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In June 2017 Apple updated its 13" MacBook Air with a newer Broadwell Intel Core i5 processor, resulting in slightly increased performance and battery life.

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MacBook Air 13" Early 2017 water spill and charging issues

Hello everyone !

First thanks a lot for this forum and for all the people who take the time to answer questions that I guess come back often...

It might have been already asked but I guess my case is kinda specific and I couldn't find a post with the exact same issue...

So about two days ago I spilled a glass of water on the right top side of my MacBook Air 13" Early 2017. It instantly shut down, so I took it up, tried to get most of the water out of it, and completely dried it with a towel. I have then let it dry for about 5/6 hours upside down with a towel underneath. Then I bought rice and plunged my MacBook in it for 24 hours. And then I let it dry in front of a not-so-strong fan for another 24 hours. So it dried for about 50 hours now.

Now I decided it was time to try to turn it back on for the first time. I thought a first glance it was a goner since it wouldn't turn on, but then I noticed it was actually trying to light up, but a very dim icon on the screen showed there were just no battery left.

So I decided I would try to charge it. But here's the deal : whenever I plug the MagSafe in, the LED won't light up and basically the MacBook will not charge...

So my question is : what do you think would be the best for me to do ?

I have bought a set of items to open it up, but I don't really know where to start nor what to do. I am truly hoping it can be resolved for a small amount of money, and I hope too that the logic board or any expensive component isn't damaged.

Anyway, if anyone has clues on what I could do before going to an Apple Store to have a diagnosis, I'd be really glad to take them. My MacBook was only 3 months old so it's really frustrating and heart-wrenching to see it in such brick-state.

Thanks a lot for reading, and I hope you'll have a nice day,

Mr. Tibbles

  • UPDATE N°1 : OK so I have plugged it again, and tried to turn it on while plugged. Didn't work first but I tried to do a SMC reset. Turned it back on, it worked ! But since when it rains, it pours, I discovered two problems :
    • first and foremost, there is no backlight anymore, so it's really hard to see what I'm doing but apart from that, everything worked fine (I could launch apps, go on the Internet, etc...). I tested the keyboard keys, they were working all fine. I had a look in the System Report and everything seemed to be fine too (it was detecting all the ports, the RAM etc...). Only problem was with the battery, so here comes the second problem...
    • so again it does not say it's charging, and the amperage in the battery tab of the System Report shows values around 1300/1400, which I guess is not right (correct me if I'm wrong)
Answer this question I have this problem too

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Well, the rice didn't offer any help! Sadly, this is an old Urban Legend with no truth of fact (real fake news)!

The only way to fix your system if you still can, is opening it up and manually wiping down all of the internal surfaces that got wet. Given the fact its been over 2 days now you likely have some corrosion and as you didn't pull the battery the ions in the water have likely shorted things out as well as your action of powering up the system has likely damaged a few components.

I think it would be best to find someone locally (Apple won’t touch your system) that can service your system. As it’s going to take a bit of TLC to bring it back to the living. In the mean time I would disconnect the battery and keep the system as cool as you can to slow down the corrosion.

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Thank you very much Dan ! I did not know for the rice... guess I'll at least have learned something from all that. I wrote an update since I discovered new clues. I have read your comment so I have immediately shut down my computer so it does no more corrosion...

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