Alcohol Bath?

tylr6024

Over a few forums I have been reading people are saying after a spill they give their computers an alcohol bath. I can't find much info on it however. Is the purpose just to clean off all the junk like sugar from a drink or coffee? I know it wouldn't bring a computer back to life I am just curious why people would put even more liquid on their computer?

John

I agree, and I don't think that makes any kind of sense. I use a soft toothbrush and 90% rubbing alcohol, and I scrub the areas that show obvious signs of corrosion or contact with liquid. It's easy enough to see the affected areas with a flashlight or desk lamp. I get quite a bit of alcohol on there, but added exposure to liquid just isn't necessary, and can damage and warp a board. 90% alcohol is 10% water, after all. It also would unnecessarily increase the amount of time you have to wait before powering the board on.

Jmartinez2794

Hi i have a question please help me out im wondering if you can help me diagnose this i have a 2008 macbook i bought it broken i thought it might be ram issue so seemed good when i got to my house i tried to replace the ram with the one from my sisters 07 And didnt work i hear and feel the fan on and the sleep light(next to infer red) goes on solid no chime nothing else i somewhat see the lcd flicker so i think it works i tried putting in a cd but didnt take the cd i guess its not working please help soon

John

Hi! It may still be a RAM issue, not with bad RAM but with a bad RAM slot. Try powering on with one slot empty. If that doesn't do it, switch the RAM to the other slot and power on with the other slot empty. Often the A1181 MacBook will have a bad slot, and when the slot is populated, the machine will behave as you describe. Leave it empty, though, and the machine will generally power on. There's no guarantee this is the issue with your machine, but is sounds fairly likely.

Jmartinez2794

I tried that but its not working any suggestions i really want to fix this my thing is what if it has water damage or the keyboard might do it my disk drive doesnt work or isnt accepting disks due to it not starting up except the fan and light indicator

nate

i say you just keep trying the things that john suggested it's going to be alright i think it can be fixed just look for the chime and the flicker of the lcd or take out your ram again move it around something else if you try another PSU or an LCD connector maybe even swap with another keyboard good luck godspeed

John

Nate, awesome advice! Moving stuff around as quickly as possible might just confuse it, and cause it to work! :-) What's a PSU?

As for the keyboard having liquid damage, you are apparently able to power it on (even though you only see a light and hear the fan), so the keyboard is not so damaged as to affect the power button, at least. There maybe damage to the actual keyboard, but you have bigger issues -- getting the computer working as a whole.

Again, try one memory module with the other slot empty. You can connect the machine to an external display to see if you get an image, although I wouldn't expect you'll get one.

You most likely have a bad board. If the optical drive is firmly connected and it's not feeding in a DVD, that's a sign that the board has power issues. You could try replacing the DC-in first, but most likely you'll have to replace the board.