Fix Your Stuff Community Store

The March 2015 update of Apple's 13" MacBook Air features fifth generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors, resulting in slightly increased performance and battery life.

623 Questions View all

Options

MacBook Air won´t turn on

So I bought a new Macbook Air 13" a couple of days ago. A friend had a beer on the same table and in an accident a little bit of beer was spilled on the right side, a little bit on the keyboard. I had a safety cover on the keyboard, so it does´nt seem like much liquid touched the insides. The computer did not turn off right away. We dried off all the liquid we could find. It seemed fine, but the screen started to flicker so we turned it off and took out the charger. I let it dry over the night, open over a pillow with the keyboard facing down.

The day after it was working fine and continued to do so all day. But the day after that I tried to start it up and the only thing that responded first was the light in the keyboard and the light in the charger. So I turned it off and let it rest for a day. Now it´s not responding more than the charger light, but no light in the keyboard. There seems to be a very faint light on the screen when I try to turn it on, but not more than that...

Extremely thankful for any kind of advice or opinion.

Update (02/04/2017)

UPDATE: Discovered the computer is actually working, but the screen is EXTREMELY faint and dark. The keyboard also seems to work fine. We tried to check settings for brightness, but nothing happens when we try to brighten the screen. Is there anything I can do or should I just take to repair?

Answered! View the answer I have this problem too

Is this a good question?

Yes No
Score 0
1 Comment

Thank you so much for your answer. I have no experience at all, so I just took it to a repair centre and they opened it up. They detected a liquid damage and told me the mother board or the screen had to be replaced. So it was at least fixable. :)

by

Add a comment

2 Answers

Filter by:
Most Helpful Newest Oldest
Chosen Solution

Options

I can actually visualize where this single drop of beer landed and killed the circuit. I can bet you that it is either the connector (30% chance) or a critical feed back line (70%).

In summary, you were unfortunate enough that some beer landed on the back light circuit and killed it. That is the circuit responsible for letting your screen light up enough for you to see the image.

You'll need some soldering skills and trouble shooting skills to solve that one.

Or send it for repair. For someone with experience, this is pretty straightforward and the repair will last the lifetime of the device. Specially if they clean it in an pro ultrasonic afterwards to make sure the board is clean from any trace of beer that may corrode other things down the line. Well worth the investment IMO.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 3
Add a comment

Options

If you have a multimeter, experience and tools to microsolder, I will be happy to guide you on where to look.

If you don't have the tools or experience, take it to a 3rd party repair centre who can carry out logic board repairs. Usually it will be either the LCD cable, LCD connector, backlight fuse, backlight IC or backlight IC feedback trace.

I would recommend opening the bottom anyway to clean the board for liquid damage using 95%+ isopropyl.

Was this answer helpful?

Yes No
Score 2
Add a comment

Add your answer

Sara Kristoffersson will be eternally grateful.
View Statistics:

Past 24 Hours: 0

Past 7 Days: 1

Past 30 Days: 1

All Time: 586