Laptop dropped in bath - will it work?

Bluecube

Bluecube

Bluecube

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I’ve got a MacBook Pro that’s had a bath. As in completely submerged in the bath… It’s currently drying out but will it ever work? A spillage maybe but complete submersion? Nah. Convince me otherwise.

No it wasn’t me and I’ve no idea why the person involved thought it was a good idea to perch a laptop over the bath…
 
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It may have died on the way in, assuming it was powered.

It'll probably take way longer than you think to fully dry out to a state where powering it back up won't be fatal. I'd be taking it apart and washing the individual parts with clean water and then alcohol before trying.
 
It might stand a chance of survival if it wasn't powered on. But then again, it'd be a bit strange for someone to submerge a powered off MacBook pro in the bath.

I'd set your expectations that it's toasted.
 
Don't even attempt to power it on just now. As I have a large bottle of isopropyl alcohol, I would disassemble the laptop and spray all the electronics with alcohol and leave to dry somewhere warm. But don't put anything on or against a radiator to speed up the drying process!

While everything is drying, I'd access the drive and take an image of it if possible. This way, if the laptop goes pop after you power it on, you at least have a duplicate of the drive - providing the drive actually works, of course.

When powering up, it's not likely that the display with work. So you might need to plug the laptop into an external monitor to access it. If the laptop behaves fine, other than the screen, you can decide if it's worth buying a new display for the laptop or not.
 
Apple's products aren't designed to survive even small spills, so even Louis Rossmann might not be able to breath that fully submerged one back to life.


darael said:
While everything is drying, I'd access the drive and take an image of it if possible. This way, if the laptop goes pop after you power it on, you at least have a duplicate of the drive - providing the drive actually works, of course.
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That random method drying after full submerging can actually easily worsen the situation:
Water is very bad thing with electronics, but once that wet board gets in contact with air and oxygen in it, that's when things go up to eleven and turn really ugly.
(at least without use of protective coatings)

Would be often better to keep device fully wet untill really ready to do cleaning before drying it.
Meaning using for example lots of IPA to flush water and possible dirt from PCB surface and all the cracks before exposure to air and oxygen.
 
Bluecube said:
No it wasn’t me and I’ve no idea why the person involved thought it was a good idea to perch a laptop over the bath…
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Apple's products must be emitting some harmfull brain funtionality disabling radiation for anyone to think that as anything but super bad idea...
You better go and remove mains powered things like hair dryers from vicinity of that bath, before we'll get Darwin Awards candidate.
 
EsaT said:
Apple's products aren't designed to survive even small spills, so even Louis Rossmann might not be able to breath that fully submerged one back to life.


That random method drying after full submerging can actually easily worsen the situation:
Water is very bad thing with electronics, but once that wet board gets in contact with air and oxygen in it, that's when things go up to eleven and turn really ugly.
(at least without use of protective coatings)

Would be often better to keep device fully wet untill really ready to do cleaning before drying it.
Meaning using for example lots of IPA to flush water and possible dirt from PCB surface and all the cracks before exposure to air and oxygen.
Click to expand...
Oh I agree, the residue left from the water as it dries can make things even worse. That's why I would be quite prompt about getting the IPA out.

I have IPA in a spray pump bottle, so would use this with a gentle brush to try and disperse of as much water as possible. Then just let nature take over to try the components out completely.
 
I agree that it’s a busted flush. I’ve yet to interrogate the sprog involved in the incident but I got the impression the MBP was completely submerged so water would’ve got in through the USBC ports, the keyboard, etc. She was listening to music apparently with it sitting on a bath tray… FFS
 
Bluecube said:
I agree that it’s a busted flush. I’ve yet to interrogate the sprog involved in the incident but I got the impression the MBP was completely submerged so water would’ve got in through the USBC ports, the keyboard, etc. She was listening to music apparently with it sitting on a bath tray… FFS
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Why do people do this... Seriously. Alarm bells should have been going off taking electronics into a bathroom. Let alone all that water inside the screen. Probably so much bath oils as well, right? Full of bubbles, lavender no doubt...
 
The biggest one I've always kept hearing is people dropping their phones in the toilet. Why... :eek::o Why even take a phone into the bathroom.
 
V F said:
The biggest one I've always kept hearing is people dropping their phones in the toilet. Why... :eek::o Why even take a phone into the bathroom.
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Thought it was common practice for people to take their phones into the toilet with them as a distraction from the fact they're not having enough fibre.
 
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