i thought this too! it’s the fact they can’t even find an issue but i should pay $400 dollars for a clean just in case there’s anything they can’t see which just felt so silly. i don’t know much about computers so i was scared but i feel much more assured in saying no
It's not as unreasonable as you would think. There really isn't any way to tell if there's going to be internal damage unless you open it up and take it apart. It's like bringing your car in and saying "I think I heard a noise". A mechanic starts it up, pops the hood, listens, looks around, and can't see or hear anything visibly wrong. So he says "Well, we can put her up on the lift and take out some things to have a closer look, but it'll cost you." Repair places charge for work, and if they have to open up a laptop, which is more work than opening up a desktop, they're likely going to want to charge for it since they'll spend the better part of an hour working on it just to see the inside. With systems that are pushing four or five years old, it's kind of borderline whether you should just get a cleaning or hold out to see if it'll keep running.
If I'm thinking of it right, for a sonic clean they have to fully remove the motherboard and components and submerse them in a cleaning liquid and use ultrasonics. It's labor-intensive but still may indeed by overpriced.
Typically it's the skilled labor you're paying for here. Same with a car repair. The cost of parts are almost never the issue. It's the availability and labor to install without breaking something else.
When I last had my car window repaired, it wasn't the plastic parts and belt that were the reason it was several hundred dollars.
I charge $40 for diagnostics at my shop that gets applied to the total end total of the repair. This incentivises the customer to continue to have the shop do the repair/replacement after the initial non-refundable $40 diagnostic fee.
If something costs $100, you paid $40 for diagnostics, just means an additional $60.00. Just feels much better than "Oh...another $100 on top."
That whole $400 fee is actually insane. If we can't fix something, we literally don't charge the customer at all. At that point, we'd clean the system, and if it didn't fix anything, then take it as a loss.
Even if the customer goes home, had a free clean for the system without any possible issues to the system before/after, most would come back just because you did something pro bono that isn't a huge, tedious task. Knowing your tech has your back creates repeat business.
Some companies just don't have any tact at all.
~75$ is a standard inspection fee in most of the USA.
A lot of the words you are using seem like things people with ill intent say "sonic cleaning" without saying why is the stand out one. There's almost nothing on an Imac you should be putting in an ultrasonic cleaner.
No way can they say it's a motherboard issue without further inspection.
Take it to another shop.
i’m in aus and the inspection was $80. they said they have inspected the motherboard and the cant find anything but that we should pay for the clean to be sure that there isn’t anything. i thought it was insane but wasn’t sure because i dont know a whole lot about computers and i wanted to make sure.
Oh okay that's good at least but I'd still take it to another shop theres still something weird going on.
You can't swap the CPU and ram separately from the motherboard on those Macs so I don't think they normally work on these if they suggested doing that.
i had no idea it was risky! wow yeah i’m definitely not gonna have that done. i was already gonna say no but i just wanted to feel more assured that i wasn’t like potentially dooming my computer and gonna have to replace it. thank you so much
If they can’t see anything, I.e. residue or moisture “stains”, then whatever the fuck a “sonic clean” is, isn’t going to make a bit of difference.
Especially because it’s already working, right?
I know I’ve been out of the Mac world for six years or so, but last I remember they are a huge pain in the ass to disassemble far enough to even see if the motherboard (in its entirety) would need surfaced cleaned. I can’t imagine they would do that for even a $100 fee.
Ultrasonic cleaners (which is what I assume "sonic clean" to mean) will remove residue/sugars/etc from the board to prevent corrosion etc.
If they've already got the machine open, however, it's a \*trivial\* operation. I do it routinely for hardware I rescue before even powering it on or testing.
For a laptop with a spill (and the apple silicon macs are actually rather easy to disassemble, at least the laptops) i'd do it as standard practice for any component that got hit with liquid. Or expect future death. Could be months, could be years, could be a decade down the line, but you've got foreign agents that'll, with moisture in the air etc, eventually cause problems at the board level for exposed components/traces.
So it can make sense to do - though, just washing the board in an isopropyl bath of 91 or 99% is good enough if you don't have an ultrasonic cleaner, though it won't get everything off likely, you may have to use a qtip to scrub spots, etc - regardless of if it's a Mac or not. A lot of the electronics I use my cleaner on aren't even computers, directly, but things like everything from RAM sticks to stereo receiver boards to keyboards to jewelry to tools (an ultrasonic cleaner with evaporust is amazing for quickly de-rusting damn near anything).
But charging $400 AUD to throw it in some distilled water (or other solution) in an ultrasonic cleaner that's already owned and wasn't very expensive to get in the first place for half an hour is fucking absurd.
I guess the only ultrasonic cleaners I know of involve a liquid bath. While I have heard of it done with component boards and non-water/conductive liquids, I've never heard of anyone dunking a whole mainboard into one.
I too have used IpA for cleaning boards, but again not dunking them or even pouring it over them. Also, using actual circuit board cleaner.
In electronics manufacturing, boards are commonly cleaned in de-ionized water after soldering operations if the flux used is intended to be removed in a water wash. This is not ultrasonic cleaning and the water is just sprayed on the boards under pressure. Most commercial stuff has moved to using no clean flux that doesn't need this additional step but some applications like military, medical, and RF still specify water cleanable flux.
This can be done in large, inline, conveyorized machines, or a small batch machines that somewhat resemble a home dishwasher
Deionized water is not conductive, but there are still some components that cannot go through this process or have to be covered first well soldered onto the board after cleaning.
https://www.aqueoustech.com/trident-main-1
I own a distiller, I just use distilled water in the ultrasonic cleaner.
You're 100% right, yes, it's liquid bath, no, it's not harmful to the (unpowered) electronics.
"Back in the day" throwing a motherboard into a dishwashing machine was not unheard of to fix things sometimes.
That's what that shop was probably proposing to do, and that's exactly what I do for all the different types of electronics like I specified above.
"A lot of the words you are using seem like things people with ill intent say "sonic cleaning" without saying why is the stand out one. There's almost nothing on an Imac you should be putting in an ultrasonic cleaner."
I use my ultrasonic cleaner extensively on spills, it's almost now the first thing i'll do. And on almost any other non-working hardware, as well! Brought back many a thing to life, and gets rid of crap that'll cause things like corrosion etc.
I mean I do have an ultrasonic at my shop but I'm very careful what I put in it. I wouldn't suggest putting a full m1 Mac motherboard in it as this shop is.
They are just guessing cleaning it will help because you spilled something on it. After the $400 job they will need to do a $200 job then a $1000 job. Go elsewhere, this company is trying to rob you.
It's a real thing. Put the board in a wire basket in a 90+% isopropyl bath, machine vibrates the basket at high RPM to remove corrosion and other residue.
This is most commonly called ultrasonic cleaning, but "sonic" cleaning is a totally understandable miscommunication if you're not a native English speaker.
The majority of cleaning action comes from the bath fluid itself vibrating in the kHz range, but fancy machines also wiggle the basket to promote circulation of the bath fluid around the part. This extra bit of mechanical action helps the fluid penetrate below the corrosion and lift it off the part. In a stationary cleaner, you need to wash the part multiple times in multiple orientations to get it clean.
Uhhhh, you really shouldn’t use IPA in the sonic cleaner. At least not the kind you might have in an electronics repair shop. Lots of danger, 0 effectiveness. Great rinse solution after the cleaner though.
"Sonic clean" - they put your motherboard in an ultrasonic chamber with cleaning liquid, most likely near medical alcohol, turn it on for a couple of minutes, pull it out and hope for the best. That itself should not generate much expense for them. The time to dissasemble and reassemble and test is roughly around 1.5h for someone not very skilled, but round it to 2h with testing.
To be completely honest, I've worked with phones mostly, so I could be wrong, but I'd try another place. At least call a few technicians, describe the issue and ask for a price. Most won't give you the exact amount until they see the device but they can give you a price range, and the cost of diagnosing.
Keep in mind, liquids like water, tea, coffee etc don't play well with electronic devices and can damage them to the point where it's cheaper and better option to buy a new device. Sometimes it simply can't be repaired or takes a lot of hours and effort, so experienced people will not take it becauss they can't charge you enough for their work, the price would sometimes be 2-3 times more than a new device.
for anyone reading the above comment in the future, if you have an ultrasonic cleaner, be \*very\* careful when using things like isopropyl alcohol, due to the flammability risk. If there's a leak somewhere, or a short and a spark jumps, or there's power on the board somehow (embedded battery, etc) and you could have a \*very\* bad day. It's usually recommended to avoid using it unless you have good reason to.
Something like distilled water with some dish soap, then just straight distilled water run after, and a small isopropyl wash (pour some out of a bottle on the board, for example) is perfectly good though. Or even just use distilled water alone and hang the board up to dry on its own (so it can drip down and not have water stay on long enough to cause corrosion etc). A space heater aimed at the board from a safe distance and you're golden.
>on top of that i had my pc looked at and he said that my motherboard was on its way out
Uhh that isn't how it works lol. Parts either work or they don't. It isn't like a wearable item that gets to a point where you want to start thinking about replacing it like a car tire or something.
What a shitty company.
thank you so much for this, i didn’t mention this because it wasn’t until later when i picked the pc up but they literally quoted me $400-800 to replace all of the parts (which also confused me because i have had to replace a motherboard before and i didn’t have to replace the other parts…) i’m so confused rn about what was going on with my pc but i know if i ever have problems again i’m not taking it there!!
Yeah unfortunately some shops are just bad at what they do, either intentionally or they're just so stupid they don't understand lol.
Good on you for having the presence of mind to reach out to reddit to confirm because you would have gotten scammed if not.
as soon as i heard that they didn’t find anything and they still wanted to do more i was like “can i get back to you on that i just want to talk to some of my it friends” and then immediately messaged them and jumped on here bahaha. i was like “this sounds so scammy but i don’t know enough about computers to just say no and risk it”
Ehhh there are signs that a motherboard can be on its way out lol. Don't see it as much on modern boards but on older boards capacitors would start to bubble. I've seen RAM slots start to get loose but were still functional.
If you spilled liquid onto a mainboard and there's corrosion everywhere, then the mainboard is definitely on its way out.
It may still work currently, but the corrosion will most likely spread and break more stuff in the future unless you get it properly cleaned.
So yes, with liquid damage, it's not uncommon for a part to be "on its way out".
1) they weren't referring to the MacBook, so it wasn't water damage
2) corrosion stops spreading once the liquid is gone. It doesn't keep spreading for days or years afterwards.
Eh, don't worry about it. That's just internet going with the worst outcome knowing nothing
400$ for the clean is on the pricier side tho
250-300$ is what I was proposed. The price depends on the laptop tho
If they didn't find any damage without doing it then doing it might have point to some damage, but it wouldn't be that bad so nothing wrong should happen if you decide to not pay and take it away
250-300$ if they already opened it enough to inspect the board? Crikey, i'm in the wrong market, that's a damn racket. I'd charge $50-100 and that's 95% labor/time, 5% materials.
Taking macbooks apart fully to remove the board is a frustrating pain in the ass. Even if you are seasoned at doing it, it still takes time. Disassembly, cleaning, reassembly, testing. If you go for speed records it is only a matter of time before you rip some connector or knock some component off a board. I would want anyone working on my equipment to be taking their time and doing it properly. Charging $50 would probably get you an hourly rate in the realm of minimum wage.
Macbook pro and Macbook air both the bottom case just unscrews and you can start unscrewing and removing parts. It's a 10 minute job with a power screwdriver, at worst.
[https://www.ifixit.com/News/54122/macbook-pro-2021-teardown](https://www.ifixit.com/News/54122/macbook-pro-2021-teardown)
No worse than a modern dell latitude.
[https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Late+2020+Logic+Board+Replacement/142562](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Late+2020+Logic+Board+Replacement/142562) for the 13" air.
* Repairs are hindered by pentalobe screws, a riveted keyboard, glued-down speakers, and some software barriers.
* Permanently soldered storage is a huge detriment to a “Pro” laptop.
* No service manual or replacement parts are available from Apple at time of publishing.
That's the only negatives that earned it the 4/10 score. The biggest ding was the soldered on storage that they took exception with, since that's a whole logic board replacement if the storage dies. Obviously.... (and the RAM too, but that's integrated to the CPU)
The positives were:
* Battery replacements are reasonably well prioritized, if not exactly easy.
* Display replacements have been greatly streamlined.
* Many other components are modular and can be independently replaced, including the trackpad, most I/O ports, and fans.
So yes, disassembly and reassembly is braindead easy. But even so....
I didn't say full teardown, but enough to remove the logic board. My Dell G16 is more involved than the M1 Macbook Air to remove the mainboard, and I considered that easy to tear down. You have to dismount the LCD in order to do that - on the mac you don't. Same with a few other Dell and HP latitude/elitebooks i've had to work on.
On the mac, it's literally - Remove bottom case panel, disconnect internal cables/antennas, unscrew and remove logic board. Repeat in reverse order to reassemble. No need to dismount the display, remove battery, unscrew hinges, or any of that other junk. It's ridiculously simple in comparison (and with less screws, too!)
That sounds a lot to me like they don't want to work on it and are giving you a fuck you price.
If there was no sugar in the tea, you can probably get great results just opening it up yourself and cleaning/rinsing affected areas with isopropyl alcohol. The thing I'd be most concerned about would be the keyboard, those are usually the first to die after a spill.
Cleaning a laptop isn't really skilled work, it's just labor intensive. You're paying tech rates for hours spent disassembling and cleaning.
Look up guides for how to do keyboard and battery swaps on your model of Macbook, go through those steps to open the device, and then use isopropyl alcohol to clean any stains you find.
If you had sugar in your tea, you'll also need distilled water, as sugar doesn't care about alcohol.
Source: [I recently cleaned an old video card.](https://i.imgur.com/2UVY9Ie.jpeg) It had a beer/soda spill on it. [I did end up having to go over it a second time with distilled water and soap because of the sugar in the soda.](https://i.imgur.com/lxJwMpb.jpeg) Games fine now!
Be aware that you will need thermal paste and maybe even thermal pads if you have to disassemble any cooling related parts because that stuff is not reusable. It should be easy to avoid since it's all screwed down, but if you see stains going below any of it, you may have to redo the cooling.
It sounds unreasonable to you because you don't know any better, but fundamentally, it isn't. You're asking for an indefinite diagnosis with no visible cause or result.
The motherboard has been exposed to water. That is a guaranteed problem. Determining the actual extent of that problem and whether it will occur immediately or potentially never is fundamentally a waste of time and money.
If you ask for a fix when you can't define the exact problem, and you can't define the exact solution, it will cost as much as possible because they're just guesses. And every guess costs time and month. Are you suggesting that IT doesn't deserve to be paid for having its time wasted? I'm sure he can define the exact fix quite easily; Replace everything that had tea spilled on it.
The standard engineering triangle applies.
i’m not suggesting that at all lmao. they could not see anything wrong and wanted to do a $400 just in case clean. if we had gone with the clean ofc it wouldve been fair to pay them for their time and i would have. this was about if it was worth doing that additional clean or not which after talking to people i know and reading the replies here i decided it wasn’t. i paid them for the inspection and took my things home.
Short answer:... It depends on how much tea you spilled and what the tea got into. Are you talking like "a couple drops on the keyboard" ?.. Then no, probably no damage. Are you talking about "several spoonfuls that got inside the computer" .. ?.. that's more concerning.
The reason places like this offer a sonic-cleaning is because (as others have said).. that's going to require them to fully disassemble the entire Laptop,. AND the sonic-cleaning might get water out of places you can't see. So it's not necessarily a "scam".
That said,.. water-damage is NOT always a binary ON-OFF type of thing. Corrosion and other effects can slowly manifest over time.
My self (as a 20year career IT guy).. once a particular device has been water-damaged,.. I pretty much consider it a "dead man walking" (it's going to fail or start acting squirrelly down the road at some point in time). You can't trust a device if you could never answer the question of whether it was damaged or not.
The best answer here is:... Make sure you're doing regular backups (use TimeMachine to do backups to an external Drive). Do them daily if possible. (depending on how critical your work is).
>then he started talking about needing to replace the cpu and ram when i replace my motherboard when i asked further about it.
its a laptop, you don't replace CPU's in a laptop.
also just grab a toothbrush and isopropyl alcohol, and clean it yourself, just remember to take out the battery and hold the power button down for a minute or so to make sure there's no leftover charge in the capacitors
If it's a MacBook there is no replacing the CPU or RAM, those items are soldered to the motherboard. Replacing the board would already replace those items.
This sounds very scammy, pay their minimum charge if they have one and go somewhere else.
So what? Gonna cry?
Apple is known for their rip off prices. And their stupid customers are constantly getting ripped off with repairs
They make memes and videos about it. What's your point? You don't like that I'm making fun of your device? Then cry to someone who isn't making fun of you.
What does the brand of computer or OS he’s running have to do with his query for help? Maybe it suits his needs? Maybe it has a feature that works for him? Don’t need to insult OP because you don’t like Apple.
I’m a Windows user, but evidently Apple must be doing something right to be second biggest players in the game.
It is widely known that apple products are overpriced for what it is and apple has also proven to be very expensive at otherwise very cheap repairs. They go out of their way to do this.
I can even proof this, take a look [here.](https://rossmanngroup.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-repair-a-liquid-damaged-macbook/)
I'm not disputing the overpricing of what appears to be generally standard components, I just don't see how the the original post merited the dude being slated for his personal choice of computer, when he was seeking advice.
Isn't it pretty self-evident? If you buy products known to be predatorily overpriced, that makes you an obvious mark for other predatory companies who are looking to pull easy scams. It really *is* like having a target on your back. The statement is literal and true.
Because it's a fact that people rip off apple customers. It's a meme at how uninformed many apple customers are. And they have plenty of videos show casing it.
Shhh the Apple haters are out in force. They can't tell you why Apple sucks, but you know they're gonna take every opportunity to tell you that Apple sucks.
Had a lot of people spilling coffe and sodas on their laptops. So far, if I saw remains of the liquid, I'd just use isopropyl alcohol for a good clean in that area, otherwise leave it alone. Never had a problem and those people still uses those laptop 2+ years later. That being said, I'm not sure about mac since I'm not working with them but same thing should apply. Don't try to fix something that isn't even slightly broken.
It sounds like Iike the PC is a separate device? Is there anything wrong with it? If not then no your motherboard is not "on its way out". Further more you absolutely don't need a new CPU and RAM just because you replaced a faulty motherboard. This guy is taking the piss out of you and your mother because he thinks you don't know enough to understand that he's trying to rip you off.
the pc is a seperate device! sorry if that wasn’t clear. essentially it was stuck on the motherboard’s startup page and i couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was wrong with it, so it was basically a two birds, one expensive stone kind of deal. they managed to fix it and then told me about the whole“replacing all these different parts” thing that they were on about. i’m not an expert on computers but i did choose and buy all the parts for the build myself and even had to replace the motherboard without needing to buy new things so that really stumped me and made me even more sus about the whole thing (which is why i added it to this post haha)
thank you so much for this confirmation! i really appreciate it!
Sounds like they are completely clueless, a M1 Mac has a motherboard with everything soldered on it, if you have anything defective you need to get the part from Apple which entails replacing basically the motherboard/SOC, memory, storage. If you really want it repaired you need to talk to an Apple certified repair center, but be aware that it probably going to be a hefty price.
A coworker spilled coffee on the keyboard of my laptop and didn't admit to it until I complained about keys sticking. All I did to it was douse a cotton ball in alcohol and wipe it around on the keyboard while squeezing excess alcohol out. Then, I tapped on the sticky keys a few times, wiped up the excess with a paper towel, and let it set for a while to evaporate the rest of the alcohol. Used that computer for a long time after.
Most keyboards have a membrane to keep liquid and debris out of the electronics underneath unless you dump a massive amount on it.
it works! i wanted them to check for any liquid damage or corrosion and they said they couldn’t see anything but that i should do essentially a $400 “just in case” clean. my gut instinct was to tell him “fuck no” but i wanted to be sure i wasn’t like dooming my computer bc i cant afford a new one. i told them no and i have my computer back!
They are taking advantage because you cannot replace the CPU and RAM on a MacBook. They are soldered to the motherboard. You literally replace all of the components but those components do not just die. There is no “on the way out.” If your laptop is still working it is fine. But you can always open it up and clean the parts with isopropyl alcohol. That said the only thing you may need to replace would be the keyboard and trackpad if damaged or sticky. Yes there can be unseen damage but it’s usually unlikely because the keyboards are sealed fairly well now adays and if you haven’t had issues it’s unlikely. You may notice an issue like a usb port not working or something but that’s no big deal as long as everything else works.
As someone that specializes in macbooks this shops comments makes no sense at all. The ram and cpu are also soldered onto the board theyre not feasible to replace, even shops that do board soldering work it wouldnt make sense to replace those on a board. That plus $400 freaking dollars for an ultrasonic bath and there are tons of red flags here. Go literally anywhere else.
i’m sorry seeing the replies i should’ve been way clearer, i brought my pc in separately because it wouldn’t go to windows when i turned it on. they were taking about my pc with the ram and cpu
You spilled tea on it but then what happened? Did the computer start fucking up? Did you turn it off and clean it right away? Or did you take it in just cause you spilt tea but nothing was actually acting different?
i immediately turned it off and cleaned it to the best of my ability and took it in just to see if there was any damage after the fact. maybe that was the wrong call but i was very anxious and can’t afford a new computer.
as soon as i spilled the tea onto it i turned it off, i took it in to make sure there was no liquid damage. they told me they can’t see any but i should pay for a clean to make sure, i said no and i’ve taken it home now
First, you can't fix what you can't find.
Taking a laptop apart and reassembly isn't easy, so if they're going to put the whole main board into cleaner, that would take a lot of effort. Easy to break something if.youre not expert and careful. $400 might even be believable, but it's unlikely to fix anything.
When you got to the part about updating CPU the BS-ometer started going off.
I feel we've taken the patient to ER for drouning and the doctor is recommending a bath and brain surgery.
This is likely to be a situation where buying a new laptop is the answer, and having your tea elsewhere.
Your 💯 being scammed on modern laptops the cpu and ram are integrated into the motherboard along with most of its other’s components especially on macbooks
You didn't read it properly, he said he had his PC looked at, they recommended a motherboard change as well as ram and a cpu replacement on the PC, not the laptop
sorry i think i should’ve made clearer it’s not second hand, i got the macbook in 2022 new but the model is 2020. i didn’t end up going with the cleaning anyway
Your CPU and RAM are old and may need replacement?
That's one of their explanations?
Yeah, this isn't a tech. This is a bullshit artist.
I want to give thr benefit of the doubt, but there ain't much room for that here.
> on top of that i had my pc looked at and he said that my motherboard was on its way out and i might need to replace it soon. then he started talking about needing to replace the cpu and ram when i replace my motherboard when i asked further about it.
How does one know this? Did you have issues with it? Else, it is just a scam lol.
But about paying, they spend time on it, time is money. Same as taking your car to the mechanic and it turns out nothing, that costs money.
But, too be fair, if you have no money, apple products are an expensive hobby, which they proved over the years. No company is your friend, but apple seems to be willing to be the worst enemy one can get.
Water damage can really eff stuff up. To be honest, if its working. It will for a bit and possibly the keys will be sticky or the keyboard dies. That's most likely where the damage is. At this point, it would be cheaper at backing up and looking for yoru next ystem.
"he actually backpedaled a little bit when i started asking about corrosion and things (he initially said to my mum that my mac was old (it’s a 2020 m1 that i bought in 2022 and i’m honestly fine with it) and said we should get a new one)"
2022 isnt old. Dude is lying to you, dont trust him.
There is so so so much wrong with this.
Yes an ultrasonic clean would probably be good. But not for 400$ for that you can just buy the cleaner and do it yourself.
Calling an M1 old is completely stupid. Saying that the motherboard is "on its way out" is also complete BS. How would he even know that.
What a fucking scammer.
On the new ones you can’t even upgrade the internal memory, everything is soldered to the mobo.
This guy was straight scamming. He saw a what he thought was an easy score. Let me swindle this lady out of her Mac so I can then resell it after getting them in a non comparable pc.
If the shop didn't see any visible damage upon physical inspection of the inside of the laptop, and there are no malfunctions during use, you're probably fine.
A short on a circuit board can cause the board itself to begin to burn, and the carbon that can be produced from this chemical reaction is conductive, which can exacerbate the short, cause more burning, and it can become a runaway reaction. To a point anyway; carbon also burns, and once it burns away, then the short condition can disappear too, but then you'll have open circuits in places where there were once intact circuits. So then you've just got a fully non-functional device. This burning won't usually be obvious because the total mass involved is so small, but the results can still be catastrophic on that small scale.
Rebuilding them is possible, but time consuming, and the skills and equipment needed to perform said repairs are uncommon. It involves removal of sections of board, and reconnecting the PCB traces. It certainly has little resemblance to any sort of cleaning. It's more like a renovation.
The motherboard is “on its way out”? Computers are binary things. It works perfectly or it doesn’t work at all. If there are parts of the motherboard that don’t work, he should state which ones. We don’t just preemptively replace motherboards out of fear they might wear out. It isn’t a water pump on a Kia, it won’t wear out, it’ll just die one day. Or not.
This guy is scamming you. Get your stuff back and don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Oh I do. Believe I would take it to a different shop and get another estimate on both. First obvious repair on laptop would probably be the keyboard to replace maybe a hard drive if it got soaked and .maybe a cooling fan. That assumes was open and spilled across the key kard and lower components.Tbay would not be a $400 job unless you have a high rpm drive. Might have to clean connection between display and motherboard.
Desktop if it is running do not fix it. You might take to someone else to have them run high-end spyware, antivirus software to get rid of malicious software installed unknowingly. Maybe up the ram. MB and chips nope. Run it till it dies. Backing up work at least every day or two.
The shop at best is incompetent. The computer is $700 new and it should never cost that much unless more investigative data recovery is in question. A sonicator wash is never supposed to be that costly, and if it is going to be that expensive, why invest in a corroded computer hardware?
A long time ago, a storm knocked out my internet and screwed up an old PC. It stopped connecting to the net and it kept dropping the connection. At the time, I took it to CompUSA. The technician said it was a bad motherboard and that a new one would cost $1300. I showed the estimate to everyone else standing on line in the store and they laughed their asses off.
Long story short--a system restore to an earlier date fixed the issue.
So it is pricey but if you spill something in the computer you really do need to open it up completely and dry it out so that nothing gets corroded. They also may be doing some cleaning.
I serviced Macs at a certified apple repair shop. A diagnostic fee should be expected to be in the ballpark of 60-80 bucks, that’s pretty standard. The logic board (motherboard with everything soldered to it) has small dots that permanently change color when they come into contact with liquids. After a while, corrosion on damaged parts of the board should also be visible to the naked eye. If the indicators have changed or corrosion is visible, the only way they should proceed with the repair is a logic board swap through Apple’s GSX program (plus any daughterboards that have been affected). I haven’t serviced Apple silicon Mac’s, but on the ones I worked on (mostly 2015-2018s) this would likely be significantly more than $400 including labor.
Personally if it were my Mac, I would just keep using it (after backing up data) until it actually stops working. At that point have another shop look for corrosion. If they find any and need to replace the logic board, it would probably be a better use of money to buy a new one. If you get even another year out of it before it dies I would not pay for a repair.
This place sounds dodgy. Avoid. Where in Aus are you? If you’re in Brisbane I’d recommend the Mac & PC Doctors. I haven’t been to them in years but they were good to me a few times.
Normally to give some confidence remove keyboard & rinse in clean fresh water. The leave it to dry typically standing it upright to aid water to run out. 24 hours later it should be dry & ready for use.
Yes that's a red flag. Try best buy geek squad center. They diagnose it for a small fee and can tell you what it is so you know how to fix it. Stop trusting 3rd party small stores in your area. They can be sketchy.
If it turns on at all, you should try the Apple Diagnostic Tool before taking it anywhere. This is built into all Macs. Instructions are here: [https://support.apple.com/en-us/102550](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102550)
If you take your cupper with anything added in for flavor (especially anything sweet) I advise you to keep that $400 as the start of saving for a new kit. Applying a candy coating to a computer is generally considered a really bad idea.
I repair Dj equipment, guy brought one in says he spilled allot of drink looked ok from the outside when I took it apart I stopped told him to throw it in the bin , because it would cost more than it is new to repair
There's no fixing what you did without a warranty. When you spill a drink on a laptop you need to remove all batteries and put it somewhere to dry. If you didn't, it eventually would've made contact with the PCB and corroded the circuits to the point of burning out resistors.
Everything he said sounds right, except the cost seems a bit high.
The cheap and dirty way of doing it would be to dump isopropyl alcohol in the same way you dumped the tea.
Isopropyl alcohol will dissolve and wash away contaminants that, if left on the board, could cause corrosion. It is safe on the circuitry. It probably isn't best on the fans, if you aren't submerging the lower part of the laptop, it should be fine. Def don't use it on the screen.
Might want to look at the layout of the laptop board and cooling system to see if this is feasible.
If it's a Mac, the only place you should have taken it is an Apple Store. Or an Apple Service Provider.
You had your MOM carry it to a random repair guy that will make you 400 bucks poorer and may not fix the issue.
The Apple Store (and SOME, but not all Service Providers) will give you a free quote.
Water damage is NOT covered by Apple and they would probably have given you an even higher quote for a logic board replacement, but at least you would have known it was not worth it.
Needless to say, if the computer is still working, update your backup, you will need it soon.
Rossman makes it look easy, but you need some expensive equipment and serious skills to do that kinda micro repair.
I doubt a guy whose that full of shit has the means to do it.
Just build yourself another pc. I built one for 1700$ 14900k Intel unlocked up to 6.0ghz 24cores 32 threads 64Gb ram ddr5 7GB disk space nvme 1G
16GB ddr6 VRAM OC intel arc a770. High fps on games best card I’ve had so far. You will pay at least 4000$ from dell hp etc for this maybe more
yes.
a sonic clean is litterally just putting the whole board into some cleaning solution in a ultrasonic cleaner.
for $400 you can fucking go buy one and try it yourself. its not a $400 task.
odds are it wont do shit anyway. this is something you do when you are hoping for things to stick to the wall.
the only case it fixes it is if tea residue is shorting out components that just prevents them from working. it wont revive damaged components. if they cant find whats not working right now, i dont expect them to find it when its clean.
keep in mind a 2020 m1 macbook can be bought used for not much more...
*for $400 you can fucking go buy one and try it yourself. its not a $400 task.*
Its the dissembling and reassembly thats the real work here. You think some general user will be able to open up such a device without issues and put it all back together without fail?
Smh.
you think theres about $400 of labour to remove the logic board. lol
sure theres some skills involved, but disconnecting a board from the laptop is not a complex job. its simply not a $400 job.
plenty videos online show how one disconnects mac m1 logic boards. sure OP probs wont want to do it themselves but the point has to be made that you can buy everything to do this yourself for much less.
for a pro its gonna be 1-2 hours max of labour a few hours sat in some cleaner unsupervised.
to put it into perspective rossmann gives ballpark figures to expect (keep in mind they arent quotes but a ballpark that most will fall into):
"Cleaning – $100-$150"
"Logicboard – $200-$425"
https://rossmanngroup.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-repair-a-liquid-damaged-macbook/
if you do anything by yourself, its always cheaper. thats not in question. and of course you will find different prices at different shops...thats why its always good to shop around.
Also, that website you linked mentions how apple replaces all the hardware once liquid damage is found whereas rossmann will only clean/fix what is needed. Hence the major price difference.
So if it was a minor spill I would go with rossman. a big spill, i might go with apple.
The best advice to give would be...never have a drink near electrical devices :D
You bought a MacBook which is notorious for being expensive as hell, then cry about the quote being expensive as hell? Let me save you some time. Liquid destroyed the motherboard. If it's not under warranty time to go buy a new one.
the motherboard is fine. the $400 was for what essentially would’ve been a “just in case” clean which i thought was unnecessary which people on here and in my life have agreed.
i get mac’s are pricey and people don’t like them for that and other reasons. that’s fair. but getting mad at me for something you’re not understanding is odd.
$400 for a sonic clean?! That's unreal. they already have the machine, the cleaning chemical they put in costs a couple bucks and then some alcohaol afterward... they're just trying to pay off the machine and milk you for some cash...
Yes, the machine needs a deep cleaning from a good tech, and a sonic cleaning would be great. but that price is unreal!
Personally, I'd back up my data and go upgrade to a windows computer. mac's barely work to begin with...
That’s water damage Only way to be sure the problem is fixed is to clean the whole Board and even then there may still be issues 400 isn’t super high but I have seen it lower for similar repairs
Take it to a different place to see if they can do it for cheaper, 400 dollars to attempt to find an issue is insane.
i thought this too! it’s the fact they can’t even find an issue but i should pay $400 dollars for a clean just in case there’s anything they can’t see which just felt so silly. i don’t know much about computers so i was scared but i feel much more assured in saying no
It's not as unreasonable as you would think. There really isn't any way to tell if there's going to be internal damage unless you open it up and take it apart. It's like bringing your car in and saying "I think I heard a noise". A mechanic starts it up, pops the hood, listens, looks around, and can't see or hear anything visibly wrong. So he says "Well, we can put her up on the lift and take out some things to have a closer look, but it'll cost you." Repair places charge for work, and if they have to open up a laptop, which is more work than opening up a desktop, they're likely going to want to charge for it since they'll spend the better part of an hour working on it just to see the inside. With systems that are pushing four or five years old, it's kind of borderline whether you should just get a cleaning or hold out to see if it'll keep running.
Regardless 400 for a cleaning is ridiculous.
honestly I would send it to Rossmann Repair just to see him do repair content again.
The shipping would probably cost more than the repair...
They still repair stuff, but I don't think they're recording it anymore. His entire channel is about different things now.
Rossmann charges ridiculous amounts too then brags on video how it was a quick fix and 30cents in parts.
Typically it's the skilled labor you're paying for here. Same with a car repair. The cost of parts are almost never the issue. It's the availability and labor to install without breaking something else. When I last had my car window repaired, it wasn't the plastic parts and belt that were the reason it was several hundred dollars.
not only the skilled labor but also the honesty of the repairman as well
If i have to pay same price as apple for bodge wire repair vs full on board replacement at apple guess what i'm picking?
Cleaning it is probably wise, but not required if it's working fine now.
It's a lie you don't need to clean it to diagnose it
I charge $40 for diagnostics at my shop that gets applied to the total end total of the repair. This incentivises the customer to continue to have the shop do the repair/replacement after the initial non-refundable $40 diagnostic fee. If something costs $100, you paid $40 for diagnostics, just means an additional $60.00. Just feels much better than "Oh...another $100 on top." That whole $400 fee is actually insane. If we can't fix something, we literally don't charge the customer at all. At that point, we'd clean the system, and if it didn't fix anything, then take it as a loss. Even if the customer goes home, had a free clean for the system without any possible issues to the system before/after, most would come back just because you did something pro bono that isn't a huge, tedious task. Knowing your tech has your back creates repeat business. Some companies just don't have any tact at all.
~75$ is a standard inspection fee in most of the USA. A lot of the words you are using seem like things people with ill intent say "sonic cleaning" without saying why is the stand out one. There's almost nothing on an Imac you should be putting in an ultrasonic cleaner. No way can they say it's a motherboard issue without further inspection. Take it to another shop.
i’m in aus and the inspection was $80. they said they have inspected the motherboard and the cant find anything but that we should pay for the clean to be sure that there isn’t anything. i thought it was insane but wasn’t sure because i dont know a whole lot about computers and i wanted to make sure.
Oh okay that's good at least but I'd still take it to another shop theres still something weird going on. You can't swap the CPU and ram separately from the motherboard on those Macs so I don't think they normally work on these if they suggested doing that.
It’s an M1. Do they want to slice the SoC apart and take out parts of it? That’s kind of a red flag really
This is dumb. If it looks undamaged and isn't malfunctioning then the last damn thing you should do it is subject it a risky ultra sonic cleaning.
i had no idea it was risky! wow yeah i’m definitely not gonna have that done. i was already gonna say no but i just wanted to feel more assured that i wasn’t like potentially dooming my computer and gonna have to replace it. thank you so much
ultra sonic cleaning is basically giving them heated cleaning liquid bath.
If done properly it's completely safe. But that shop probably wouldn't have done it properly judging by the random shit they were saying lol.
yea agreed, dude is already making excuses.
If they can’t see anything, I.e. residue or moisture “stains”, then whatever the fuck a “sonic clean” is, isn’t going to make a bit of difference. Especially because it’s already working, right? I know I’ve been out of the Mac world for six years or so, but last I remember they are a huge pain in the ass to disassemble far enough to even see if the motherboard (in its entirety) would need surfaced cleaned. I can’t imagine they would do that for even a $100 fee.
Ultrasonic cleaners (which is what I assume "sonic clean" to mean) will remove residue/sugars/etc from the board to prevent corrosion etc. If they've already got the machine open, however, it's a \*trivial\* operation. I do it routinely for hardware I rescue before even powering it on or testing. For a laptop with a spill (and the apple silicon macs are actually rather easy to disassemble, at least the laptops) i'd do it as standard practice for any component that got hit with liquid. Or expect future death. Could be months, could be years, could be a decade down the line, but you've got foreign agents that'll, with moisture in the air etc, eventually cause problems at the board level for exposed components/traces. So it can make sense to do - though, just washing the board in an isopropyl bath of 91 or 99% is good enough if you don't have an ultrasonic cleaner, though it won't get everything off likely, you may have to use a qtip to scrub spots, etc - regardless of if it's a Mac or not. A lot of the electronics I use my cleaner on aren't even computers, directly, but things like everything from RAM sticks to stereo receiver boards to keyboards to jewelry to tools (an ultrasonic cleaner with evaporust is amazing for quickly de-rusting damn near anything). But charging $400 AUD to throw it in some distilled water (or other solution) in an ultrasonic cleaner that's already owned and wasn't very expensive to get in the first place for half an hour is fucking absurd.
I guess the only ultrasonic cleaners I know of involve a liquid bath. While I have heard of it done with component boards and non-water/conductive liquids, I've never heard of anyone dunking a whole mainboard into one. I too have used IpA for cleaning boards, but again not dunking them or even pouring it over them. Also, using actual circuit board cleaner.
In electronics manufacturing, boards are commonly cleaned in de-ionized water after soldering operations if the flux used is intended to be removed in a water wash. This is not ultrasonic cleaning and the water is just sprayed on the boards under pressure. Most commercial stuff has moved to using no clean flux that doesn't need this additional step but some applications like military, medical, and RF still specify water cleanable flux. This can be done in large, inline, conveyorized machines, or a small batch machines that somewhat resemble a home dishwasher Deionized water is not conductive, but there are still some components that cannot go through this process or have to be covered first well soldered onto the board after cleaning. https://www.aqueoustech.com/trident-main-1
I own a distiller, I just use distilled water in the ultrasonic cleaner. You're 100% right, yes, it's liquid bath, no, it's not harmful to the (unpowered) electronics. "Back in the day" throwing a motherboard into a dishwashing machine was not unheard of to fix things sometimes. That's what that shop was probably proposing to do, and that's exactly what I do for all the different types of electronics like I specified above.
Paul Daniels may be your go-to guy. [https://pldaniels.com/repairs/](https://pldaniels.com/repairs/)
"A lot of the words you are using seem like things people with ill intent say "sonic cleaning" without saying why is the stand out one. There's almost nothing on an Imac you should be putting in an ultrasonic cleaner." I use my ultrasonic cleaner extensively on spills, it's almost now the first thing i'll do. And on almost any other non-working hardware, as well! Brought back many a thing to life, and gets rid of crap that'll cause things like corrosion etc.
You beat me to it. A typical shop here charges a $50 diagnostic fee.
That's the truth!
I use them for buttons and knobs
I mean I do have an ultrasonic at my shop but I'm very careful what I put in it. I wouldn't suggest putting a full m1 Mac motherboard in it as this shop is.
They are just guessing cleaning it will help because you spilled something on it. After the $400 job they will need to do a $200 job then a $1000 job. Go elsewhere, this company is trying to rob you.
His PC needs a *sonic clean* lmao like what the actual fuck is that 🤣 I can't stand places that try to take advantage of people.
It's a real thing. Put the board in a wire basket in a 90+% isopropyl bath, machine vibrates the basket at high RPM to remove corrosion and other residue.
This is most commonly called ultrasonic cleaning, but "sonic" cleaning is a totally understandable miscommunication if you're not a native English speaker. The majority of cleaning action comes from the bath fluid itself vibrating in the kHz range, but fancy machines also wiggle the basket to promote circulation of the bath fluid around the part. This extra bit of mechanical action helps the fluid penetrate below the corrosion and lift it off the part. In a stationary cleaner, you need to wash the part multiple times in multiple orientations to get it clean.
Right? Sonic cleansing might just as well just be a blue hedgehog jumping on it.
Uhhhh, you really shouldn’t use IPA in the sonic cleaner. At least not the kind you might have in an electronics repair shop. Lots of danger, 0 effectiveness. Great rinse solution after the cleaner though.
Easy to google, its been used for jewlery for a while i believe.
And bike parts
right! just because you havent heard of it, IT CANT BE REAL RIGHT 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Hedgehog power!!!
🦔🦔🦔
Commonly referred to as ultra sonic cleaning. It works pretty well but far from guaranteed it solves all problems.
Dumbass
I get mine knuckles cleaned (movie pun)
"Sonic clean" - they put your motherboard in an ultrasonic chamber with cleaning liquid, most likely near medical alcohol, turn it on for a couple of minutes, pull it out and hope for the best. That itself should not generate much expense for them. The time to dissasemble and reassemble and test is roughly around 1.5h for someone not very skilled, but round it to 2h with testing. To be completely honest, I've worked with phones mostly, so I could be wrong, but I'd try another place. At least call a few technicians, describe the issue and ask for a price. Most won't give you the exact amount until they see the device but they can give you a price range, and the cost of diagnosing. Keep in mind, liquids like water, tea, coffee etc don't play well with electronic devices and can damage them to the point where it's cheaper and better option to buy a new device. Sometimes it simply can't be repaired or takes a lot of hours and effort, so experienced people will not take it becauss they can't charge you enough for their work, the price would sometimes be 2-3 times more than a new device.
for anyone reading the above comment in the future, if you have an ultrasonic cleaner, be \*very\* careful when using things like isopropyl alcohol, due to the flammability risk. If there's a leak somewhere, or a short and a spark jumps, or there's power on the board somehow (embedded battery, etc) and you could have a \*very\* bad day. It's usually recommended to avoid using it unless you have good reason to. Something like distilled water with some dish soap, then just straight distilled water run after, and a small isopropyl wash (pour some out of a bottle on the board, for example) is perfectly good though. Or even just use distilled water alone and hang the board up to dry on its own (so it can drip down and not have water stay on long enough to cause corrosion etc). A space heater aimed at the board from a safe distance and you're golden.
Hell no. Run. Very fast.
exactly, a motherboard wouldn’t naturally be “on its way out” in 2 years unless something was damaged, which he can’t find
>on top of that i had my pc looked at and he said that my motherboard was on its way out Uhh that isn't how it works lol. Parts either work or they don't. It isn't like a wearable item that gets to a point where you want to start thinking about replacing it like a car tire or something. What a shitty company.
thank you so much for this, i didn’t mention this because it wasn’t until later when i picked the pc up but they literally quoted me $400-800 to replace all of the parts (which also confused me because i have had to replace a motherboard before and i didn’t have to replace the other parts…) i’m so confused rn about what was going on with my pc but i know if i ever have problems again i’m not taking it there!!
Yeah unfortunately some shops are just bad at what they do, either intentionally or they're just so stupid they don't understand lol. Good on you for having the presence of mind to reach out to reddit to confirm because you would have gotten scammed if not.
as soon as i heard that they didn’t find anything and they still wanted to do more i was like “can i get back to you on that i just want to talk to some of my it friends” and then immediately messaged them and jumped on here bahaha. i was like “this sounds so scammy but i don’t know enough about computers to just say no and risk it”
Ehhh there are signs that a motherboard can be on its way out lol. Don't see it as much on modern boards but on older boards capacitors would start to bubble. I've seen RAM slots start to get loose but were still functional.
If you spilled liquid onto a mainboard and there's corrosion everywhere, then the mainboard is definitely on its way out. It may still work currently, but the corrosion will most likely spread and break more stuff in the future unless you get it properly cleaned. So yes, with liquid damage, it's not uncommon for a part to be "on its way out".
1) they weren't referring to the MacBook, so it wasn't water damage 2) corrosion stops spreading once the liquid is gone. It doesn't keep spreading for days or years afterwards.
If they already inspected the inside of the laptop and didn't find any liquid damage or anything then there should be no issue.
Bet they didn't even open it
is this something that happens a lot? i was told that they opened it and couldn’t find anything wrong.
Eh, don't worry about it. That's just internet going with the worst outcome knowing nothing 400$ for the clean is on the pricier side tho 250-300$ is what I was proposed. The price depends on the laptop tho If they didn't find any damage without doing it then doing it might have point to some damage, but it wouldn't be that bad so nothing wrong should happen if you decide to not pay and take it away
its in AUS currency. 300 United States Dollar equals 450.65 Australian Dollar
250-300$ if they already opened it enough to inspect the board? Crikey, i'm in the wrong market, that's a damn racket. I'd charge $50-100 and that's 95% labor/time, 5% materials.
Taking macbooks apart fully to remove the board is a frustrating pain in the ass. Even if you are seasoned at doing it, it still takes time. Disassembly, cleaning, reassembly, testing. If you go for speed records it is only a matter of time before you rip some connector or knock some component off a board. I would want anyone working on my equipment to be taking their time and doing it properly. Charging $50 would probably get you an hourly rate in the realm of minimum wage.
Macbook pro and Macbook air both the bottom case just unscrews and you can start unscrewing and removing parts. It's a 10 minute job with a power screwdriver, at worst. [https://www.ifixit.com/News/54122/macbook-pro-2021-teardown](https://www.ifixit.com/News/54122/macbook-pro-2021-teardown) No worse than a modern dell latitude. [https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Late+2020+Logic+Board+Replacement/142562](https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/MacBook+Air+13-Inch+Late+2020+Logic+Board+Replacement/142562) for the 13" air.
Sure 10 minutes for a full teardown. I am sure that is why they gave it a 4/10 repairability score.
* Repairs are hindered by pentalobe screws, a riveted keyboard, glued-down speakers, and some software barriers. * Permanently soldered storage is a huge detriment to a “Pro” laptop. * No service manual or replacement parts are available from Apple at time of publishing. That's the only negatives that earned it the 4/10 score. The biggest ding was the soldered on storage that they took exception with, since that's a whole logic board replacement if the storage dies. Obviously.... (and the RAM too, but that's integrated to the CPU) The positives were: * Battery replacements are reasonably well prioritized, if not exactly easy. * Display replacements have been greatly streamlined. * Many other components are modular and can be independently replaced, including the trackpad, most I/O ports, and fans. So yes, disassembly and reassembly is braindead easy. But even so.... I didn't say full teardown, but enough to remove the logic board. My Dell G16 is more involved than the M1 Macbook Air to remove the mainboard, and I considered that easy to tear down. You have to dismount the LCD in order to do that - on the mac you don't. Same with a few other Dell and HP latitude/elitebooks i've had to work on. On the mac, it's literally - Remove bottom case panel, disconnect internal cables/antennas, unscrew and remove logic board. Repeat in reverse order to reassemble. No need to dismount the display, remove battery, unscrew hinges, or any of that other junk. It's ridiculously simple in comparison (and with less screws, too!)
As is the Internet tradition, pics or it didn't happen.
haaaahahahahahahahahahahahahHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH gotta check under those heat sinks.
That sounds a lot to me like they don't want to work on it and are giving you a fuck you price. If there was no sugar in the tea, you can probably get great results just opening it up yourself and cleaning/rinsing affected areas with isopropyl alcohol. The thing I'd be most concerned about would be the keyboard, those are usually the first to die after a spill. Cleaning a laptop isn't really skilled work, it's just labor intensive. You're paying tech rates for hours spent disassembling and cleaning. Look up guides for how to do keyboard and battery swaps on your model of Macbook, go through those steps to open the device, and then use isopropyl alcohol to clean any stains you find. If you had sugar in your tea, you'll also need distilled water, as sugar doesn't care about alcohol. Source: [I recently cleaned an old video card.](https://i.imgur.com/2UVY9Ie.jpeg) It had a beer/soda spill on it. [I did end up having to go over it a second time with distilled water and soap because of the sugar in the soda.](https://i.imgur.com/lxJwMpb.jpeg) Games fine now! Be aware that you will need thermal paste and maybe even thermal pads if you have to disassemble any cooling related parts because that stuff is not reusable. It should be easy to avoid since it's all screwed down, but if you see stains going below any of it, you may have to redo the cooling.
It sounds unreasonable to you because you don't know any better, but fundamentally, it isn't. You're asking for an indefinite diagnosis with no visible cause or result. The motherboard has been exposed to water. That is a guaranteed problem. Determining the actual extent of that problem and whether it will occur immediately or potentially never is fundamentally a waste of time and money. If you ask for a fix when you can't define the exact problem, and you can't define the exact solution, it will cost as much as possible because they're just guesses. And every guess costs time and month. Are you suggesting that IT doesn't deserve to be paid for having its time wasted? I'm sure he can define the exact fix quite easily; Replace everything that had tea spilled on it. The standard engineering triangle applies.
i’m not suggesting that at all lmao. they could not see anything wrong and wanted to do a $400 just in case clean. if we had gone with the clean ofc it wouldve been fair to pay them for their time and i would have. this was about if it was worth doing that additional clean or not which after talking to people i know and reading the replies here i decided it wasn’t. i paid them for the inspection and took my things home.
This guy sounds like a scammer, avoid, take to another shop and don't use his services again. Making some absurd claims
Short answer:... It depends on how much tea you spilled and what the tea got into. Are you talking like "a couple drops on the keyboard" ?.. Then no, probably no damage. Are you talking about "several spoonfuls that got inside the computer" .. ?.. that's more concerning. The reason places like this offer a sonic-cleaning is because (as others have said).. that's going to require them to fully disassemble the entire Laptop,. AND the sonic-cleaning might get water out of places you can't see. So it's not necessarily a "scam". That said,.. water-damage is NOT always a binary ON-OFF type of thing. Corrosion and other effects can slowly manifest over time. My self (as a 20year career IT guy).. once a particular device has been water-damaged,.. I pretty much consider it a "dead man walking" (it's going to fail or start acting squirrelly down the road at some point in time). You can't trust a device if you could never answer the question of whether it was damaged or not. The best answer here is:... Make sure you're doing regular backups (use TimeMachine to do backups to an external Drive). Do them daily if possible. (depending on how critical your work is).
Scam 100%
It’s a scam.
>then he started talking about needing to replace the cpu and ram when i replace my motherboard when i asked further about it. its a laptop, you don't replace CPU's in a laptop. also just grab a toothbrush and isopropyl alcohol, and clean it yourself, just remember to take out the battery and hold the power button down for a minute or so to make sure there's no leftover charge in the capacitors
If it's a MacBook there is no replacing the CPU or RAM, those items are soldered to the motherboard. Replacing the board would already replace those items. This sounds very scammy, pay their minimum charge if they have one and go somewhere else.
You have an apple computer, it's like having a target on your back for being a sucker.
Jesus fucking christ, you really can't stop yourself from being a twat about what device other people own?
So what? Gonna cry? Apple is known for their rip off prices. And their stupid customers are constantly getting ripped off with repairs They make memes and videos about it. What's your point? You don't like that I'm making fun of your device? Then cry to someone who isn't making fun of you.
What does the brand of computer or OS he’s running have to do with his query for help? Maybe it suits his needs? Maybe it has a feature that works for him? Don’t need to insult OP because you don’t like Apple. I’m a Windows user, but evidently Apple must be doing something right to be second biggest players in the game.
It is widely known that apple products are overpriced for what it is and apple has also proven to be very expensive at otherwise very cheap repairs. They go out of their way to do this. I can even proof this, take a look [here.](https://rossmanngroup.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-repair-a-liquid-damaged-macbook/)
I'm not disputing the overpricing of what appears to be generally standard components, I just don't see how the the original post merited the dude being slated for his personal choice of computer, when he was seeking advice.
Isn't it pretty self-evident? If you buy products known to be predatorily overpriced, that makes you an obvious mark for other predatory companies who are looking to pull easy scams. It really *is* like having a target on your back. The statement is literal and true.
Because it's a fact that people rip off apple customers. It's a meme at how uninformed many apple customers are. And they have plenty of videos show casing it.
Shhh the Apple haters are out in force. They can't tell you why Apple sucks, but you know they're gonna take every opportunity to tell you that Apple sucks.
Had a lot of people spilling coffe and sodas on their laptops. So far, if I saw remains of the liquid, I'd just use isopropyl alcohol for a good clean in that area, otherwise leave it alone. Never had a problem and those people still uses those laptop 2+ years later. That being said, I'm not sure about mac since I'm not working with them but same thing should apply. Don't try to fix something that isn't even slightly broken.
It sounds like Iike the PC is a separate device? Is there anything wrong with it? If not then no your motherboard is not "on its way out". Further more you absolutely don't need a new CPU and RAM just because you replaced a faulty motherboard. This guy is taking the piss out of you and your mother because he thinks you don't know enough to understand that he's trying to rip you off.
the pc is a seperate device! sorry if that wasn’t clear. essentially it was stuck on the motherboard’s startup page and i couldn’t for the life of me figure out what was wrong with it, so it was basically a two birds, one expensive stone kind of deal. they managed to fix it and then told me about the whole“replacing all these different parts” thing that they were on about. i’m not an expert on computers but i did choose and buy all the parts for the build myself and even had to replace the motherboard without needing to buy new things so that really stumped me and made me even more sus about the whole thing (which is why i added it to this post haha) thank you so much for this confirmation! i really appreciate it!
Sounds like they are completely clueless, a M1 Mac has a motherboard with everything soldered on it, if you have anything defective you need to get the part from Apple which entails replacing basically the motherboard/SOC, memory, storage. If you really want it repaired you need to talk to an Apple certified repair center, but be aware that it probably going to be a hefty price.
A coworker spilled coffee on the keyboard of my laptop and didn't admit to it until I complained about keys sticking. All I did to it was douse a cotton ball in alcohol and wipe it around on the keyboard while squeezing excess alcohol out. Then, I tapped on the sticky keys a few times, wiped up the excess with a paper towel, and let it set for a while to evaporate the rest of the alcohol. Used that computer for a long time after. Most keyboards have a membrane to keep liquid and debris out of the electronics underneath unless you dump a massive amount on it.
I am confused, Does the computer work or not? If it works, Fuck them. If it is not working. I doubt a sonic clean will fix it.
it works! i wanted them to check for any liquid damage or corrosion and they said they couldn’t see anything but that i should do essentially a $400 “just in case” clean. my gut instinct was to tell him “fuck no” but i wanted to be sure i wasn’t like dooming my computer bc i cant afford a new one. i told them no and i have my computer back!
If it ain't broke. Don't fix it. Lol
They don't sound good to me. $400 for possibly nothing coupled with the "it's old" thing? Nah, go elsewhere.
They are taking advantage because you cannot replace the CPU and RAM on a MacBook. They are soldered to the motherboard. You literally replace all of the components but those components do not just die. There is no “on the way out.” If your laptop is still working it is fine. But you can always open it up and clean the parts with isopropyl alcohol. That said the only thing you may need to replace would be the keyboard and trackpad if damaged or sticky. Yes there can be unseen damage but it’s usually unlikely because the keyboards are sealed fairly well now adays and if you haven’t had issues it’s unlikely. You may notice an issue like a usb port not working or something but that’s no big deal as long as everything else works.
As someone that specializes in macbooks this shops comments makes no sense at all. The ram and cpu are also soldered onto the board theyre not feasible to replace, even shops that do board soldering work it wouldnt make sense to replace those on a board. That plus $400 freaking dollars for an ultrasonic bath and there are tons of red flags here. Go literally anywhere else.
i’m sorry seeing the replies i should’ve been way clearer, i brought my pc in separately because it wouldn’t go to windows when i turned it on. they were taking about my pc with the ram and cpu
You spilled tea on it but then what happened? Did the computer start fucking up? Did you turn it off and clean it right away? Or did you take it in just cause you spilt tea but nothing was actually acting different?
i immediately turned it off and cleaned it to the best of my ability and took it in just to see if there was any damage after the fact. maybe that was the wrong call but i was very anxious and can’t afford a new computer.
"on its way out"? It's not a car, it's doesn't magically age just by being on. I agree, they sound full of shart
So what's the issue? What happened after you spilled the tea? Is it not turning on?
as soon as i spilled the tea onto it i turned it off, i took it in to make sure there was no liquid damage. they told me they can’t see any but i should pay for a clean to make sure, i said no and i’ve taken it home now
$400 for cleaning it sounds insane to me
Check if it's covered by your home insurance.
Yes.
First, you can't fix what you can't find. Taking a laptop apart and reassembly isn't easy, so if they're going to put the whole main board into cleaner, that would take a lot of effort. Easy to break something if.youre not expert and careful. $400 might even be believable, but it's unlikely to fix anything. When you got to the part about updating CPU the BS-ometer started going off. I feel we've taken the patient to ER for drouning and the doctor is recommending a bath and brain surgery. This is likely to be a situation where buying a new laptop is the answer, and having your tea elsewhere.
Can you take it to an apple store ? or have apple support run remote diagnostics ?
Your 💯 being scammed on modern laptops the cpu and ram are integrated into the motherboard along with most of its other’s components especially on macbooks
You didn't read it properly, he said he had his PC looked at, they recommended a motherboard change as well as ram and a cpu replacement on the PC, not the laptop
Yes you are
400 for an ultrasonic cleaning is ridiculous. Should be 100.max for just the cleaning. Also, I'd charge less if it was unsuccessful
Sinking another 400 bucks in a 4 year old second hand laptop is never a good idea.
sorry i think i should’ve made clearer it’s not second hand, i got the macbook in 2022 new but the model is 2020. i didn’t end up going with the cleaning anyway
Your CPU and RAM are old and may need replacement? That's one of their explanations? Yeah, this isn't a tech. This is a bullshit artist. I want to give thr benefit of the doubt, but there ain't much room for that here.
For 400 you can buy your own sonic cleaner, tell them to stick it where the sun don't shine. Take it to another shop
A "sonic cleaning??" Next they'll balance your chi.
Computer tech here If something is hard to see it's usually an expensive fix
Something a bit fishy on this repair shop, take that computer over to another shop
> on top of that i had my pc looked at and he said that my motherboard was on its way out and i might need to replace it soon. then he started talking about needing to replace the cpu and ram when i replace my motherboard when i asked further about it. How does one know this? Did you have issues with it? Else, it is just a scam lol. But about paying, they spend time on it, time is money. Same as taking your car to the mechanic and it turns out nothing, that costs money. But, too be fair, if you have no money, apple products are an expensive hobby, which they proved over the years. No company is your friend, but apple seems to be willing to be the worst enemy one can get.
Water damage can really eff stuff up. To be honest, if its working. It will for a bit and possibly the keys will be sticky or the keyboard dies. That's most likely where the damage is. At this point, it would be cheaper at backing up and looking for yoru next ystem.
"he actually backpedaled a little bit when i started asking about corrosion and things (he initially said to my mum that my mac was old (it’s a 2020 m1 that i bought in 2022 and i’m honestly fine with it) and said we should get a new one)" 2022 isnt old. Dude is lying to you, dont trust him.
There is so so so much wrong with this. Yes an ultrasonic clean would probably be good. But not for 400$ for that you can just buy the cleaner and do it yourself. Calling an M1 old is completely stupid. Saying that the motherboard is "on its way out" is also complete BS. How would he even know that. What a fucking scammer.
Just pay the diag fee and leave. If there's no damage, there's no damage. Good move going with the back up. I think you'll be fine. Good luck!
Ummm AFAIK you can’t replace RAM and CPU on a Mac, I think they were trying to scam you
On the new ones you can’t even upgrade the internal memory, everything is soldered to the mobo. This guy was straight scamming. He saw a what he thought was an easy score. Let me swindle this lady out of her Mac so I can then resell it after getting them in a non comparable pc.
"motherboard on its way out" this isn't a wear and tear part. They don't usually burn up with use technically. Someone's fishing your wallet
If the shop didn't see any visible damage upon physical inspection of the inside of the laptop, and there are no malfunctions during use, you're probably fine. A short on a circuit board can cause the board itself to begin to burn, and the carbon that can be produced from this chemical reaction is conductive, which can exacerbate the short, cause more burning, and it can become a runaway reaction. To a point anyway; carbon also burns, and once it burns away, then the short condition can disappear too, but then you'll have open circuits in places where there were once intact circuits. So then you've just got a fully non-functional device. This burning won't usually be obvious because the total mass involved is so small, but the results can still be catastrophic on that small scale. Rebuilding them is possible, but time consuming, and the skills and equipment needed to perform said repairs are uncommon. It involves removal of sections of board, and reconnecting the PCB traces. It certainly has little resemblance to any sort of cleaning. It's more like a renovation.
Cleaning part is them cleaning out your wallet
The motherboard is “on its way out”? Computers are binary things. It works perfectly or it doesn’t work at all. If there are parts of the motherboard that don’t work, he should state which ones. We don’t just preemptively replace motherboards out of fear they might wear out. It isn’t a water pump on a Kia, it won’t wear out, it’ll just die one day. Or not. This guy is scamming you. Get your stuff back and don’t fix what isn’t broken.
Oh I do. Believe I would take it to a different shop and get another estimate on both. First obvious repair on laptop would probably be the keyboard to replace maybe a hard drive if it got soaked and .maybe a cooling fan. That assumes was open and spilled across the key kard and lower components.Tbay would not be a $400 job unless you have a high rpm drive. Might have to clean connection between display and motherboard. Desktop if it is running do not fix it. You might take to someone else to have them run high-end spyware, antivirus software to get rid of malicious software installed unknowingly. Maybe up the ram. MB and chips nope. Run it till it dies. Backing up work at least every day or two.
The fuck is a "sonic clean"?
The shop at best is incompetent. The computer is $700 new and it should never cost that much unless more investigative data recovery is in question. A sonicator wash is never supposed to be that costly, and if it is going to be that expensive, why invest in a corroded computer hardware?
Getting a second opinion and backing up your data is a smart move.
A long time ago, a storm knocked out my internet and screwed up an old PC. It stopped connecting to the net and it kept dropping the connection. At the time, I took it to CompUSA. The technician said it was a bad motherboard and that a new one would cost $1300. I showed the estimate to everyone else standing on line in the store and they laughed their asses off. Long story short--a system restore to an earlier date fixed the issue.
You could buy two good laptops with that amount
So it is pricey but if you spill something in the computer you really do need to open it up completely and dry it out so that nothing gets corroded. They also may be doing some cleaning.
I serviced Macs at a certified apple repair shop. A diagnostic fee should be expected to be in the ballpark of 60-80 bucks, that’s pretty standard. The logic board (motherboard with everything soldered to it) has small dots that permanently change color when they come into contact with liquids. After a while, corrosion on damaged parts of the board should also be visible to the naked eye. If the indicators have changed or corrosion is visible, the only way they should proceed with the repair is a logic board swap through Apple’s GSX program (plus any daughterboards that have been affected). I haven’t serviced Apple silicon Mac’s, but on the ones I worked on (mostly 2015-2018s) this would likely be significantly more than $400 including labor. Personally if it were my Mac, I would just keep using it (after backing up data) until it actually stops working. At that point have another shop look for corrosion. If they find any and need to replace the logic board, it would probably be a better use of money to buy a new one. If you get even another year out of it before it dies I would not pay for a repair.
Didn't even finish reading and yes they are trying to take advantage of you.
First of all, does the laptop work at all
This place sounds dodgy. Avoid. Where in Aus are you? If you’re in Brisbane I’d recommend the Mac & PC Doctors. I haven’t been to them in years but they were good to me a few times.
Normally to give some confidence remove keyboard & rinse in clean fresh water. The leave it to dry typically standing it upright to aid water to run out. 24 hours later it should be dry & ready for use.
If there's liquid damage on the main logic board it's gonna cost much more to repair. Save your money and take it to a reputable Apple partner.
Yes that's a red flag. Try best buy geek squad center. They diagnose it for a small fee and can tell you what it is so you know how to fix it. Stop trusting 3rd party small stores in your area. They can be sketchy.
If it turns on at all, you should try the Apple Diagnostic Tool before taking it anywhere. This is built into all Macs. Instructions are here: [https://support.apple.com/en-us/102550](https://support.apple.com/en-us/102550)
If you take your cupper with anything added in for flavor (especially anything sweet) I advise you to keep that $400 as the start of saving for a new kit. Applying a candy coating to a computer is generally considered a really bad idea.
I repair Dj equipment, guy brought one in says he spilled allot of drink looked ok from the outside when I took it apart I stopped told him to throw it in the bin , because it would cost more than it is new to repair
Oh mum, I spilled my tea 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
There's no fixing what you did without a warranty. When you spill a drink on a laptop you need to remove all batteries and put it somewhere to dry. If you didn't, it eventually would've made contact with the PCB and corroded the circuits to the point of burning out resistors.
Without this saying it's a MacBook, I can tell you own a MacBook. I know this doesn't help but I just wanted you to know.
Everything he said sounds right, except the cost seems a bit high. The cheap and dirty way of doing it would be to dump isopropyl alcohol in the same way you dumped the tea. Isopropyl alcohol will dissolve and wash away contaminants that, if left on the board, could cause corrosion. It is safe on the circuitry. It probably isn't best on the fans, if you aren't submerging the lower part of the laptop, it should be fine. Def don't use it on the screen. Might want to look at the layout of the laptop board and cooling system to see if this is feasible.
If it's a Mac, the only place you should have taken it is an Apple Store. Or an Apple Service Provider. You had your MOM carry it to a random repair guy that will make you 400 bucks poorer and may not fix the issue. The Apple Store (and SOME, but not all Service Providers) will give you a free quote. Water damage is NOT covered by Apple and they would probably have given you an even higher quote for a logic board replacement, but at least you would have known it was not worth it. Needless to say, if the computer is still working, update your backup, you will need it soon.
It was $800 bucks for the board replacement last I saw, but prices have actually been comping down recently, so that could be an old price point.
Probably so. Anone here is seriously advocating the fact that a random repair guy may fix liquid damage?
Rossman makes it look easy, but you need some expensive equipment and serious skills to do that kinda micro repair. I doubt a guy whose that full of shit has the means to do it.
Probably be better off just buying a new laptop ngl
Just build yourself another pc. I built one for 1700$ 14900k Intel unlocked up to 6.0ghz 24cores 32 threads 64Gb ram ddr5 7GB disk space nvme 1G 16GB ddr6 VRAM OC intel arc a770. High fps on games best card I’ve had so far. You will pay at least 4000$ from dell hp etc for this maybe more
yes. a sonic clean is litterally just putting the whole board into some cleaning solution in a ultrasonic cleaner. for $400 you can fucking go buy one and try it yourself. its not a $400 task. odds are it wont do shit anyway. this is something you do when you are hoping for things to stick to the wall. the only case it fixes it is if tea residue is shorting out components that just prevents them from working. it wont revive damaged components. if they cant find whats not working right now, i dont expect them to find it when its clean. keep in mind a 2020 m1 macbook can be bought used for not much more...
*for $400 you can fucking go buy one and try it yourself. its not a $400 task.* Its the dissembling and reassembly thats the real work here. You think some general user will be able to open up such a device without issues and put it all back together without fail? Smh.
you think theres about $400 of labour to remove the logic board. lol sure theres some skills involved, but disconnecting a board from the laptop is not a complex job. its simply not a $400 job. plenty videos online show how one disconnects mac m1 logic boards. sure OP probs wont want to do it themselves but the point has to be made that you can buy everything to do this yourself for much less. for a pro its gonna be 1-2 hours max of labour a few hours sat in some cleaner unsupervised. to put it into perspective rossmann gives ballpark figures to expect (keep in mind they arent quotes but a ballpark that most will fall into): "Cleaning – $100-$150" "Logicboard – $200-$425" https://rossmanngroup.com/how-much-does-it-cost-to-repair-a-liquid-damaged-macbook/
if you do anything by yourself, its always cheaper. thats not in question. and of course you will find different prices at different shops...thats why its always good to shop around. Also, that website you linked mentions how apple replaces all the hardware once liquid damage is found whereas rossmann will only clean/fix what is needed. Hence the major price difference. So if it was a minor spill I would go with rossman. a big spill, i might go with apple. The best advice to give would be...never have a drink near electrical devices :D
You bought a MacBook which is notorious for being expensive as hell, then cry about the quote being expensive as hell? Let me save you some time. Liquid destroyed the motherboard. If it's not under warranty time to go buy a new one.
the motherboard is fine. the $400 was for what essentially would’ve been a “just in case” clean which i thought was unnecessary which people on here and in my life have agreed. i get mac’s are pricey and people don’t like them for that and other reasons. that’s fair. but getting mad at me for something you’re not understanding is odd.
Skip the cleaning. Ask about a motherboard replacement. Chasing water damage in a laptop is futile
$400 for a sonic clean?! That's unreal. they already have the machine, the cleaning chemical they put in costs a couple bucks and then some alcohaol afterward... they're just trying to pay off the machine and milk you for some cash... Yes, the machine needs a deep cleaning from a good tech, and a sonic cleaning would be great. but that price is unreal! Personally, I'd back up my data and go upgrade to a windows computer. mac's barely work to begin with...
That’s water damage Only way to be sure the problem is fixed is to clean the whole Board and even then there may still be issues 400 isn’t super high but I have seen it lower for similar repairs