sonesay 7 Report post Posted October 7, 2008 (edited) Guys long story short my mac got soaked in the rain. I am thinking its probably best not to try and turn it on and open it up and dry it out first. Any ideas? No I will not toss it away at this moment. Sone.edit oh yeah title is misspelled by the way can anyone change it thanks. Edited October 11, 2008 by jlhaslip (see edit history) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
csp4.0 1 Report post Posted October 7, 2008 aww... I wanted to hear the long story... ^_^Anyway... Sad to hear that... Poor ol' Mac... :DBut anyway... If it wasn't on when it got soaked in the rain, it probably didn't short circuit, meaning if it wasn't on when it got soaked in the rain, then it should still be alive, but I'm afraid the data on the HDD might be wiped clean...I would just sit back, let it dry and it should be ok... minus the data on the hard drive if you're unlucky...But when you do turn it on after you're sure its completely dry, take the battery out before you turn it on and power it using mains (And I hope the AC/DC power pack didn't get soaked along with it... It should be fine... See this is why people need water-proofed, military-grade laptops... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sonesay 7 Report post Posted October 7, 2008 (edited) I manage to get the keyboard(top cover off) and it seems it wasnt too badly soaked inside. The thing that looks soaked is my LCD screen though. It has some signs of lines of water behind the screen. I still cant find a link that shows me how to remove that so if you have one post it please.The power supply looks soaked so I wont try that anytime soon. I can always borrow my mates one. The battery I removed but it doesn't look soaked. Not sure I will stick it back in yet though lol. I'm mad yes but its funny I'm surprise I'm not going crazy. that thing cost me like 4 grand NZ man.I have a feeling though my LCD is screwed. alot of water was on its topside when I took it out of the bag.Heres the story. I been at uni working on my team project building a computer version of the rummikub board game. Slaving away there till 7pm then i stop for coffee and get the bus home. its raining so I walk home. I've walked home in the rain before but this time round it was very heavy. My bag has some kind of ventilation material on the part that touches my back. I guess most of the rain through there since my jacket is waterproof so it just goes right in. I walked for about 30mins in the rain yes I got the wrong bus home so I had to walk a bit further this time round. It usually only takes me 20mins if I get off at the right stop.Ah I get home so i decide to dump my bag next to my table and just go get out of these wet clothes and take a shower. I get changed and decide to take my laptop out and to my horror its all wet just not what you want for this kind of thing.I'm freaking out and still haven't got my clothes on I tried to dry get change and setup my laptop all at the same time. It saves time this way.well I think thats as best as I can explain it. I'm gonna carry on trying to find out how to open up the LCD.Edit: found http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/but I cant get my screwdriver to take out the screws. The angle is seems almost impossible with that space how do they do it ? Edited October 7, 2008 by sonesay (see edit history) Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheDisturbedOne 1 Report post Posted October 9, 2008 The first thing to do is to get a bag of rice and put the laptop (so that rice doesn't get in it, lol) so that it touches the rice. The rice will soak up any moisture that is in the laptop. (I read that this works well with cell phones also) Then once it seems dry, bring it to the Apple Store, and see what they can do. I wouldn't advise opening it, because Mac computers are VERY EXPENSIVE and if you break something inside of it, it could damage the whole computer. Good luck! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sonesay 7 Report post Posted October 11, 2008 yeah I didn't like the idea of opening it up either but I had to. I figured out how to remove the LCD and tried to dry it out but its too late the water has stained the LCD and now I got random water marks all over the screen. I will have to replace it when I can get some money. I'm just lucky the other hard ware isn't damaged. Inside its looks so fragile compared to its sturdy look on the outside.The one thing I was scared about was ripping those connections that are made up of plastic strips but other then that I'm kinda lucky in a way I didnt lose anything more then maybe my internal speakers and LCD. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Diffusr 0 Report post Posted October 11, 2008 Guys long story short my mac got soaked in the rain. I am thinking its probably best not to try and turn it on and open it up and dry it out first. Any ideas? No I will not toss it away at this moment. Sone.edit oh yeah title is misspelled by the way can anyone change it thanks.That sounds similar to the time I soaked my 3G mobile phone with walnut oil. Needless to say it didn't work very well after that.If I were you I wouldn't turn it on at all until you have dried it out completely. You will probably have to take the whole thing apart in order to allow for complete evaporation. Start with the obvious stuff like taking out the hard disk, RAM and CPU if you can get at it easily enough. It should then just be a case of unwinding a few screws but be careful of the order in which you do it and note where the screws came out from as some of them will be differing sizes.De-assemble as much as you are sure you can put back together, lay it all out somewhere out of direct sunlight and let it all sit there for a few weeks (I know that sounds like a long time but some components will be mostly sealed but not enough to keep water out). To speed up the process - be careful with this one, take all your disassembled pieces and put them in the oven. Set the temperature to between 45 to 49 degrees and leave it all in there for as long as is practicable. These kinds of low temperatures will not damage the parts but will cause evaporation to happen a lot quicker.If you are careful and meticulous about it you will have fully dried out your precious technology, then you will have to be equally as careful and meticulous about putting it all back together. You could follow the notes you made as you were taking it apart. You did make notes, didn't you?Be glad it was water that saturated your laptop and not oil! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
jlhaslip 4 Report post Posted October 11, 2008 How are you making out with this issue? Is the laptop back in service yet? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TheDisturbedOne 1 Report post Posted October 11, 2008 Is the laptop still under warranty? If not, you should buy Applecare. But you may have voided the warranty already. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Evolix 1 Report post Posted October 18, 2008 Have you tried drying it? Open up the laptop parts and dry it carefully lol. I'm guessing there will be a chance of it working. Why did you take it on a rainy day? Did you have a laptop case? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
minimcmonkey 0 Report post Posted November 10, 2008 Send it to a data restoration lab. You may not be ble to resore the hardware, but the data should be saveable.It may be that you could find a specialisty company who can restore soaked computer hardware, search around a bit.No do not turn it on, or open it up to clean it, as this could make it impossible to restore it.Act as quickly as possible, as it is possible that the laptop is restorable as long as you act fast. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Mich 0 Report post Posted November 10, 2008 Oh my! What a day you had. I am so sorry you had such a negative time. I guess you cannot count on your packs being waterproof these days. I do hope that everything works out for the best for you in the end. Please let us know the final results. All the suggestions seem thoughtful. I cannot offer any more since I am rather illiterate when it comes to puter stuff. Just for future reference, please zip-lock your lap-top in a large freezer weight zip-lock bag. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Echo_of_thunder 1 Report post Posted November 10, 2008 Send it to a data restoration lab. You may not be ble to resore the hardware, but the data should be saveable.It may be that you could find a specialisty company who can restore soaked computer hardware, search around a bit.No do not turn it on, or open it up to clean it, as this could make it impossible to restore it.Act as quickly as possible, as it is possible that the laptop is restorable as long as you act fast. Thats the best thing to do. Sadly Water and laptps or any computer dont mix. Yet you never know too, in a few months of trying out. it could work Seen it before. but would not pray for it.Good luck Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
galexcd 0 Report post Posted November 10, 2008 Is the laptop still under warranty? If not, you should buy Applecare. But you may have voided the warranty already.Buying applecare is not going to help this situation at all. Any kind of accidental damage (including liquid spills) puts the machine out of warranty, applecare can't override that. Besides, if the machine is already out of warranty you can't buy applecare for it.My advice to sonesay is just make a genius bar appointment and bring it in and ask the genius how much it will cost to repair it. Don't try to lie to the genius and say liquid never got in the machine, when they take the topcase off they will be able to see evidence of liquid and you will just be re-quoted. The cost really depends on what components inside were damaged. The logic board is pretty expensive and unfortunately, it is probably what got fried. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sonesay 7 Report post Posted November 10, 2008 Thankfully my screen is clearing up. There are minor bright spots and patches here and there but they seem to be disappearing slowly by the day. My power supply burned out though and I think the reason why is the power cord was twisted too much. I had to crack it open and rejoin it since it was so close to the unit. The circuit board on it looks kinda melted but it still works now lol. Saved me 150 nz dollars but its dodgy and I'm afraid it will cause a fire someday. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites