Here’s an example of liquid damage where the Mac owner did everything right after someone spilled water on her computer. As we talked about before, Rice Isn’t The Answer, the key to saving your laptop after it gets wet is to act quickly. The computer was in our hands within hours of the accidental splashing. Water had spilled on the right side of the keyboard, and the computer shut down immediately. We opened the case and saw the liquid damage evidence below.
Just to recap what to do when your laptop comes into contact with liquid.
1. Unplug it from power and shut down the computer immediately.
2. Try to allow the liquid to exit the way it came in… so if it spilled over the keyboard, open the computer completely and set the keyboard face down on a towel with the display hanging off the edge of the counter. If the liquid entered through the back on the bottom, tilt the computer up so it can stream out the back of the computer the way it came in.
3. If possible unplug the internal battery. This is a very important step, so if you don’t have the tools with you, try to find a repair shop that is open that will at least disconnect the battery right away.
4. Drop it off at a reputable shop for it to be disassembled and checked for how far the liquid got into the computer. If the liquid reached the logic board, be sure to get it ultrasonically cleaned before testing the computer again.
In this case (as you can see), there are fresh droplets of water all over the inside of the 11 inch MacBook Air (model A1465). There are also some dried white marks from residue and the beginnings of corrosion. The first step since the liquid reached the logic board is to take the board out of the computer completely and ultrasonically clean the logic board.
After the logic board was cleaned and everything was completely dry, we began testing different parts of the laptop. Luckily, only the battery was damaged from the moisture. The logic board tested good after cleaning as did the display, wifi card (which we also cleaned), solid state drive, etc. All we had to do was replace the battery and it ran properly again.
The cleaning process generally takes a day as we make sure the board is completely dry before testing. If the board does not test good after cleaning, we recommend our logic board repair service. Our board repair service has a 90% success rate with liquid damaged boards… and we only charge if we are successful!
Do you have a liquid damaged Mac that you need help with? We offer liquid damage repair including logic board level repair at our shop in Studio City as well as Nationwide through our Mail-in service.