

Ask HN: Cleaning a MacBook by submerging it in distilled water? - palish

Someone spilled alcohol into my fiancee's running MacBook. It's quite sticky.<p>I believe the logic board is fried because people stupidly tried to turn it on several times with no success. But I'm going to assume it's not, and hope for the best.<p>Since distilled water is non-conductive, could I use it to clean the logic board? (Assuming the logic board isn't shorted out, I need to remove all traces of the spill because it would corrode the logic board over time, eventually resulting in a failure.)<p>My current plan is to disassemble the MacBook; remove the logic board; submerge it in a tray of distilled water; pour out and refill with fresh distilled water, then submerge again; use a hairdryer for ~30 minutes to quickly dry the logic board; and finally, let the logic board dry over the course of a couple days, reassemble, and cross fingers.<p>My question is: is this a bad idea?
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noonespecial
I once rescued an N64 from a Coca-Cola related incident using the process you
describe but isopropyl alcohol instead of distilled water. The alcohol worked
much better on the sticky soda, didn't seem to harm the electronics and dried
very quickly because it evaporates so fast.

YMMV.

~~~
gregpilling
I have used isopropyl alcohol with success also. IF you have a choice at your
local store, choose the one with a higher % .

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nhebb
Back when aggressive fluxes were used in manufacturing, washing the circuit
board was a normal part of the process, so it's not an entirely crazy idea. I
wouldn't use a hair dryer, though. Besides possible heat damage, moving air
can generate a static charge.

~~~
palish
Would you let it dry naturally? Or do you have any tips for accelerating the
drying process?

~~~
proexploit
A pretty standard process for drying out cell phones that get wet is to drop
them in a bag of rice. Rice is a desiccant and will assist in the drying
process.

One source: [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/06...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/06/10/AR2007061001276.html)

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proee
First, let's clear up your thinking. You don't need to worry about the
solution being "non-conductive" because the board is powered off.

Second, distilled water isn't going to have much cleaning power. Most PCB
cleaners are pretty toxic because they're trying to remove things such as
solder flux and resin.

The easiest solution you could do is to run your board through your
DISHWASHER. Yes, that's right. Lot's of small board houses will do this and
they turn out clean as a whistle.

[http://www.vintage-
computer.com/vcforum/archive/index.php/t-...](http://www.vintage-
computer.com/vcforum/archive/index.php/t-15371.html)

Good luck!

~~~
sigstoat
yow. i'd suggest the shower or spray nozzle in your sink before the
dishwasher. the dishwasher is going to want to use hot water and high
pressures, neither of which are necessary.

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argon
My lady friend's laptop was immersed in a fine Italian port wine for a few
hours during an unfortunate incident on a plane ride home from Italy. She
didn't turn it on, and quickly removed the battery once she realized what
happened. I immersed pretty much everything except the harddrive, LCD, and
battery in isopropanol for a few hours, and, then in multiple baths of
distilled water. I skipped the hair drying step, but used compressed air to
get most of the water off. I then waited a few days to be sure any excess
water had evaporated. In the end, everything worked except the LCD screen,
which was easy to replace.

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wazoox
Actually even regular water is usually OK for electronics. I washed LC630
innards in the shower. Dry it well, though; you'll probably be better opening
it to avoid trapping moisture inside.

~~~
xyzzyz
I frequently wash keyboards in the shower and never had any issues either.

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peterb
I wouldn't do that yet. The stickiness could be on the keyboard only. I would
disassemble (get instructions for your model from <http://www.ifixit.com/>)
and visually inspect for damage. Make sure everything is completely dry,
reassemble and retest.

If it won't power on, then you have to start debugging to isolate the problem.
If it is the logic board, then my sympathies ... they are expensive to
replace.

------
iag
Distilled water = non conductive Distilled water + dust + sticky alcohol that
you're trying to wash off = definitely conductive

See Tom's hardware guide experiment where they took out the fans and instead
dumped the computer into distilled water:

<http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/strip-fans,1203.html>

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andrewstuart
I believe you can get chemicals specifically designed for cleaning
electronics.

~~~
palish
Hmm, info?

Also, it's been about two days since the spill. Would it be harmful to wait
for these chemicals to arrive, rather than cleaning right -now-?

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reashlin
Answer - possibly not. Maybe not for reasons you are thinking of. The non-
conductivity of the distilled water will be eliminate as soon as the water
comes into contact with any contaminates, as its contaminates in the water the
provide conductivity. However, as long as the board is completely dried there
is no reason for a problem to exist, aside from corrosion.

------
danielh
Even if you use distilled water, make sure to also remove the on-board
battery. (I'm not sure if the current MB still have one).

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brudgers
After washing, put the logic board in a sealed container with five pounds of
rice for a few days. I'd skip the hair dryer.

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lsc
disassemble it. soak it in pure alcohol. (fry's sells big bottles of 99.9%
rubbing alcohol for cheaper than what you'd pay at the drug store.)

You aren't going to submerge it while it's plugged in, and you aren't going to
submerge the LCD (take it apart, I said, get the keyboard and circuit board
submerged) make sure it is completely dry before re-assembly.

I do this periodically with my keyboard... and it's standard procedure when
something is spilt on my thinkpad. It won't work 100% of the time, but it does
quite often work

Alcohol is, I think, a better solvent than distilled water, but the real
reason I prefer it is that it dries faster.

~~~
billswift
You can get denatured alcohol at nearly any hardware store. Besides drying
faster, the advantage with alcohol is that fats, like those in coffee creamer
are also soluble in it, but not in water. Sugars, though, are less soluble in
alcohol.

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fuzzybassoon
I work in computer repair for a university, and we see students coming in all
the time with liquid spills.

We usually:

1) Disassemble the computer (ifixit.com is your friend here) 2) Clean the
board with a non-conductive cleaner such as Electro Klene
(<http://www.criticalcleaning.com/CCContact.htm>) 3) Dry it off using
compressed air and then let it air dry for a bit 4) Reassemble and cross
fingers.

We find this works about 1/2 the time.

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patrickk
My first thought reading the heading was it's similarities to the Ice Bath
"fix" for the Xbox 360 red ring of death:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4UN7MrhQaAc>

Read the description, it's quite funny that people fell for this obvious hoax.

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jacquesm
There is a fluid they use for ultrasonic cleaning of electronics:
<http://www.google.com/search?q=ultrasonic+cleaning+fluid>

I would use that over distilled water because it may be quite hard to get the
last of it to evaporate.

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moxiemk1
Why are you worried about the conductivity of the water? Presumably, you wont
be turning it on while its wet, so removing the battery, any clock batteries,
and discharging capacitors (I'll admit, I don't know how to do that or if its
possible) should make it fine to submerge in anything.

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StavrosK
I don't know about your mainboard, but when my soundcard had accumulated years
of dust on it, I just ran it under the tap for a few minutes and let it dry.
It works perfectly, too.

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timr
You can buy cans of aerosol circuit board cleaner at Radio Shack. They cost
less than $10, and don't contain corrosive or conductive liquids.

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jenrawson
What kind of alcohol was spilled onto the computer?

~~~
palish
Some kind of pink, sugary, sticky kind.

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gtani
how about try this. Also, i remember the logic board clips on some MB's are
very fragile, to the point my mac repair guy (doing this for decades) didn't
want to take it apart.

[http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/12/dont-panic-liquid-damage-
and-...](http://www.tuaw.com/2009/05/12/dont-panic-liquid-damage-and-what-to-
do-about-it/)

