Does anybody here know much about MacBook Pro diagnostics?

"Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen" (sportwagen)
10/12/2015 at 19:06 • Filed to: None

My 2012 MacBook Pro 13” took a bit of a bath in root beer on Friday... since then I’ve cleaned it off with hot water, distilled water, and 91% rubbing alcohol. It hasn’t powered on at all since then and I can’t get it to show any signs of life, other than the MagSafe light being a constant dim green and part of the motherboard being super hot (but just one little black square, nothing else).

HELP PLEASE!!! I’ve already ordered a new DC-in board... I really do not want to have to buy a new motherboard.

DISCUSSION (100)

Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST) > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:11

Even the slightest liquid seeping through into the circuitry...bye bye compy.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST)
10/12/2015 at 19:12

Not necessarily...

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:12

My mom spilled water on a MBA and Dad spilled tea on an rMBP a couple years ago... I removed the bottom cover and just let it air dry in a warm room for a few days. They were dead before, now they both work good as new.

Tohru > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:13

eBay. “ran when parked”.

Blunion05 drives a pink S2000 (USER WAS BANNED FOR THIS POST) > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:15

Yeah, I overexaggerate a bit. let’s hope this isn’t too bad.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 19:16

Neither of those are as sticky as Root Beer though :(

I hope its the MagSafe board... otherwise I don’t know what to do. I need a laptop for school because Computer Engineering and programming

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:16

Its dead Jim

TheHondaBro > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:16

Distilled water is safe, but regular water isn’t. You toasted your computer.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Tohru
10/12/2015 at 19:17

Nah, I’d just sell it to the guy on our local craigslist who is trying to find dead MBAs and MBPs

Chariotoflove > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:17

This is bad, very bad. I’d try opening the case and letting it dry for a day or two and then hope that nothing shorted out. It’s possible it may revive. If not, you’ll have to take it to an Apple Store or other authorized repair shop. Heck, you could even just pop into an Apple Store if you have one near you and get some advice from the Geniuses. In the mean time, look on Apple forums for tips, like this thread , for example. Good luck!

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
10/12/2015 at 19:18

NEVER

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > TheHondaBro
10/12/2015 at 19:19

Doubtful, as I just used water on a few Q Tips on the big, wide open areas that were sticky. I used distilled on everything else

PS9 > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:20

Apples diagnostic guide for MacBook Pros.

Q1: Does it work?

A1: No-> Buy the new one.
A2: Yes-> Return to question one if you have any operational issues

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Chariotoflove
10/12/2015 at 19:20

I’ve had the case open and the whole thing torn apart since 10 minutes after it happened... its been open for 4 days now :(

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:21

I’m trained in Mac OSX Hardware and software diagnostics. You ruined it the minute you cleaned it with water

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > PS9
10/12/2015 at 19:21

LOL that is most people right there

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
10/12/2015 at 19:22

No, not like running water. I used Q Tips on the open areas of the mother board and immediately dried it using a microfiber cloth

Denver Is Stuck In The 90s > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:23

Static Electricity

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Denver Is Stuck In The 90s
10/12/2015 at 19:25

:( but this was like 18 hours after it happened and the motherboard was out of the case

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:47

If you need something temporarily and cheap, want me to find you something for like $200 online? That way you could at least do your schoolwork on it, since if you have to get it professionally fixed it will take at least a week, if not more.

beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 19:51

have you done the rice trick? It’s probably too late now though.

Chariotoflove > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 20:10

Oh. Sorry.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 20:59

I’m considering just selling it to a guy on our local Craigslist ( this guy ) and trying to revive my 2007.5 MBP with a C2D and 2GB of ram...

The problem I’m having with repairing this one is that the screen is completely spiderwebbed (I bought it that way) and its an i7 model... and I bought it for $550 a year ago so I’m having trouble justifying spending $450+ on a new logic board...

What did you have in mind?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > beardsbynelly - Rikerbeard
10/12/2015 at 20:59

Definitely too late...

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Chariotoflove
10/12/2015 at 21:00

I think its done for :( I’m pretty sure I ruined one of the capacitors or something

Chariotoflove > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 21:02

I'm sorry, Man. Those are sweet machines, but they certainly don't come cheap.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Chariotoflove
10/12/2015 at 21:06

Yeah... it was an i7 (dual core...) with 8gb of ram and a 256gb SSD. Booted in 5 seconds!

I plan on using the RAM and SSD again

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 21:06

ehhhhh you do NOT want to use C2D stuff in 2015 as a daily machine.

I was thinking moreso along a sandy bridge laptop with 4GB RAM and i5, you can get decent ones for $200 or so.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thi…

search for 2520M on ebay you’ll find lots

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 21:08

Huh, that sounds A LOT like my sister’s laptop lol (Dell E5420 with an i5 and 4GB of ram)

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 21:25

Something like this?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 21:26

Yeah but really you don’t know how badly it is scratched/dented... that’s why I prefer ebay since you can find one with pictures of the actual item.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 21:28

Ah I see... I do know you prefer Lenovos...

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 21:33

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thi…

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 21:48

Look for a ThinkPad T420, X220

HP EliteBook 8460p

Dell Latitude E6420

Out of those I like the 8460p the most

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 21:50

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Lenovo-Thi…

I have 8gb of DDR3 and a 256gb SSD that I would be installing

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 22:12

Nice find!

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 22:15

Checked with parents... they think its a burner laptop :(

They say they’ll buy me a new one with an extended protection plan as an early christmas present. The problem is that I can’t switch anything out, so it has to have an SSD standard along with 8GB of ram... in other words, over $600 easily :(

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 22:58

It’s probably the crack that scares them.

Anyways, with 8GB RAM and an SSD in it, it’ll perform like any non-quad core new laptop... performance wise. And they’re quality machines.

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/12/2015 at 23:31

Well, I’m looking at this now lol

http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/…

Specifically the one with the i7 and R9 M275 4GB and 16GB RAM

For $850? YEAH!

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/12/2015 at 23:54

Fun fact - the i7 5500U is an ULV processor (ultra low voltage). Performance wise, it is not significantly better than... the i5 2520M. Which is kinda funny..

Anyways, that is still a mid-range gfx card (don’t let the 4GB vRAM fool you)... but at least it has a 1080p screen

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/13/2015 at 00:13

Yeah, I realize that the card is mid range (upper range starts at like the 285)

But my i7 3520m in my MBP did a fantastic job at anything I needed it too FWIW

orcim > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/13/2015 at 05:30

Harsh. Hate it when that happens. Sugar solutions are ionic when they dry, so there’s basically little shorts going on where ever the solution dried.

It may be too late, but what I would have done is hit youtube for the disassembly video, gotten the circuit boards isolated (it’s a serious pain to do this, and may not be worth it) and then clean them with cans of contact cleaner, making sure to get it flowing under any tiny chip legs (if exposed) and nooks and crannies that might have the root beer covering them. Then reassemble and hope for the best.

Killed an obnoxious stereo user in the dorms by picking the lock to his room, pouring beer into the vents on top while he was gone, just a little bit, and then leaving. He couldn’t listen to it anymore since it had a hiss in it and he couldn’t immediately replace it. Peace ensued. (Beer is ionic dried, also.) [This was a long long time ago.]

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/13/2015 at 08:32

Yeah and the 3520M outperforms the 5500U

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/13/2015 at 12:01

Wat

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/13/2015 at 12:07

Yep!

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/13/2015 at 13:02

So... looks like my parents are claiming Homeowners Insurance on it lol

Something about that it covers spills and that I should be able to get like $1k for it or something

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/13/2015 at 18:19

It has been declared a total loss... The MacBook Pro is dead :’(

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 21:39

How about a Lenovo Y50-70 with a 512gb SSD, 16gb of ram, and a quad core i7?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 21:41

How much is the price?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 21:54

$1100

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 22:40

Bit much.

I actually have something you might enjoy, interested in this? Still under warranty too.

http://imgur.com/a/cHY2w

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:11

WAT?! GIB ME!

How much, if you don’t mind me asking?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:13

$960 shipped

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:14

How long would it take to ship? I’d want it by Tuesday.

Also, how good is the Quadro? Would it be able to play games?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:16

Quadro is more of a 3D modeling card but it should play games pretty fine. Not as well as that Lenovo, but it would be sufficient and... it’s a lot better built than any laptop you’ll find for $1k or so

I could ship it if you pay me by tomorrow and it’ll get there maybe saturday or monday

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:19

Hm, the problem with shipping is that I’m going back to school on Sunday, and the Mail Room is not open on Saturday :/

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:19

Either way, they hold on to it for you until Monday anyways

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:21

Well, how would you be shipping it? USPS, Fed Ex, UPS...?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:23

usps, cheapest and quickest and reliable

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:23

Give me a bit

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:26

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:33

What type of warranty is on it? Its fully transferable right?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:35

Service tag is

1ZXXTY1

Ends November 20th 2016, so essentially one more year left

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:37

Well, is it like a bumper-to-bumper warranty?
My mom won’t believe it is fully transferable unless she gets in writing from Dell... (I don’t know why...)

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:40

It’s better than most consumer laptop warranties since it is a premium business machine. Show her this.

Kinja'd!!!

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:42

Well... shes asleep now, but my dad should be pleased...

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:45

(also if you’re ever inclined you can bump up the RAM to 32GB )

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:49

My dad wants to know why you’re getting rid of it lol

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:52

i wanted to get a lighter and smaller machine

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:55

HOW MUCH DOES THAT WEIGH?!

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/14/2015 at 23:56

6.5 pounds

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:57

Would you take $900 shipped? I know they’ll agree to that...

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/14/2015 at 23:58

NOTE: I’m not lowballing, I’m doing what my parents told me to do

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/15/2015 at 00:09

ehh no... how about $920

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/15/2015 at 00:46

DEAL! Let me get back to you in the morning (I need to confirm with my mom... shes the one with the money right now)

Also, the MacBook Pro was confirmed as a total loss... something on the motherboard shorted out :(

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/15/2015 at 08:09

Yay! They said yes! However, they want to pay by PayPal, get insured shipping, and get a bill of sale with the computer...

So if you can do all these things, you have a deal :D

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/15/2015 at 08:50

Yeah, give me an email address and I will send a bill of sale to that. Thanks mate!

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/15/2015 at 10:30

dmccloud@sktc.net

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/15/2015 at 11:08

Sent! By the by, do you want windows 10 on it (free upgrade) or leave it at 7?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/15/2015 at 11:10

SEVEN

Win 7 is love, Win 7 is lyfe

Also, MatLab seems pretty finicky on Win 10, as does MathCad

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/15/2015 at 11:13

7 it is... it’s all set for ya.

Do you want anything else installed?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/15/2015 at 11:16

Does it only have one drive bay? Is the HDD in a caddy in the ODD bay?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/15/2015 at 11:17

It has one drive bay... SSD is in there. The 750GB drive is in a caddy in the ODD bay and I am including the original dvd burner drive as well. I have a USB cable for the optical drive lying around, want that?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/15/2015 at 11:18

Oh and it has an mSATA slot too, unoccupied

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/15/2015 at 11:18

Sure, I guess. Is the SSD an 840 Pro? How fast does it boot?

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/15/2015 at 11:19

850 Evo, boots in around 5-10 seconds

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/15/2015 at 11:22

Oh neat! I always for get about those! Also, a fast boot time is a requirement for me ;) Spoiled by SSDs lol

Nibby > Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen
10/15/2015 at 11:25

ye same here :)

did you get the email?

Sportwägen, Driver Of The Red Sportwagen > Nibby
10/15/2015 at 11:35