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Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: motorollin on January 11, 2009, 07:08:11 PM
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I spilled a small amount of tea on my MacBook keyboard. It wen on the right hand edge. I wiped it all off within about 5 seconds. All of the keys still work and none of them stick, but the backspace key intermittently "presses" itself. Sometimes it acts as if the key is held down and keeps deleting.
I'm guessing there is still some liquid under the key which is shorting the contacts. Does this sound plausible? It happened 7 hours ago. If it was going to dry would it have done so by now? If not how long do I need to leave it before I panic?
It would have to be backspace and not a useless key like F12 :roll:
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Liquid does strange things to electromechanical devices like keyboards... Check out iFixit dot com and see if there are any clues to how the keyboard works...
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Strange things which stop when the liquid has evaporated?
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motorollin wrote:
Strange things which stop when the liquid has evaporated?
StRaNgE things!!! :crazy:
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Doesn't seem to be much info in ifixit.com - just a price for a new keyboard! Do the StRaNgE things stop once the tea has left the building? Or could it cause permanent damage?
Basically, if I can't fix this for nothing, I'm f**ked. I use this machine every day and simply can't afford to pay to have it repaired or replaced :-(
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motorollin wrote:
Doesn't seem to be much info in ifixit.com - just a price for a new keyboard! Do the StRaNgE things stop once the tea has left the building? Or could it cause permanent damage?
Basically, if I can't fix this for nothing, I'm f**ked. I use this machine every day and simply can't afford to pay to have it repaired or replaced :-(
There is loads of crap in Tea... the problem is I don't know the mechanics behind the new apple keyboards... the old ones were an easy fix... :-(
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Bollocks... well, I'll just have to wait and see I suppose. It seems to be behaving now, but then I'm not using the backspace key. Hopefully as it dries out it will start working properly, but I daren't use the key for now :-(
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How old is the machine? Perhaps you could manage something on warranty? It seems that Apple warranty is legendary. Of course, I wouldn't encourage such things, though I do know of one person who has a faulty USB socket just before his Apple laptop runs out of warranty - each and every time. There seems to be a recurrent accident with a screwdriver.
My experience of laptop kyboards is that they are a fiddly PITA to fix.
Long term, the tea may cause issues with the contact materials. It may also always feel a little tacky. Hopefully not, though.
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Oliver wrote:
How old is the machine? Perhaps you could manage something on warranty?
Unfortunately it's out of warranty :-(
Oliver wrote:
Of course, I wouldn't encourage such things, though I do know of one person who has a faulty USB socket just before his Apple laptop runs out of warranty - each and every time. There seems to be a recurrent accident with a screwdriver.
I'm surprised they haven't caught on yet! If this MacBook dies before I graduate and get a job then I'm really going to be in trouble!
Oliver wrote:
My experience of laptop kyboards is that they are a fiddly PITA to fix.
Long term, the tea may cause issues with the contact materials. It may also always feel a little tacky. Hopefully not, though.
Well the good news is that I used the machine pretty much all day today and didn't have any problems. I'm guessing that the fluid has now evaporated and that any residue is not enough to cause a poor contact. The key isn't sticky at all so far, and I'm guessing if it was going to be then it would be by now, unless the sticky substance forms as the residue breaks down. Time will tell...
Fortunately I only drink the pure and mighty PG Tips, otherwise who knows what could have happened! ;-)
Thanks guys for being there with me through this difficult time :lol:
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Such inconveniences have already been thought of by the Mac Book design team.
You'll never have to suffer a sticky or malfunctioning keyboard again
Demonstration here (http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=9BnLbv6QYcA)
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But what if you spill something on the wheel? :nervous:
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Then you get the new version mentioned at the end...
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I have to admit, I love ONN spoofs. They're so well executed.
Sorry to hear about the spill. One of the reasons I refuse to own any type of laptop device is I just know I'm going to flood it with some beverage or other, no matter how careful I am.
Remember, I once tipped a full bowl of rice crispies into an A1200...
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Karlos wrote:
Then you get the new version mentioned at the end...
Hmm, hard drive and screen I could do without. But I couldn't go back to not having a wheel!
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Karlos wrote:
I have to admit, I love ONN spoofs. They're so well executed.
I'm amazed by the production quality of that. Were the product marginally less absurd it would be believable!
Karlos wrote:
Sorry to hear about the spill.
It's not a problem... MacBook, heal thyself!
Karlos wrote:
One of the reasons I refuse to own any type of laptop device is I just know I'm going to flood it with some beverage or other, no matter how careful I am.
Well, this is the first time I have *ever* had an accident like this. And to be fair, it wasn't entirely my fault. I actually tried to slide the MacBook along the table but the rubber feet made it grip and then jump suddenly, knocking it in to the mug. So I blame the MacBook for being stubborn ;-)
Karlos wrote:
Remember, I once tipped a full bowl of rice crispies into an A1200...
Oh, nasty! Did any of it survive?
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It did. Luckily the power was off, but the milk had ran through the cooling slits and flooded over the motherboard and worked its way into the various fans and other bits of HW I had jammed into it, which was quite a lot at the time.
I completely dismantled it, washed the mobo in distilled water and dried it over a week before testing it.
I had to replace the fans of course, they developed quite a noise and yoghurt aroma...
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Wow, I'm amazed it survived. I wouldn't have thought electronic equipment would survive after being totally washed!
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They don't mind being wet, provided the water doesn't contain dissolved acids etc and there's no current flowing at the time.
You just have to make sure it dries out thoroughly before attempting a power on.
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Karlos wrote:
They don't mind being wet, provided the water doesn't contain dissolved acids...
...or tea ;-)
Karlos wrote:
You just have to make sure it dries out thoroughly before attempting a power on.
I was naughty - I carried on using it as it seemed to be ok. I only switched it off when it started acting oddly. I think I just got lucky TBH!