So, I spilt a pint of Landlord on my Macbook yesterday. It shorted out and won’t power up.

I know the battery is OK as the green lights light up.

Question is how difficult do you reckon a clean up with be. Was considering disassembly and cleaning with Isopropyl alcohol and a cotton bud or something before making an insurance claim.

Anyone done something similar, how hard do you think it will be. I did build a windowns PC computer about 11 years ago and that was just a case of plugging boards into each other. Is this going to be a lot more complicated?

I personally would not have tried to start it. In doing so, you’ve probably shorted quite a few bits… I’d say go for an insurance claim. Other than that, try putting it in a box, surrounded by rice, in the airing cupboard. Will draw out any of the remaining liquid. Then you would have to look at dismantling, which, with Apple products, is not easy.

The ‘rice trick’ works well with plain water – but all the tasty solutes in the beer will need cleaning off with – isopropyl alcohol – else they will cause electrical mayhem.
Not a guaranteed out come -as the shorts may have already done irreparable damage.
If circuits are ok – it will require a strip and rebuild with any bits that are greased eg dvd drive; thermal paste on heat sinks etc.-
I’d go for insurance – good luck.

Hate to say this but the same thing happened to my fiances brother about a month a go. Brnad new Macbook (only had it 2 days) and spilt a pint of Blonde Witch over it.

Wouldnt power up or any of the keys on the key board work. He took it into Apple shop and it is completely borked. The first quoted £700 to fix the bits to get it to power up and then they could see what was still knackered. Phone call alter that week saying it was completely knackered.

Dont know where he is at with it now, was going to try take it into a local computer place to see if they can fix it.

He hadnt even had a chance to take out or add it to any insurance yet……

crispo – if it was paid for on credit card it may be covered under standard consumer credit terms

dont forget home insurance (loads of peeps i know dont realise lots of home insurances cover mobiles, laptops etc)

It’ll be ****, almost without doubt. Why did you try to boot it up?! First thing to do is yank the battery and power cords, strip and clean with isopropanol or similar. Then, and only then, you MAY have a chance of saving it.

Done insurance claim. Might try and save it as a project if the insurance company let me keep it….

I’d you really want to try cleaning it then deionised water and a toothbrush works – I’ve done it when I was in the middle of nowhere and and no choice. You can get it various places as you use it for filling car batteries amongst other things.