s closet for a month before he decided to tackle this problem. These are the most difficult to save: many owners underestimate the complexity of such repairs and neglect the job in full. Especially girls;)

Flooded MacBooks are disassembled, cleaned of remaining moisture, and placed in an ultrasonic bath to remove the smallest and most insignificant residual signs. Processing, by the way, very much depends on the type of liquid that was doused on the computer. Further actions are strictly individual: the most affected parts are replaced, and minor points that may remain harmless to the device are carefully studied. In the laptop in the photos, a lot of things have already been replaced. All that was left from the initial damage were the bolts killed by corrosion. There's really no need to change them.

As the master says, the highest chance of full recovery is for those clients who contacted the service within three hours after the unpleasant event - and followed all the above recommendations. In cases where reviving the device is objectively impossible, the iCases service center offers clients to at least retrieve all documents and data from it.

In this situation, even MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with Retina display are supported: their flash memory is read through a special adapter and written to any storage medium. But you rarely have to resort to this: in principle, almost everything can be repaired, and the question is a little different: how many components will have to be replaced before you can achieve 100% performance?

If you've flooded your MacBook and are panicking about your next action plan, just go to iCases. Not only will they help you, but in the coming days they will also offer you a 15 percent discount on all types of work.

As with any other device, a situation may occur with a Macbook in which it stops starting. Let's take a closer look at the reasons why your MacBook won't turn on and look at troubleshooting solutions.

Main reasons

Why won't my MacBook turn on? There are several main reasons. These include the following situations:

• system error;
• short circuit in the network;
• failure of the charger or power connector;
• impact damage (dropping the device on the floor, accidental impact on the case or screen);
• water entering the internal elements of the device;
• high workloads and dust contamination (the device is overheated);

In three of the above cases, you cannot take any independent actions to “reanimate” the device. These situations include: spilling any liquid on the MacBook, serious mechanical damage, and the appearance of a burning smell. Here, only a qualified specialist can provide assistance, and manual actions will only aggravate the breakdown.

Possible solutions

What to do if your MacBook won't turn on? It is advisable to take the device to a service center regardless of the reason. A specialist will be able to accurately determine the source of the problem and eliminate the problem with minimal losses. Trying to turn it on yourself if you have certain problems can complicate subsequent repairs.

If it is not possible to take your MacBook to a service center, there are several recommendations that will help solve the problem. Let's look at them in detail:

1. Check the charger and power connector. When the power cord is plugged into the outlet, the power indicator should light up green. If it does not light, try an analog or replacement power cord. When connecting the charger, the power connector should hold it firmly in a level position. If the plug falls out or is bent arbitrarily, the problem lies in the connector.

1. To check the power system, you can use an additional charged battery. If the device starts up, the reason is in the “original” battery.
2. We connect the MacBook to an outlet whose functionality has been tested with another item (phone charger, lamp, TV, etc.).
3. If a short circuit occurs or an emergency shutdown is performed, after which the MacBook does not turn on, you need to try the following method. Disconnect the power cable, take out the battery, press the power button and hold it for several seconds. Insert the battery, connect the cord, connect the plug to the outlet and press Power.
4. We turn off all additional equipment (printer, tablet, smartphone, external hard drives, etc.), and try to start the MacBook again.
5. A system software error that prevents the MacBook from starting can be checked by typing a specific key combination and pressing the power button to reboot. When the power cable is connected, simultaneously press the combination Shift + Ctrl + Option + Power. The keys are released simultaneously. If the MacBook started up, the reason lay in the system management controller. Resetting its settings allowed the enabler workflows to restart.

1. The presence of an error in memory components is checked and eliminated by the following combination. Press the power button, and then simultaneously hold down the Command + Option + P + R keys. The gray screen should “light up”. We continue to hold the combination until the characteristic OS boot signal.

How to solve the problem if the screen does not turn on?

A situation may arise when, when you turn on the network and press the Power button, the Macbook itself turns on and, at the same time, the screen does not turn on. The reason is in the matrix. This is very easy to determine:

• When starting up, you can hear the noise of the fan and the functioning of the disks;
• the OS startup melody is heard;
• When you press CapsLock, the corresponding indicator lights up.

If you identify these signs and determine screen problems, you need to take your MacBook to a specialized service.

The most common cause of MacBook failure is liquid getting into it. Fortunately, in most cases, a flooded Macbook Pro can be repaired, but this directly depends on the subsequent actions of its owner. In this article, I will talk about what damage liquid can cause to a MacBook, and what needs to be done after it gets inside the Macbook Pro. How can there be liquid in a MacBook? Sometimes this is to blame for the rain that an Apple laptop got caught in, or the user’s reluctance to part with it while taking a bath. The most common cause of liquid getting into a Macbook Pro is spilling various drinks onto its keyboard, so I will dwell on this case in more detail.

If you spill any liquid on a running Macbook Pro, you must immediately turn off the power, and the sooner the better. Do not waste precious seconds on the standard procedure for shutting down the operating system, even if this threatens the loss of important documents - if necessary, the data can be recovered, but the Macbook Pro can be lost forever as a result of delay. After your Macbook Pro is turned off, you need to remove the battery from it. In the latest Macbook Pro models, the battery is hidden under an aluminum cover that requires a torx screwdriver to open it.

Now the damaged Macbook Pro needs to be turned upside down and placed on a flat surface (it is advisable to open it slightly so that water does not get on the matrix). If moisture is visible on the outside of the MacBook, it should be carefully wiped with a soft cloth or sponge, but after the MacBook Pro is turned over, otherwise some of the liquid can be driven inside the MacBook's keyboard.
It is important to remember that the keyboard buttons are made of very thin plastic; under no circumstances should you dry the keyboard with a hairdryer to avoid thermal deformation of the buttons.

The next step is perhaps the most important, since failure to do so is the most common cause of death for liquid-filled MacBooks. This step is to immediately seek help from Apple service center specialists. Unfortunately, many users don't do this, which usually results in the loss of their MacBook or a much more expensive repair.

Common misconceptions when liquid gets into an electronic device

A fairly common misconception is that if the Macbook Pro turns on after the liquid has dried, then the problem is over. Alas, this is not true. If a Macbook Pro is flooded with water, juice, coffee or other liquid, it gets inside its case and begins its destructive work. Usually, tea or coffee is spilled on the keyboard, under which the motherboard is located - the main (and most expensive) part of the MacBook.

Even if immediately after the MacBook has been flooded, you remove the liquid from the case and turn the MacBook Pro upside down to dry, some of the liquid still penetrates its motherboard. The liquid quickly evaporates from the MacBook body, but inside the MacBook the process of electrochemical corrosion begins. This is why it is very important to take a flooded Macbook Pro to a service center as soon as possible, since corrosion is taking over more and more surface area of ​​the motherboard every hour. The chips on the motherboard, like sponges, absorb moisture, and if action is not taken quickly, repairing the MacBook will become impossible.

Repairing a flooded MacBook should not be delayed

Often, MacBook owners during vacation or vacation drop it into the pool or pour some kind of drink on it, while postponing a trip to specialists for several days, or even weeks - after all, a Macbook Pro is not required for work yet, so why waste time and money for a computer service? And then it usually turns out that the entire motherboard is corroded, and sometimes other parts are destroyed, which means that restoring the MacBook is out of the question. Perhaps, such an outcome cannot be considered a successful end to the vacation - therefore, you need to contact a specialist immediately after the MacBook has been flooded.

If it is not possible to contact a service center immediately after spilling tea on your Macbook Pro—for example, if the problem happened at night outside the city—you need to leave the Macbook Pro upside down to dry and try to find a way to contact a specialist within the next few hours.

The main thing is to never try to turn on the MacBook, no matter how much you might want to. Turning it on may cause a short circuit, which will require a more expensive MacBook repair. By the way, it is not uncommon for a Macbook Pro to work fine for several days after being exposed to liquid, which makes you think that the problem has been solved. However, after two or three weeks the computer refuses to turn on. After contacting the service center, its owner learns that the insides of the MacBook are corroded and cannot be restored.

Results

So, we hope that this information will be useful to all those who spilled tea or something stronger ;) on a Macbook Pro or bathed their Mac in the pool - no one is immune from this accident. But if such a situation cannot be predicted (you can avoid eating near your MacBook, don’t take it with you to the bathroom or to the beach, but suddenly find yourself a victim of flooding from your neighbors above), then everyone can increase the chances of successfully repairing a flooded MacBook: for this you need to clearly follow the above rules and rush to take your Macbook Pro to the service center, and surely in a day or two you will be able to work on your MacBook again, as if nothing had happened!