New Macbook - Problem and questions

[wolflord]

My sister got one of the newer Macbooks with the core 2 duo cpu before going off to college. Anyway, last week someone spilled soda on it, fortunatly it was either not on or she shut it off in time to avoid major damage. I got it shipped from her and made sure it was all dry, cleaned it as best I could and the major bits work however the keyboard and touchpad do not. So, anyone know how much it may cost to get these pieces replaced? Or where to get parts and find instructions so I can do it myself? Better still...anyone done this before and managed to fix it w/o replacing anything?

[pip]

iFixit has a replacement guide for the top case. Also, google for "macbook_13in.pdf" should lead you to a PDF of Apple's service manual. Apple's has a lot more info about the different screw lengths, which is helpful (there are probably 15 screws to remove, all small and different sizes).

The top case is one piece and includes the keyboard, trackpad, and power button. It all goes through one ribbon cable and small connector. I would take off the top case, and see if the connector or board is sticky. You'll be able to see the rest of the logic board also, in case something else shorted.

There were four different top case parts used on the 13" MacBooks--white and black with dashboard/expose/play/pause keys, and white and black without the extra keys. Going price seems to be around $120-150. PBParts seems to have good prices, iFixit's prices seem higher. And I didn't look, but I'm sure these things are on eBay too.

[japes]

If it's just sticky you might be able to wash it under warm tap water (removed from the rest of the machine first). Is this the aluminum MacBook or plastic? Might be hard to find third party supplies for the top case on the aluminum models right now.

You could try and take the keyboard apart, but the picture I saw of an aluminum model showed about 80 screws!!!

[wolflord]

Thanks for that info, that helped out alot...got it all pulled apart and tried cleaning it but no dice, so it looks like I'm going to new a new topcase. The place with the guide has used topcases for $139...seems like an ok price?

iFixit has a replacement guide for the top case. Also, google for "macbook_13in.pdf" should lead you to a PDF of Apple's service manual. Apple's has a lot more info about the different screw lengths, which is helpful (there are probably 15 screws to remove, all small and different sizes).

The top case is one piece and includes the keyboard, trackpad, and power button. It all goes through one ribbon cable and small connector. I would take off the top case, and see if the connector or board is sticky. You'll be able to see the rest of the logic board also, in case something else shorted.

There were four different top case parts used on the 13" MacBooks--white and black with dashboard/expose/play/pause keys, and white and black without the extra keys. Going price seems to be around $120-150. PBParts seems to have good prices, iFixit's prices seem higher. And I didn't look, but I'm sure these things are on eBay too.

[pip]

Thanks for that info, that helped out alot...got it all pulled apart and tried cleaning it but no dice, so it looks like I'm going to new a new topcase. The place with the guide has used topcases for $139...seems like an ok price?]

Sounds like a reasonable price

[SAQ]

Rinse out the keyboard with distilled water or denatured alcohol - I tried one once in my green years with tap water and it never worked right again - there's just enough junk in tap to mess things up (and I'm in a region with very soft water, it would be worse if you had hard water).