MacBook swimming in coffee

q85dw7osi4lebg

beauf wrote: »

Dust will stick to the coffee and clog the vents.

I think you want to ignore that you still have a huge problem.

Won't be ignoring anything as I'll need the keys cleaned anyway. It's an MacBook 12" if anyone is wondering so maybe less moving parts to break..

laoisfan

Add some sugar and it's be sweet!! BOOM!!

But on a serious note....get all that liquid out and then a few days in the hot press.

beauf

Its not just moving parts. Its the lack of airflow. Even where theres no fan, it blocks the space around things.

I noticed my own laptop heating up a many weeks after a spill. I swapped out the keyboard. But eventually I had to strip it and clean it all out everywhere. All the dust got stick and formed solid lumps around the laptop. Eventually it would have been damaged by the head build up.

BlinkingLights

You'll need to get someone to strip the machine and clean everything out.
If the fans start up stuck with coffee, you'll do a lot of damage.

If it's a modern machine, it will have SSD rather than mechanical HDD, so there would be no moving parts other than the keyboard and aspects of the track pad.

The ports may also be badly impacted by being full of coffee gunk.

Putting the machine into the hot press / airing cupboard will not cause the battery to explode or anything of the sort. The hot press is no more than about 35ºC and the machine is designed to work at pretty high temperatures.

If you can get it to a local repair agent, they might be able to dismantle it and clean it. This kind of thing is not covered by warranty so you've invalided that anyway, so an independent apple repair shop is fine.

BreadnBuddha

beauf wrote: »

Its not just moving parts. Its the lack of airflow. Even where theres no fan, it blocks the space around things.

I noticed my own laptop heating up a many weeks after a spill. I swapped out the keyboard. But eventually I had to strip it and clean it all out everywhere. All the dust got stick and formed solid lumps around the laptop. Eventually it would have been damaged by the head build up.

Macbook 12 is non-vented. It has a tiny logic board. Apart from that, it's speaker modules, keyboard and batteries in the lower case. It has 1 headphone/mic combo port and 1 USB-C port. If they work, he's sorted.

GarIT

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

Stupid ideas? :eek:

Good intentions, that's all.

So, drying it out is a bad idea, but you give advice on how to dry it out anyway?

Fair enough though. It's stuffed now anyway, so it probably doesn't really matter what the OP does, bar taking it to a repair centre.

I can explain. Relative to getting it cleaned out professionally leaving it in the hot press is IMO a stupid idea.

In some cases depending on the persons finances and the device it's not worth paying to have it cleaned so I gave advice for those cases.

In OPs case if the coffee damages the motherboard you're looking at a €500 repair within at best 6 months, if you get it cleaned you could get it done for around €120 and save yourself the motherboard replacement.

Pappacharlie

If you have home insurance your laptop could be covered for accidental damage under the "all risks"section of your policy.
Did a similar job on a MacBookPro two years ago involving apple juice. Was fully covered. Got the replacement value. I had to get a report from a computer store that the old one was beyond repair. I was a few days after the event that the motherboard gave up the ghost.

Sad Professor

Only moving parts in the 12-inch is the keyboard, really. There isn’t even a mechanical trackpad. But those keyboards aren’t great. Lots of reports of people needing a replacement after a tiny bit of dirt gets lodged.

q85dw7osi4lebg

Still working perfectly...."touches wood".

beauf

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

Macbook 12 is non-vented. It has a tiny logic board. Apart from that, it's speaker modules, keyboard and batteries in the lower case. It has 1 headphone/mic combo port and 1 USB-C port. If they work, he's sorted.

I would assume l fanless machines have some clearance to allow cooling. if thats filled with thick coffee, I would assume its going to have an effect. Seems to be quite a few reports of fanless macs going dead a few weeks after a spillage. Maybe thats not to do with cooling I don't know.

Creamy Goodness

Carolina Scrawny Figurine wrote: »

My question is, why would the startup sound still work but not sound from music / YouTube etc?

As an answer to the above. The startup noise comes from a different speaker than the normal speakers so it's possible this wasn't damage but the others were. Majority of PC/Laptops/Macs are like this for this very reason, they're used for warning beeps if the normal speakers fail/don't work/coffee spilt in them.

BreadnBuddha

beauf wrote: »

I would assume l fanless machines have some clearance to allow cooling. if thats filled with thick coffee, I would assume its going to have an effect. Seems to be quite a few reports of fanless macs going dead a few weeks after a spillage. Maybe thats not to do with cooling I don't know.

You should stop making assumptions and actually look up a Macbook 12 and tell me where exactly you think they've left 'clearance' for cooling. :rolleyes:

That's not how this kind of thing works.

Notorious

JamboMac wrote: »

You can then have hair drier set on cold air which will help it dry better, a hot press is just a hit and hope, your best opening it you can't do more damage.

Never, never, never use a hair dryer on water damaged electronics. Never. You risk causing irreparable damage. A hot press will do the job.

A good test to check if liquid has been removed is to wrap the device in kitchen paper. Flip it over after three hours and check if there is any signs of water on the paper. Leave it another 3 hours to check the underside.

BlinkingLights

BreadnBuddha wrote: »

You should stop making assumptions and actually look up a Macbook 12 and tell me where exactly you think they've left 'clearance' for cooling. :rolleyes:

That's not how this kind of thing works.

Apple laptops make a lot of use of passive cooling by heat sinking into the metal case. They will spin up two very flat fans to draw air along the case to increase than effect. It enters through various parts of the case and out through the vent at the hinge.

It also blows air over the processor and GPU in particular.

Also, bear in mind that because Apple have control over both the hardware and software they know the cooling characteristics in detail and will let the heat ramp up a lot more than your typical Windows PC or indeed a Mac running windows - you'll hear the fans fly up a lot more if you're running windows on the same hardware because Windows needs to be more conservative to encompass a wider range of possible hardware configurations.

The biggest issue you'll risk with coffee is the fans may get stuck due to coating them with sticky coffee - milk etc will do that.

You need to get the machine opened and cleaned down instead to ensure there's nothing gummed up.

The machine won't typically damage itself by overheating but the firmware will shut it down if it can't cool effectively and overheats. The system should also pick up any fan failures too.

They're not that difficult for a repair centre to open and clean but I wouldn't suggest doing it yourself - they are VERY tightly packed.

beauf

He means, that the new 12" is fanless and has no vents. Also have a tiny motherboard. Previous ones has hidden vents under the screen. Mainly cools through a heat transfer to the chassis. https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+MacBook+2015+Teardown/39841 I still reckon if its full of coffee which dries like tar, it will negatively impact the cooling even on this model. While the Core M isn't that powerful its still needs a heat-sink, (if small) to move heat away from itself and to the chassis. Anything that interferes with that and keep the heat contain is not ideal.

That said it wasn't turned off for hours after the spill. So if that didn't kill it, its probably fine.

BlinkingLights

beauf wrote: »

He means, that the new 12" is fanless and has no vents. Also have a tiny motherboard. Previous ones has hidden vents under the screen. Mainly cools through a heat transfer to the chassis. https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Retina+MacBook+2015+Teardown/39841 I still reckon if its full of coffee which dries like tar, it will negatively impact the cooling even on this model. While the Core M isn't that powerful its still needs a heat-sink, (if small) to move heat away from itself and to the chassis. Anything that interferes with that and keep the heat contain is not ideal.

That said it wasn't turned off for hours after the spill. So if that didn't kill it, its probably fine.

Most of the heat transfer occurs by direct contact with the chip via a thermal paste blob. It's not air-to-chassis. It's direct conduction / very close to surface conduction mostly.

Also the machine do genuinely run hotter than a typical PC because Apple's aware of the component specs of every detail. However, MacOS and the firmware will shut the machine down / force it into sleep if the temperature passes an upper limit.

lawred2

Carolina Scrawny Figurine wrote: »

I'd like to but I don't have the tools for it, they are torx screws and there are no removable parts anyway. Going to put it in a small room tomorrow with a dehumidifier.

take it to a mac specialist

BlinkingLights

lawred2 wrote: »

take it to a mac specialist

I really, really wouldn't recommend taking those very tight machines apart without experience. They're very fiddly to get back together and there's a nack to a lot of it.

In a spill, you've invalidated your warranty anyway so you can go to any apple repair place. Get reviews locally.

lawred2

BlinkingLights wrote: »

I really, really wouldn't recommend taking those very tight machines apart without experience. They're very fiddly to get back together and there's a nack to a lot of it.

In a spill, you've invalidated your warranty anyway so you can go to any apple repair place. Get reviews locally.

I didn't recommend taking anything apart - I said take it to a mac specialist

beauf

BlinkingLights wrote: »

Most of the heat transfer occurs by direct contact with the chip via a thermal paste blob. It's not air-to-chassis. It's direct conduction / very close to surface conduction mostly.

Also the machine do genuinely run hotter than a typical PC because Apple's aware of the component specs of every detail. However, MacOS and the firmware will shut the machine down / force it into sleep if the temperature passes an upper limit.

I know.

I think its ,mainly to the bottom of the chassis. You'd think the surface it rests on will have some impact.

The Macs seems to be more temperature sensitive perhaps because they run the tolerances so tight.

There was some talk of the Samsung note issue was partly due to to not enough space around the battery for expansion and heat.

beauf

Most tear downs seem to give it a poor score for serviceability and most don't even try to remove some of the components. Which says stay away in a large letters to most people.


Its remarkable theres so little in it.

BlinkingLights

Well we are heading towards systems on a chip really.

beauf

One suggestion I read was they are moving to power their laptops with their mobile chips. That perhaps this macbook with one usb port, mobile m processor, is testing the water to see how the market reacts to it.

q85dw7osi4lebg

Still working perfect, keys now far less sticky than they were after some use.

beauf

Maybe it will stay awake longer now....

q85dw7osi4lebg

I see what you did there...

q85dw7osi4lebg

UPDATE: Hadn't tried to use internal microphone until today, seems to be shot.