Another water damaged MacBook

[quinnlaup]

Hey folks

I got another water damaged MacBook in last week only stripped it today because i wanted to let it dry. Its the unibody A1278 model 2.4Ghz i5 cpu with 4 gb ram it currently has OSX version 10.7.2 installed. When i stripped it i found some traces of water damage but the main board appears to have no visible damage so i decided to clean everything down with alcohol and rebuild it. To my surprise it came on when i plugged in the adapter (before i had even pressed the power switch) but when i get logged in it says the battery is not charging and the light on the adapter is amber. Since i have a similar machine in the shop i decided to swap out the battery but it still says not charging. I have also noticed that when the adapter is removed completely the machine switches on itself and attempts to power up off the battery but knocks off again after 10-15 seconds. I have also done a bit of research which suggested doing an SMC reset might resolve the charging issue but this did not work. I know on this model that the power switch is integrated into the keyboard would it be worthwhile swapping out the keyboard? or is this in all likelyhood a dead duck?

kind regards

quinnlaup

[anonymous Mac Tech]

More than likely needs a top case. Disconnect keyboard connector and short pads on the board to test. As far as charging goes, you'll have to swap in a new or known good magsafe board to see if the power issue is related to needing a relatively cheap magsafe DC-in board or a very expensive logic board.

[quinnlaup]

@Anonymous Mac Tech

Took your advice and disconnected the keyboard didnt have to power it on because as soon as i connected the mag safe adapter it automatically powered on so would indicate that the keyboard/power button is not the problem? I'm weighing up the possibility of ordering a new dc-in board. Thanks for your time.


kind regards

quinnlaup

[anonymous Mac Tech]

Took your advice and disconnected the keyboard didnt have to power it on because as soon as i connected the mag safe adapter it automatically powered on so would indicate that the keyboard/power button is not the problem? I'm weighing up the possibility of ordering a new dc-in board. Thanks for your time.

If your sure it was the keyboard top case connection you disconnected (should be a wide ribbon cable connection) then yeah, I'd say there is another problem. I'd disonnect everything (except fan, magsafe board) and see if it still powers on by itself. If it does, I'd suspect the logic board took a hit. A faulty magsafe board by itself characteristically won't power on a machine by itself as soon as power is applied, but I've seen weirder things.

[quinnlaup]

I managed to get an identical magsafe dc-in board ehich i fitted however the battery still isn't charging i will try disconnecting everything except the mainboard, fan and dc-in board to see if i can get a handle on the powering on issue when i get in tomorrow morning.

kind regards

quinnlaup