My kid spilled food on a laptop

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I know it's probably toast by now, but I just need a place to vent other than taking it out on my kid. And it was nice too - 2019 MacBook Air. Although it was the base model with only 128 GB, that was perfectly adequate for all the schoolwork done right now. Probably too nice.

I always say to avoid liquids or food next to the computer but my kid doesn't always listen. So my kid came to me in a little panic and I saw the keyboard backlight kind of flashing only a few keys (escape or shift) and with a blank display. Our kid apparently spilled some instant noodles from disposable container and right onto the keyboard and possibly into the case through the back vents. I've been seeing liquid that smells like the soup from the noodles and tried to wipe it off. I don't have the pentalobe screwdriver needed to open the case, but it's probably dead by now anyways. I tried powering it down by holding the power button, but it didn't really do anything. I smelled the case through the rear vent, and it does have a mild odor of burnt electronics mixed with the smell of the soup. After a while, nothing would light up any more.

I'm using a fan on it right now, but it's probably going to be a futile effort. I doubt it's worth trying to fix.

My kid is just going to need to use a ChromeBook that I got in a drawing, which was being used for school before my wife and I decided to allow the use of the MacBook Air.

Might be a good excuse to get a new M1 (if we can justify the spending) and pass my old computer as a hand me down.
 
I know it's probably toast by now, but I just need a place to vent other than taking it out on my kid. And it was nice too - 2019 MacBook Air. Although it was the base model with only 128 GB, that was perfectly adequate for all the schoolwork done right now. Probably too nice.

I always say to avoid liquids or food next to the computer but my kid doesn't always listen. So my kid came to me in a little panic and I saw the keyboard backlight kind of flashing only a few keys (escape or shift) and with a blank display. Our kid apparently spilled some instant noodles from disposable container and right onto the keyboard and possibly into the case through the back vents. I've been seeing liquid that smells like the soup from the noodles and tried to wipe it off. I don't have the pentalobe screwdriver needed to open the case, but it's probably dead by now anyways. I tried powering it down by holding the power button, but it didn't really do anything. I smelled the case through the rear vent, and it does have a mild odor of burnt electronics mixed with the smell of the soup. After a while, nothing would light up any more.

I'm using a fan on it right now, but it's probably going to be a futile effort. I doubt it's worth trying to fix.

My kid is just going to need to use a ChromeBook that I got in a drawing, which was being used for school before my wife and I decided to allow the use of the MacBook Air.

Might be a good excuse to get a new M1 (if we can justify the spending) and pass my old computer as a hand me down.
Depending on the age, this may be the perfect opportunity to show how the real world works. Make your kid do chores or tasks for a predetermined wage. That wage goes to repair or replace the laptop. The sooner they learn to appreciate the value of things the better and the more likely they will be to take care of things down the road.
 
About 6 mos ago I spilled some cereal onto my lenovo think pad. About $100 in repairs, new keyboard. As soon as I got it home, I bought a keyboard cover, they are pretty cheap and the BITOG crowd here likes cheap insurance. A thin plastic keyboard cover is just that.

If you haven't taken it to a shop, you might want to, depending on how much their diagnostic fee is. If it is only a couple hundred, that would be worth reviving a macbook air.
 
Yeah that happens. This is why kids should use cheap and simple stuff instead of nice expensive stuff.

Chromebook FTW, let kid earn their nice stuff eventually, or pay for insurance plan.
 
Depending on the age, this may be the perfect opportunity to show how the real world works. Make your kid do chores or tasks for a predetermined wage. That wage goes to repair or replace the laptop. The sooner they learn to appreciate the value of things the better and the more likely they will be to take care of things down the road.
Or they will learn that some things are not worth the extra effort for and they would decide to pick a lower risk path forward. IMO if I were the kid I would rather have a cheaper computer that I can do what I want and not worry about it all the time, than forking over $1k or more and still have to pamper like a damsel.
 
Some Visa/Mastercard have protection services associated. I would check into that if the 2019 was purchased within the last year. Good luck!
 
Talking about punishment.

I once went to a toy shop after school (I was probably 10th grade by then). The toy shop has a policy of no backpack in the shop for security reason and they ask students to pile up their backpack at the entrance. One day mine got stolen.

That's a big lesson to learn. I still remember it like yesterday.
 
That was a viable option 20 years ago, but most schools send out assignments, lesson plans, even teaching lessons during covid. So not having a computer means the kiddo wont go to school. Denying a child an education over spilled noodles on a computer is foolish.

The school provides basic equipment and recommends it because they put in software to keep students from using unauthorized software. Didn’t take them up on it because we have several computers that do the job. The Chromebook is working fine for now.

Not sure what would happen if a loaner Chromebook from the school was damaged. I don’t think my kid would have been using it at the time anyways since it was being used for some online game at the time of the spill.
 
Clean the computer as well as you can with 91% IPA, and take it to a computer repair place (not apple or best buy). The bggest issue is that the liquid is salty therefor conductive and corrosive. It may be that the machine is salvageable if no components have been damaged but it will take a deep and thorough cleaning to prevent problems in the future and must be completely disassembled. Accidents happen but remember this is a child, I'm sure everyone on this forum has damaged an electronic device by sheer stupidity before, I know I have and I'm 47. My daughter washed my wifes iphone, spilled water on my MSI ghost pro, but she is a child, any punishment you decide, if any, is 100% your decision, you are the parent. Dont let these keyboard commandos interfere. You know your child, think and cool off, before just punish them. Dont punish your child when you are angry or upset because you will regret it. I've done it and have regretted it.
 
The school provides basic equipment and recommends it because they put in software to keep students from using unauthorized software. Didn’t take them up on it because we have several computers that do the job. The Chromebook is working fine for now.

Not sure what would happen if a loaner Chromebook from the school was damaged. I don’t think my kid would have been using it at the time anyways since it was being used for some online game at the time of the spill.
From my understanding, they are leased or purchased with insurance. We got a school chromebook and they are designed to be sort of spill tolerant and drop resistant up to a certain level. If you intentionally submerge it then of course it will die but if you spill a few drops of liquid it may survive.

They are cheap to begin with and therefore should be easy to swap out and replace the broken parts. You won't get the tightly integrated thin at all cost Apple design in those, and good thing they aren't. The chips they use are also cheaper and slower anyways.
 
Clean the computer as well as you can with 91% IPA, and take it to a computer repair place (not apple or best buy). The bggest issue is that the liquid is salty therefor conductive and corrosive. It may be that the machine is salvageable if no components have been damaged but it will take a deep and thorough cleaning to prevent problems in the future and must be completely disassembled. Accidents happen but remember this is a child, I'm sure everyone on this forum has damaged an electronic device by sheer stupidity before, I know I have and I'm 47. My daughter washed my wifes iphone, spilled water on my MSI ghost pro, but she is a child, any punishment you decide, if any, is 100% your decision, you are the parent. Dont let these keyboard commandos interfere. You know your child, think and cool off, before just punish them. Dont punish your child when you are angry or upset because you will regret it. I've done it and have regretted it.
This.

Things happen and if you cannot afford to risk the accident don't let them use it to begin with. I work on dinning table and my daughter would eat lunch next to me and she will spill stuff. I know my company laptop is insured, and she luckily only spill on the external ethernet adapter that only cost $17. So no big deal and understandable.

I would refuse to put an uninsured mac book of my own in the same place, even for myself. I would also not be the kind of parents who buy a new teenager a Mercedes S class and tell them not to crash it.
 
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