MacBook – Coffee spill on MacBook Pro Retina

damagehardwaremacbook pro

I spilled half a cup of coffee (Nescafé, whole milk, water, no sugar) on the keyboard of my MacBook Pro Retina 15'' (MacBookPro10,2, Early 2013)

Details that you can skip:

It happened almost 3 days ago (62 hours as of this post).

At the time of the incident the mac was powered on and in use.
I immediately:

  • unplugged the power cord,
  • forced a shut down (by pressing the power button for a few seconds),
  • turned it upside down, with the keyboard facing down and parallel to the floor,
  • tried to wipe it dry,
  • sworn a lot.

Before bringing it to the Apple store, I decided to wait a few days to let it dry and try to power it on again. After all, something similar happened years ago with an 2008 MacBook (white) and a glass of water, and after a few days of rest the mac recovered fully.
(If anyone is wondering, I even left it a day and a half in a plastic bag with a lot of rice)

However, now it's been almost three days and it still doesn't power on.
I gently removed the power button from the keyboard and it looks dry, although the contact under the rubber pin seems a bit dirty.

Question

Does anyone know what kind of damage should I expect? Is it possible that once completely dry it will work as usual?

Best Answer

In situation as you described, HDD could survive with high probability, but as MBP retina uses SSD instead there is a small, but chance to kill it. First steps to repair it is to disconnect the battery and disconnect the SSD. This is guarantee to prevent:
1) future information losses
2) future damage of logic board.

What damages can you expect - generally, in these cases this is 50/50 game. Cleaning requires disassembly of the MacBook and wiping board with cleaning agent e.g. ethyl alcohol (96% concentrated). It is non-conductor, so then when macbook will be reassembled, it probably will work.
My friend had similar problem: water and MBP retina 13. And now his MBPr works OK, but only with power cord plugged in. I do not recommend connect it to power cord until it properly dried and cleaned (with alcohol).