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Hi, yesterday I spilled about a quater of glass of coke on the keyboard of my 13 inch 2015 MacBook Pro while it was running. I immediately turned it upside down and shut it down. Then I let it rest with the lid open and in upside down position. After about 15-20 mins, I was changing its position when I accidentally hit the power button and it turned on. I immediately turned it off again and let it rest. After another 15-20 mins, same thing happened. I was just moving it when I touched the power button and it turned on. Anyway, I turned it off again. After a couple of hours, I couldnt find any silica gel so I put a tshirt on top of the keyboard and put some rice over it as they are known to absorb moisture. Thats how it stayed overnight. Today, I put it for about an hour in sun and now its again under rice. Now what should I do next? As it turned on fine twice after the incident, I belive it is not dead. Should I just let it sit for another day and then try turning it on? I have checked the keys, they are not sticky at all or anything. I am in Pakistan and there arent any Apple authroized service centers and I dont want to take it to a third party service center. So please suggest what’s the best I can do on my own? Thanks.
I love rice but its useless in drying out a system. This is an old urban legend! Someone assumed it works in pulling out moisture from a saltshaker so it must work for a phone or computer! Sadly, this is not true as any desiccant only pulls the moisture from the air not condensed wetness like a spilled drink. Besides it won’t remove the minerals, sugar or acids in your soda which is what will do the most harm. So what to do?? First you need to open your system to disconnect the battery ASAP! And leave it disconnected or remove it fully. Next you’ll need to remove the spilled drink using distilled water (not tap water!) and 85% or better isopropyl alcohol. Time is critical as the sooner you clean the spill out the better! Using cotton swabs (Q-Tips) wipe down what you can see if its a lot you may need to dip the part in a tub of distilled water and use a small paint brush or soft toothbrush to scrub the areas. this works for the logic board but any part that is porous like the keyboard & trackpad will need to be taken apart or replaced. If you can’t do this then you’ll need to find someone with the skills locally to help you. for now keep the system as cool as you can to slow down the chemical reactions. So why distilled water and not tap water? Distilled water is PURE water (H2O) in this form it dissolves the water soluble stuff and neutralizes the acids. allowing you to wash it all away. Tap & spring water have lots of minerals in solution with the water its these impurities which do the damage. Just like the can of Coke you spilled it will leave a corrosive film which over time will cause harm. unlike the distilled water which when dried won’t leave a film. Isopropyl alcohol allows us to remove the fats & oils that maybe present it also acts as a drier for the distilled water which speeds up its drying. Even still we want to allow the parts to fully dry before we reassemble and test the system out.
I spilled a Diet Rite ZERO cola on my 2020 MacBook Pro. Did not try to wipe it of for fear of spreading it. I immediately turned it off and over over on a towel and left left it it key board down on the towel over the table edge in an inverted “L.” That evening, I elevated it on two blocks in the same inverted position to allow ventilation and left it over night. The next day I started it up and it worked perfectly normal. I tested all the keys on a TEXT EDIT worksheet and they were fine with neither sticky key nor sticking keys, thanks to the drink being sugar free. There was no stain from the cola.
