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The April 2014 update of Apple's 13" MacBook Air features refreshed dual-core i5 and i7 processors, plus slightly increased battery performance.

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Backlight dead after water damage on MacBook Air 13” 2014

My Mom was working a few years ago on her job when someone spilled coffee on her not-then-in-use MacBook Air. When she got home, she put it in a pile of rice (calm down, it actually worked — I’ll get into that later) and left it for a few days.

After ~1 week, we booted it up, and the boot chime occurred, but not the Apple logo. The Apple logo on the back wasn’t glowing, either. After closer inspection by me, it seemed like the backlight was dead, including the Apple logo. I confirmed this by connecting to an external monitor (weeks later), and sure enough, there board was booting.

Now I’m wondering how to repair it, if I can, and my Mom, again, “murdered” another 2014 MacBook Air (which thinks it’s a 2013 model — I dropped it, the CPU died, and I had to get the logic board replaced, though I did get a CPU and RAM upgrade along the way) this time with sparkling water leaking in her bag rather than coffee spilt on on it. I don’t know the effects of the water, it’s still drying off.

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So is this no backlight or no image? If you shine a torch on it can you see an image?

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No backlight. I can see an image if I shine a light at it or I squint.

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There are two components that fail due to liquid or bugs on the backlight circuit of an air. One is the backlight filter and the other is the backlight driver. They are both fairly easy repairs although you do require the right equipment and soldering knowledge. I would get a quote from a reputable repairer. I know some charge a flat fee on all repairs and others charge by the type of mac and the repair.

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