Another addition to the Macintosh squadron, one that was nearly lost. It's a MacBook (Mid 2010) White Polycarbonate Unibody that almost met its maker earlier this year. Its previous owner had an unfortunate accident with a precariously placed glass of water that proceeded to fall directly into its keyboard. The machine was considered a total loss (DOA) on assessment, it was able to start up and maintain power for a brief amount of time before hard powering off again. It had visible corrosion around some of the logic board ICs and some surface mount resistors. This is a worst case scenario. It's very rare that I see a computer come away from this kind of damage without at least some impaired functionality.
Regardless, back in March the condition of system was assessed and some maintenance was performed. A little first aid cleaning can go a long way in rescuing electronics. Today, the computer was cleared for disposal and destruction. This usually involves stripping the body for any salvageable parts and scrapping the remainder, including the hard drive.
I took the computer in its now useless condition and decided it would be the best test for submersion in Methylated Spirits to remove the corrosion from the board. Thankfully the corrosion was limited to the portion of the board above the fan, so only a partial submersion was required, and this spared tripping the Liquid Contact Indicators near the LVDS connector. After only a few minutes, the board could be lightly dabbed with a paper towel and warm air dried. A cotton tip soaked in Methylated Spirits was used to remove some of the more stubborn corrosion, particularly around the Sleep LED connector and the USB controller. Thankfully none of the surface board laminate was damaged and the damage to solder joints, although present, is minimal.
The heatsink was removed, both the GPU/Chipset and CPU were cleaned thoroughly and fresh thermal paste was applied. The old thermal paste had lost its viscosity and was applied in extremely light amounts over the die of each chip package, nowhere near sufficient enough to transfer heat between the surfaces.
The Keyboard / Power Button assembly was disconnected (as the water has passed directly through it, the keyboard has a dead short and prevents a complete startup of the machine, so it will require replacement) and the G3HOT "Power On" pads were bridged with a small flat blade screwdriver.
SUCCESS.
It's no secret. I love Macs. There's a real satisfaction in taking a system that is considered dead on arrival and thinking outside the box to revive it, only to have the hard work pay off, and in that regard this is potentially one of my greatest success stories in recent times.
It doesn't power on at the moment without having the test points on the Logic Board bridged as the defective Top Case is disconnected, so the next step is to replace the defective Top Case and Keyboard assembly, which is a total system teardown and rebuild. I believe I have a fully functional Top Case in excellent condition in my spare parts stockpile, so I'll cross-reference the part numbers and hopefully get a direct match. If it can be done, it won't be long until this MacBook finds itself restored to a fully functioning condition.
Cheers,
Mic.
Regardless, back in March the condition of system was assessed and some maintenance was performed. A little first aid cleaning can go a long way in rescuing electronics. Today, the computer was cleared for disposal and destruction. This usually involves stripping the body for any salvageable parts and scrapping the remainder, including the hard drive.
I took the computer in its now useless condition and decided it would be the best test for submersion in Methylated Spirits to remove the corrosion from the board. Thankfully the corrosion was limited to the portion of the board above the fan, so only a partial submersion was required, and this spared tripping the Liquid Contact Indicators near the LVDS connector. After only a few minutes, the board could be lightly dabbed with a paper towel and warm air dried. A cotton tip soaked in Methylated Spirits was used to remove some of the more stubborn corrosion, particularly around the Sleep LED connector and the USB controller. Thankfully none of the surface board laminate was damaged and the damage to solder joints, although present, is minimal.
The heatsink was removed, both the GPU/Chipset and CPU were cleaned thoroughly and fresh thermal paste was applied. The old thermal paste had lost its viscosity and was applied in extremely light amounts over the die of each chip package, nowhere near sufficient enough to transfer heat between the surfaces.
The Keyboard / Power Button assembly was disconnected (as the water has passed directly through it, the keyboard has a dead short and prevents a complete startup of the machine, so it will require replacement) and the G3HOT "Power On" pads were bridged with a small flat blade screwdriver.
SUCCESS.
It's no secret. I love Macs. There's a real satisfaction in taking a system that is considered dead on arrival and thinking outside the box to revive it, only to have the hard work pay off, and in that regard this is potentially one of my greatest success stories in recent times.
It doesn't power on at the moment without having the test points on the Logic Board bridged as the defective Top Case is disconnected, so the next step is to replace the defective Top Case and Keyboard assembly, which is a total system teardown and rebuild. I believe I have a fully functional Top Case in excellent condition in my spare parts stockpile, so I'll cross-reference the part numbers and hopefully get a direct match. If it can be done, it won't be long until this MacBook finds itself restored to a fully functioning condition.
Cheers,
Mic.
