I filled my MacBook Pro with champagne, but found a way out. What to do if you flood your MacBook with water

No matter how doctors and other smart people admonish us, next to our Mac Every day there is a mug of coffee or tea. If disaster strikes and you spill a little liquid—or even the entire cup—on the bottom of your MacBook, do not despair. Everything can still be fixed!

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First the bad news: the damage caused MacBook Air or MacBook Pro liquid, are not covered by warranty - in special documents Apple specifies this point separately. Even if the laptop itself looks perfect after “dousing,” the Cupertino team will not take responsibility for repairing any damaged parts. Engineers Apple even equipped the MacBook keyboard and trackpad with special ones sensors. They immediately change their color upon contact with any liquid, and the service center technician, as soon as he saw the change, will not do anything and recognizes the case as non-warranty. So we will have to rely on ourselves - especially since it is still possible to do something.

If your keyboard is external, immediately disconnect it from your Apple computer. If it contains batteries, remove them. Wipe the keyboard with a microfiber cloth, then turn it over with the keys facing down to drain.

Your next steps depend on What you spilled on the keyboard, and is it too much There was liquid on it. If you spilled a little water or other liquid without added sugar, rinse the surface with clean water and let it dry. If a lot of liquid has been spilled, open the keyboard (for example, using a knife or screwdriver) and clean all the components that you can see.

If it contains liquid eat sugar, you will have to remove the keys and then wash them and the fastening mechanism with clean water. Be careful - the mechanism is very vulnerable! It is worth searching the Internet for information on how to remove the keys (if there is no other keyboard, search using the virtual keyboard from the main page of the same Yandex). After removing the keys, further cleaning is done with a clean cloth or soft brush using distilled water.

The laptop keyboard needs to be dried. Unplug the laptop and place it so that the fan grilles face down to allow liquid to drain. Leave it in this position for a couple of days - this will give you a better chance that everything will dry out properly. Then try turning on your MacBook.

And one last thing. Do not use for drying MacBook keyboard hairdryer! All it will do is blow air, dust and the same liquid into the laptop! It is better to use a vacuum cleaner (at low power).

Who doesn't like to drink a glass of beer or a cup of coffee while looking at the screen of their favorite device? But having gotten carried away, we don’t have time to notice that the liquid is already on the keyboard... It’s a shame! But we can fix it if we act correctly. What is important to know? Why not hesitate?

Signs of spilling tea or water on poppy seeds

It is important not only how much liquid was spilled on the laptop, but also where it ended up and what the consequences were. If you notice at least one of the following symptoms, then it’s time to act:

  • The device turned itself off.
  • We noticed traces of oxidation (tea, coffee, beer, wine, soda, juice - accelerate this process).
  • Buttons stick.
  • Charging problems.
  • There is no image on the screen.
  • The touchpad doesn't work.
  • Getting stuck on simple actions.
  • We smelled something burning.
  • Smoke pours out of the laptop - quickly turn off the switch.

What to do if you spill tea/beer/water on your MacBook?

Here is a list of simple but important manipulations that will save your Mac:

  • Remove the plug from the socket and/or turn off the device. Disconnect all peripherals.
  • Do not allow the liquid to spread. Turn the Mac upside down with the keyboard open and shake out the water.
  • Remove the battery from the old laptop model.
  • To absorb moisture, place the MacBook on a towel, napkin or paper with the affected part facing down (5-10 minutes).
  • Take the affected laptop to a reliable service center within 3 hours.
  • Talk about flooding your MacBook with water, tea or beer... Apple has equipped its devices with sensors that change color when liquid enters. But it’s better not to waste time on diagnostics and get down to business right away.
  • If laptop repair is no longer practical, order downloading valuable information from the device.

What NOT to do if you spill tea/beer/water on your MacBook?

Do not grab peripheral devices or a wet laptop that is plugged into a power outlet with your bare hands. Otherwise you will get an electric shock. Do you want to use your time profitably? Consider other people's mistakes. The following actions do not bring results:

  • Dry the “bathed” device with hot air from a hairdryer or near radiators. Even prolonged blowing with a fan will not make a flooded MacBook work.
  • Suck water out of the device with a vacuum cleaner.
  • Hope that the laptop will work on its own within 48 hours.
  • “Repair” a flooded MacBook yourself using methods from the Internet (put it in a bag of rice for a day or take it apart and wipe it with cotton wool). If you are a microprocessor technology specialist with extensive experience, then use your knowledge base.
  • Wrap the laptop in cloth for 2-3 hours. This way the entire device will be saturated with moisture.
  • Try to turn on the device. It’s better to spend time traveling to a service center, where they will give you qualified advice and/or quickly repair your laptop.

MyAppleCare revives your MacBook

MyAppleCare specialists

  • They will quickly and carefully disassemble your MacBook,
  • will perform dry cleaning of the motherboard and other components,
  • will professionally replace “choked” components,
  • reanimate the device.

It is unlikely that anyone will argue with the fact that Apple technology is of high quality and reliable. It is worth noting that most modern and recently released laptops from other manufacturers are much inferior to the MacBooks of 2008. All available models in the line work without failures or freezes, but this does not guarantee uninterrupted operation of the device. Sometimes unexpected situations happen. This is exactly what this article is dedicated to. Let's look at the reasons why your MacBook may not turn on, and how to fix them.

How can you tell if your MacBook won't turn on?

In order to understand that the equipment does not turn on, you do not need to have skill or any special knowledge. When loading, it is enough to pay attention to what is drawn on the screen. If an icon appears in the form of a gray folder with an exclamation mark on it, then there is a problem with the laptop. There is no need to panic right away. If there is no system failure, then laptop technologies can protect all the data on the hard drive.

How to reset settings?

If a slight freeze occurs and you don’t want to spend a lot of time with recovery, you can use the EFI memory quick rollback function. All data after this will not be deleted and will remain on the hard drive. What needs to be done for this? First, turn off the laptop by holding down the Command-P-R-Option buttons and pressing the power key. It is worth pressing on them until the loading screen appears. This will quickly get rid of freezes, the memory will be cleared, and the operation of the MacBook will be completely restored. In the future, to avoid such troubles, it is better to backup your computer and place it on any cloud storage. Then, in the event of an unexpected failure, it will be easy to restore all data.

If after such manipulation the laptop still does not start, then you need to check the condition of the hard drive, as well as how the cable is attached to the motherboard.

Possible reasons

Before choosing ways to solve the problem, you need to determine why the freeze occurred. The question of why the MacBook won’t turn on will bother every owner who finds himself in this situation. What caused the software to turn off: a system failure, a memory or processor error, or some other problem? In addition, the breakdown could also occur as a result of unstable operation of the operating system. Often such a reaction occurs in a laptop during the update process. Sometimes this happens when you connect an incompatible device to a MacBook. This problem can be easily solved - just turn off all additional equipment.

Fixing the problem: first method

First of all, you should use a safe way to turn on your laptop - Safe Boot. What is it for? When working with it, the MacBook only downloads software that has been verified and installed from certified sources. In order to turn on the laptop in this mode, you need to press the Shift button and then carry out the usual manipulations. Unfortunately, the download process can be long, but you shouldn’t rush or interrupt it, because all data should remain unharmed.

If the user needs to do a detailed boot in order to understand why the failure occurred, then they should start turning on the laptop in the usual way, additionally holding down the Command, Shift and V keys. Then the MacBook will boot into safe mode with the ability to view all the startup details. In other words, Verbose Mode is additionally activated. What does this mean? This download method allows you to find out all the information about the utility and driver files, as well as see all the errors that occurred as a result of their operation.

If after such a launch the laptop functions normally, then it can be loaded as standard. But sometimes this method does not help solve the current problem, then you need to proceed to the second option for troubleshooting. If after this the MacBook Pro does not turn on, what to do, you can understand further.

Fixing the problem: second method

Of course, a laptop may freeze and not turn on for many reasons. If we assume that the problem is with the hard drive, then you can use the Disk Utility program to check its status.

First of all, you need to turn off your laptop. If the display shows a gray/blue/other color screen and this cannot be done, you will have to forcefully turn off the power. To do this, just hold down the start button for 7 seconds.

Now you can open recovery mode. It is from this that you need to launch Disk Utility. How to do it? You need to hold down the MacBook's power button, as well as Command and R at the same time. After this, the user will see a screen with utility icons installed in the operating system. You need to find the Disk Utility program and run it. Now you need to find the name of your hard drive on the screen and enable checking it. After finishing, you need to fix all the problems and restart the laptop. However, if the MacBook turns on and off, and the methods described above did not help, then proceed to the next step.

Fixing the problem: third method

If the user has made a backup copy of documents, but cannot get to it due to a failure in the MacBook, then the third method will suit him. You need to enter the external disk mode, which is called Target Disk Mode.

How to launch it? A second MacBook is required. It is needed to connect them with one cable. Now you can turn on your own laptop. If any problems arise, you can hold down the power button for a few seconds until the logo appears. Now you immediately need to press the T key. Keep it in this state until the inscription appears on the screen in the form of Thunderbolt. External disk mode has started. At the moment, a laptop is actually just that, and not a familiar computer. If the download is successful, a new hard drive will appear. Thanks to this, you can easily transfer the necessary data to this medium. You are now allowed to restore your laptop. Even if the information is deleted from the main disk, it will remain on the new secondary disk.

Fixing the problem: fourth method

If none of the methods described above could help resolve the problem and its results, and the MacBook screen does not turn on, then the last option remains - reinstalling the operating system. In order to do everything correctly and not end up with a crash, you need to enable the laptop recovery mode. How to do this is indicated above in the article: you should press the MacBook start button while holding down the R and Command keys.

After this, the operating system will turn on. You need to find the Reinstall menu. A dialog box will open. You must follow all the instructions described in it. Now the question of what to do if the MacBook does not turn on should be resolved by itself.

Liquid spillage - no matter whether it is coffee, tea, lemonade or just water - on the surface of a MacBook is probably one of the most common reasons for Customers to contact a service center. In most cases, repairing such a MacBook in a service center is possible, but ultimately it depends on the user’s actions after the problem has occurred.

Note that in most cases, liquid getting into a MacBook occurs due to careless handling and spilling of this very liquid either on the laptop keyboard (if MacBook flooded in the open state), or on its body and connectors for connecting charging and peripheral devices. Of course, there are cases when a MacBook was literally bathed in water (that is, the computer was completely submerged in water), but, as a rule, in such situations the likelihood of successful recovery is extremely low.

Filled up MacBook. What to do?

If you spill coffee, tea or any other liquid on your MacBook, Firstly You should definitely turn off your MacBook if it was turned on and disconnect it from the power adapter (if at that moment the computer was connected to the charger). Also disconnect all peripheral accessories if any are connected to the laptop.

If there is a lot of liquid on the surface of the computer, carefully remove it with a dry cloth or towel. Then, if you flooded your MacBook while it was open and liquid got on the keyboard or trackpad, spread a towel on a flat surface, open the laptop and place it with the keyboard down on the towel for 7-10 minutes. In this state, some of the liquid that has gotten inside can be removed.

Do not completely “wrap” your MacBook in a towel and leave it like that for a long time! Also, do not use drying with a hair dryer or other heating devices. This can only aggravate the situation and make it much worse - the condensate formed as a result of such actions will make the area of ​​oxidation of internal components even larger.

For older MacBooks with a removable battery, you must remove the battery. For a MacBook with a non-removable battery, to disconnect it, you will need to unscrew the bottom cover of the case and disconnect the battery cable from the connector on the motherboard. If you have the necessary tools and are confident in your abilities, be sure to do this. Turning off the power will stop the oxidation processes of the internal components of the laptop that began after the liquid entered.

This concludes the list of mandatory recommendations on what to do if your MacBook is flooded with liquid. Next, you need to contact a service center, where they can eliminate the consequences of moisture ingress. Please note that there is no point in postponing this - the faster quality service is provided, the greater the chance that your MacBook will work stably for a long time.

If you have spilled any liquid on your MacBook, you should not succumb to the misconception that if the computer continues to work after it has been spilled, then there will be no consequences in the future. As a rule, such cases end sadly, and the cost of repairs increases significantly compared to if a call to the service center after the MacBook was filled was done in a timely manner.

Filled up MacBook. What could be the consequences?

One of the most common consequences of liquid ingress is sticking of the keyboard buttons, or its incorrect operation or complete inoperability. The MacBook's trackpad also often suffers, as it may stop working, trigger spontaneously, or make a characteristic crunch when pressed. In both cases, all defects appear when the liquid gets on the computer when it is turned on in the open state.

If you flooded your MacBook and after that the laptop keyboard does not work as it should or does not work at all, then in most cases it must be replaced. If there are any problems with the trackpad, then most likely, in addition to general cleaning and removal of oxidation, the trackpad controller will need to be repaired or replaced.

If liquid has leaked inside the case onto the internal elements of the MacBook (motherboard components, cables and peripheral components), then the consequences can be very different: from computer freezes or random reboots to problems with charging and complete inoperability of the computer. In any case, it is unlikely that you will be able to do without contacting a service center.

At the same time, we draw your attention to the fact that it is worth choosing the right service center for repairing a MacBook after tea, coffee or any other liquid has been spilled on it. We have more than once had cases of Clients who tried to repair their laptops in other services, where the repairmen either did not have enough qualifications and experience, or did not have the necessary components or equipment.

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 by 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.