Surfing the interwebz on my Macbook with my daughter sitting in her Bumbo next to me. Had an open bottle of Diet Coke right by her flailing arms.....I think you know what comes next.

Whole right side of the keyboard was soaked before I could get a paper towel to get the excess. Thought, "Eh, not that bad. Should still work." Proceeded to type 4 letters, then the keyboard went kaput. Then. all of a sudden the computer shut down and started emitting this loud and very annoying beep for about 30 seconds. Tried restarting it to no avail.

Is this thing officially dead and should I resign myself to buying another laptop and recovering the data on the harddrive or is there any relatively cheap way of reviving it? HELP! (typing from my 10 year old archaic Dell Desktop )

 

This is why you get a Thinkpad T laptop.

We regularly have clutsy sales reps dump coffee and what not on Thinkpad laptops, and the laptops just keeps on trucking.

In all seriousness, here:

How To Deal With Spilled Coffee or Coke on Your Macbook

 

I hate PC's. I'm typing from my 7 year old Dell laptop now.

Thanks for the link. I can't find a small enough screwdriver to undo the back cover. So, I just flipped the computer upsidedown hoping some of the moisture will just seep out thru the keys. I'll let it dry out tonight and try it again tomorrow. Otherwise, it's off to the Apple store this weekend for an expensive unplanned purchase

Can the store extract the data from my harddrive and transfer it over to another computer?

 

I would not disassemble it-- you'll void your warranty (more so) and generally preclude any official sources from touching it.

From your description, you fried the logic board and will need a new one. Drying it out isn't going to fix it. Hard drive and data is almost certainly fine. You'll need to take it to an Apple store and have them run a diagnostic on it, and then probably shell out for the logic board (generally a few hundred bucks). If they like you, they may offer a few discounts on the repair.

It's very unlikely you need a completely new machine.

If it's a remotely recent model, they'll probably have a new logic board in stock for it and can probably have you fixed up in a few hours.

 

Oh Simba, I hope you're right. (putting screwdriver away as we speak). If so, I'll name my second born after you
Few hundred bucks>>2G's for a new MacBook

 

Worst case, if you fried absolutely everything with the exception of the hard drive and optical (they generally abide a certain amount of moisture), you're looking at half that to replace the logic board, fans, DC board, etc, etc.

Chances are very good it's only the logic board. If you don't like the answer/quote you get at the Apple store, see if you can find a VAR (Apple Value Added Reseller) in your area, they can generally beat Apple book rates and save you a few bucks more.

 

I'm with Simba, take it to an Apple Store or an Apple-authorized repair store and you should only be out a few hundred dollars without a need to replace the entire machine.

Don't let it happen again, at least get a keyboard cover so the spill won't get underneath the keys next time.

 

Oh, and start backing up your data.

Any time kids and laptops are in the same environment, it's not if, it's when.

 

Thanks again. Will look into it.

I won't! Purchase ugly plastic keyboard cover: check!

 

See, that's your problem right there. There's about a 3-week window for a child to be old enough to sit up semi-straight in a Bumbo, but not old enough to flop out of the damn thing, and fall off the coffee table.