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Hi My mom accidentally spilled hot tea (with sugar and milk) on her macbook’s keyboard. The tea spilled inside as when I lifted it up and turned it over, tea spilled out from everywhere. I dried the macbook the best I could (been three+ days) and did not turn it on. My question is what do I do to determine which part has been damaged? Like if the keyboard is fried or the logic board? What to do? How do I do that? EDIT1: I opened up the back cover to see tea stains all over. Cleaned it up the best I could. There wasn’t any corrosion that I’d seen except for two screws near the battery terminal. Will post a photo of it. I tried to test for which component was faulty but I didn’t find anything conclusive. The keyboard is sticky but it still seems to work. The only problem I found is that the battery won’t charge. If I plug it into AC it works but not without. If I take the charger out of the port, it’ll die instantly. What could this be? A defect in the magsafe? Can it be fixed or will I need to get it replaced? Before clean up:
After clean up:
Corrosion near the battery:
I’ve found all the (litmus?) dots turned red except for one near where the keyboard is attached. But while cleaning some of them turned white again, I suppose that’s just the alcohol.
First, remove and clean the logic board using 95%+ isopropyl (if there is any visible liquid on the board). After this has dried, reassemble and try turning it on. If it doesn’t boot, try plugging in the charger without the keyboard connected, since this can prevent booting. If it is still not working, try plugging the charger in without anything (except the essentials, fan, charger port, etc) plugged in. If it is still not working, the fault will be with the logic board. Replacement boards are expensive, so take it to someone to repair if this is the case (or repair it yourself, if you have the equipment). EDIT: Good it’s all working. The issue will be related to the battery if it is only working on charge, and it had corrosion on the battery PCB. You need to use a large flat tool (painting knife for example), dip it in isopropyl, and slide it under the battery carefully, to loosen it. You will need to remove the board and speakers to get the angle, and do not accidentally cut the trackpad cable or keyboard cable. If you are not confident in being able to do this safely, either live with the issue or send it to a repair company. Also, be careful not to puncture the battery, bad things will happen D:
