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Released June 2009 / 2.53 GHz Core 2 Duo Processor

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Why won't my computer turn on?

My boyfriend spilled water on my computer, breaking the keyboard. I used the computer with an external keyboard for a little while and it worked just fine.

One day, my computer randomly turned itself off - might have been some kind of power surge. BUT it seemed to recover, and went back to working just fine (with an external keyboard).

I'm pretty handy, so I decided to replace the topcase myself (using the ifixit tutorial). Everything seemed to go smoothly during the operation... but now the computer won't turn on. When I press the power button, nothing happens.

I tried Resetting the SMC, but to no avail :(

Any ideas of other things I could check?

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At this point you really need to back track and make shure you have hooked everything up correctly as the guide tells you to. Foremost you should have inspected the board to see how bad your liquid damage really was. Just because you can use it partially with external keyboard and mouse does'nt mean it will stay working like that. Best bet would be to inspect the logicboard removed and do any cleaning with rubbing alcohol and soft brush letting it dry and reviewing the quides to make shure you've hooked up everything ok. I've done liquid spills cleaning and repair logicboards and each one is totally different some of your hardware may be affected by the liquid like the ram or the airport or even the dc jack, careful inspection with patience is the only way to totally locate an fix/repair a problem.

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Thank you so much - that's incredibly helpful. Are there particular things I can looking for as I clean and inspect the logicboard? What might damage look like? Thank you!

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look for any discoloration, compare it to the rest of the board.

Also, for your issue that you are having, one cable that can be tricky to reinsert correctly is the keyboard ribbon cable. make sure it's properly seated. This cable also has the power button signal going through it and if it's not properly inserted, you will not be able to turn your system on normally. Alternatively, you can try and short the 5th pin from the left of hte keyboard connector to a ground source (the screw just to the right of it) and see if it turns on with that. if it does, then your ribbon cable is improperly inserted, and as John said, recheck your connections.

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Rebecca Goldstein will be eternally grateful.
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