Changing Macbook top...

[Synthesthesia]

The other day, for some reason I left a bottle of water near my Macbook with it's lid off (which I don't normally do). And what are the chances- I knocked it over onto my Macbook. Water got inside the screen because I turned it upside down, so i put it in a bag with rice for a day, which cleared the water up nicely.

However, when I went to type, I noticed my K, I, 8 and left and right arrow keys don't work.

I've found someone selling new tops for them, (keyboard, trackpad, upper plastic etc.) for ?50, but it's the newer keyboard, with play etc on the upper keys, whereas mine is the older macbook that has the brightness on the left instead of the right (2006 model i think). I was just wondering if that would work on my macbook? Or if anyone has any suggestions for how I could fix this one...

Thanks!

[baad bwoy]

maybe you got some rice stuck under the keys... would a vacuum cleaner help?

[Taka]

Theoretically, you should be OK since I believe OSX installs ALL the drivers for the current line of Macs by default. I whacked a MacBook Pro hard disk straight, full of apps and files straight into a Mac mini and everything worked first time with no additional drivers or config needed.

[wakka]

You could try taking it to the Genius bar, they'll probably fix it for free. I spilt tea in my old MacBook Pro's keyboard once, and some of the keys stopped working or worked intermittently. I took the keys off and scraped away the bits of dried tea, put them back on and took it the Apple Store. They fixed it under Applecare.

[Synthesthesia]

There's no Apple stores near me, plus I don't have Applecare. I've tried taking the keys off and cleaning under them, there's nothing stuck. I think the new keyboard should be fine...

Gives me a better reason to replace it anyway, the plastic started snapping off and looks kinda grubby, plus my trackpad button has been acting up lately, clicking by itself etc.

[Resonance]

If you have a white macbook with the plastic cracking around the front of the topside keyboard (left and right of the keypad), they replace the keyboard for free even out of warranty. A known manufacturing fault. I had mine fixed and a friend had theirs done too.

[Synthesthesia]

Nice! Thanks for that I'll give them a ring later on. Result

[Resonance]

Cool let us know how you get on.

[Synthesthesia]

Rang them today (since they weren't open yesterday..), they've agreed to fix it for free, and are picking it up tomorrow. They say it will take upto 5 working days to get back to me, so windows for me for the next week or so it seems!

Thanks for the suggestion man, you saved me £50!

[Pavey]

so windows for me for the next week or so it seems!

**** dude, i feel your pain. If you need someone to talk to....

[Synthesthesia]

Haha! Yes, it's going to be hard to get through, but i'm sure i'll persevere... Somehow

[Resonance]

Synthesthesia if we ever meet you are buying drinks!

I need to get my topcase changed, but I cant bring myself to be without my Mac for a few days.

[Taka]

Anybody dropping off a Mac for warranty work should ask the Genius to do an audit of the condition of the machine. I dropped a mint condition iBook off a few years ago and because the store was heaving, the guy didn't do a check. It came back to me covered in scratched and with a few cracks on the bottom casing. I said it wasn't given to them in that condition and because there was no record, it was my word versus theirs.

[Resonance]

As much as I have grown to like Macs (I hated them for the first 2 years using them) I have heard some shocking stories about Apple's repair service and the overall quality of Macs. Apple care is a definite must although it should not be for the already premium prices being paid.

[Synthesthesia]

Synthesthesia if we ever meet you are buying drinks!

I need to get my topcase changed, but I cant bring myself to be without my Mac for a few days.

Haha. Indeed. It got picked up yesterday off UPS, I hope it's a quick return...

I'm not finding windows too bad though atm to be honest. It's a fresh install of a heavily cleaned version of XP (all the crap taken out and streamlined) and it feels pretty nice.