Trackpad after spill

I was eating a bowl of cereal and browsing the web this morning, when I noticed there was some almond milk on the trackpad. I did as I always do and used my finger to wipe it off, as there wasn't much on the trackpad to begin with. I noticed that the trackpad wouldn't recognize my finger very well so I wetted a paper towel and I rung the excess water out. I wiped the trackpad very thouroghly with the paper towel. It was still acting weird so I powered the computer down and very very thouroghly wiped the trackpad down. I then used a dry towel to dry off the trackpad. When I booted the computer up it behaved normally for about 10 seconds, after which it went back to being weird. I have left the computer off for about 2 hours and turned it on and left it alone for even longer. I have tried doing an SMC reset several times and after each time it would work for about a minute and then go back to spazing out. I booted into windows and it works for even longer, and will go back and forth between working and not working. I am currently writing this in windows on the same computer. I am wondering if anyone has had any experience with this. I have read a couple of other threads and none of the solutions have worked, pressing on the corners of the trackpad, resetting the trackpad by putting your palm on it for 10 seconds. I was wondering if anyone had a solution that I haven't tried. And by erratic I mean that the trackpad is hardly responsive, when I move it will acknowledge my movement by shifting in the general that I want it to move. Sometimes it won't respond very much at all, and others it will be almost completely responsive, mostly if you move it in circles. I have also done a time machine backup, and it didn't change anything.

Liquid on the trackpad is not a good combination.
I would take it in, unless you are a DIY'er
The Track pad is easy to replace because it is accessable right under the battery. The connecting ribbon is very fragile and a bit tricky if you never done it before.
Genius reservation http://www.apple.com/retail/geniusbar/
on-line https://getsupport.apple.com/GetproductgroupList.action
check warranty https://selfsolve.apple.com/agreementWarrantyDynamic.do

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Unable to wake screen using magic mouse or trackpad after installing magic mouse

Dear Everyone,
I am using mbp 15 inch early 2011 with 2 GHZ intel i7 processor and a 4gb ram. I would like to tell you that i have installed the mac os x lion and quite happy with the improvement. however, there are same changes which i am not sure whether it is that my mac that causeing theproblem or the bug from the lion itself. i am unable to wake my mbp screen using my magic mouse or trackpad after installing lion. i believe that my mbp has not really enter sleep mode as i dont see the sleep indicator at the bottom right corner flickering. i also believe that it is only the screen that goes to sleep while the hard disk is not. Normally a single swing of the magic mouse or a single swipe of the trackpad will normally wake the screen. in order to wake the screen now is only to click on the magic mouse or trackpad. furthermore, scrolliing page using magic mouse also become unusual after installing the lion. does any of u happen to come across these problems as well? Is there any other way to downgrade to snow leopard back? (i ask this in case that this issue really cannot be fixed). Please help me on this issue. Thank you very much for taking your time to read and reply this thread.
Moonbasher (henry)

First, Lion does not wake on mouse or trackpad movement, only clicks or keyboard presses. This is presumably to avoid waking the computer from display or full sleep accidentally, and is just how Lion works. It's going to take some getting used to, personally, but I've noticed my mac hasn't woken up on it's own. Apparently moving about my apartment moves the mouse enough that Snow Leopard used to wake the iMac. This is not a glitch, and unfortunately, a downgrade is a complicated matter, involving erasing the HD entirely, and restoring from a backup created in Snow Leopard and not used with Lion at all, or manually importing important bits of data, as libraries upgraded by new versions of Mail, iCal, etc will not be compatible with the old versions.
In terms of your mouse scrolling, describe it in a bit more detail; Lion introduces "natural" scrolling, where instead of the mouse wheel moving the "window" over the contents, it moves the contents through the window, like scrolling on an iPhone or iPad. In other words, think of your finger on the mouse as pressing on the page you're looking at and dragging it upward through the field of view. I remember long ago thinking my very first scrolling mouse was backwards, and then adjusting to "down is down, up is up". If this is the behavior you're experiencing, this also is the way Lion works. This, however, can be changed in the mouse or trackpad preference pane in system preferences. Simply deselect "natural" scrolling.
In a more general sense, its usually not a good idea to do a major software upgrade on your primary machine unless you're willing to deal with some zero-day glitches. It sounds like the issues you're having aren't actually glitches, and you should be happy for that, but in the future, you might want to wait a few weeks for other users with more experience with major OS launches to find those bugs and point them out to the community for Apple to fix. In terms of an OS launch, I think this has been absolutely one of the best. I'm seeing very few major glitches resulting in lost data, few things that would really destroy my personal workflows, and compatiblity issues with other products seems to be well documented or negligible. It's also a bit hasty to assume that mere hours after launch Apple would have any ability to fix ACTUAL problems with the OS. My recommendation would be to get used to the change; having to click the mouse at least means you'll never accidentally wake your machine bumping against your desk.

Blinking Caps Lock and Num Lock Keys Lit after spilling water Macbook Pro.

What does it mean when the caps lock and Num lock key blink, after spilling liquid on a Macbook Pro? Does this mean that liquid is still present? Also, the white light by the latch was blinking. What does this all mean?

Possible liquid damage.
Immediately disconnect all peripherals, power cord & remove the battery. Turn the computer over with the lid partly open and the hinge facing upward to let the liquid drain. Do not flop it over and lay it flat - you want to separate it from the moisture. Place paper or cloth towels under the machine to sop up the mess.
After the computer disgorges whatever you spilled on it, don't turn it on for 72 hours or longer. You want to computer to dry out completely before turning it on again.
Some users here swear by hairdryers. Blow drying the innards may bake whatever was in the liquid onto delicate computer components. Better to let the computer air dry.
Use plain tepid water to clean out the computer. If you spilled iced beverage more than likely this ice fried the hot motherboard.
Sugary, acidic or milky drinks will almost always cause problems later on as the residue starts slowly corroding the computer innards.
Swab down any sticky parts with distilled water or denatured alcohol.
If none of the above works, you will need to take the computer to a repair shop. Apple Care does not cover liquid or food damage. Believe me, they can tell. So the old "my computer stopped working" line is not going to work.

Trackpad acting weird after spill

Hi,
I am in kind of a problem right now. My trackpad is acting weird after some juice spilled over it from a drinking straw. Everything else works fine. I have turned the power off just to be safe. I need advice as to what to do. I bought my mac (late 2013 15" retina display) in USA. I live in Ghana and there are no Apple stores here. What is my safest option?

Portables and Magic Trackpad: Jumpy or erratic trackpad operation

Mac genius turned on MacBook after spill

Hi everyone,
This afternoon I spilled coffee (with cream & sugar) on my desk and it splashed onto my MacBook Air spacebar, command, option, control keys and trackpad. I immediately tried to wipe it off and then turned my MacBook off. Had an appointment a the Genius Bar about 3 hours later, told them what happened and handed it over. They took it to their back room to have a look and returned and told me that the trackpad was malfunctioning, that the warranty doesnt cover liquid, etc... and then turned the MacBook on to show me. At that point, the trackpad was working, but then the keyboard wasn't working right. I asked him what I should do, and he said my choices are either to send it off for a $755 flat rate fix, or to try and let it dry for a while longer and see what happens.
After reading these forums all night, I'm confused about why the Apple Genius would turn on my MacBook. From everything I've read, it should've not been turned on for a few more days. I definitely was too afraid to turn it on myself, but when the Apple Genius turned it on, he seemed like he knew what he was doing. Did that do a lot more harm to it? Should I even bother letting it dry for another day, or assume that since it was turned on (at least twice...), that it's a lost cause?

letting it dry out will help next to nothing, the "dry it out and turn it on" method everyone seemingly likes to do never accomplishes anything.
sticky sugary residue is left behind to bridge electrical solder points which causes short outs. (hence sugar being an electrically conductive nastiness).
turning anything WET on is a bad idea yes.
You said "it splashed onto my MacBook Air spacebar, command, option, control keys and trackpad."
Damage was done. If it was very little liquid, then only your trackpad and keyboard are damaged and it will not make (assuming this by guessing from your statement) it to your important logic board.
thankfully there extremely few parts in a macbook Air.
as long as your monitor, IO board, logic board, and SSD are safe.......
but yes, spills migrate, and damage A leads to B....etc.
check your home owners policy to see if youre covered.
Laptop repairmen that are VERY skilled (worked with some and I was one) get frustrated over fixing spills, because dry residue is invisible.....
they fix things they know are bad, inspect for other, but when it works, they give back the repair.......unfortunately the only way to fix problems like this are fix and test......fix and test.....
people sometimes get laptops back as fixed but it crashes and the repairman is made to look like the dufus, but the fact is short of replacing EVERYTHING in the laptop, the dry residue in cracks and crevices is invisible, and sometime you have to just "wait for it to fail" before you can fix it again.
cant fix what you cant see...... Spills in such cases are ALWAYS creeping nightmares to fix,,.....because they often have to be fixed AGAIN.

I am having awful problems with mouse and trackpad after installing Lion

I have tried 3 different brands of mice and it happens with each one. the mouse clicks and sticks spontaniously and wont let go and hitting esc or trying to click somewhere else doesn't have any effect - it wont let go. And it doesn't seem to matter which program. At forst i thought it was just pwer point but it still happens if I command/tab over to mail or finder. and then I get the stupid wheel of death. power point (or whatever program I'm in) locks up. and then I lose recent edits.
I have a Mac book pro. I have use and external keyboard and monitor when I'm at my office.
When the problem has happened I have tried using the trackpad - but it's like it's dead. No click effect. No help!
I AM REALLY TRYING TO NOT GET ANGRY - BUT I AM READY TO SCRAP LION!!!!!!!!!!!
HELP!!!!!!!!

Thanks for the tip re MagicPrefs! Great app!
Is anyone having trouble with Mac losing the connection to Magic Mouse after the Mac goes to sleep? I am running Mac Mini late 2009 with dual-core 2.0 GHz and 4 GB RAM. Never had any issues under Snow Leopard, only after the upgrade to Lion. Battery is OK (tried fresh ones with no luck).
Turning the mouse off then on does not help, but ocasionally I have been able to get the mouse back by simply using Command+Tab. It does not seem to matter which app is active.

Problem with trackpad after upgrading to osx 10.4.10

after i upgraded to the latest version of osx my trackpad started to malfunction.
the trackpad tab is not shown in the mouse and keyboard settings and it gives a message trackpad tab is hidden because, trackpad is not installed in this computer.. m not able to scroll and use right click.
please help!!!

OK, I used WhatSize to free up my hard drive considerably.
I know have 30 GB available out of 56 GB.
Unfortunately the same signs and symptoms are appearing.
The project loads quickly. I can the drag the playhead with ease through out the project and play any individual clip without any issue. But again, playing it in full results in slow, distorted audio as if its 5 seconds behind and in extreme slow motion.
Would copying the project back to my main hard drive and trying to work out of it there provide any results?

Macbook Pro 13'' Early 2011 Power Button not responding properly after spilled drink.

Hi Everyone
I've spilled beer on my old macbook last december. I've reassembled pretty much the whole mac, cleaned the motherboard with Servisol (isopropyl alcohol) and applied new thermal compound. The mac is working (if turned on from the motherboard, however the power button doesn't work properly. If pressed several times, sometimes it either changes the brightness of the screen or takes you to the widgets.
The keyboard was disassembled and cleaned and everything else apart from left shift and power button appears to be working on the keyboard. The keyboard was disassembled soon after the spillage, which was few months ago.
As it was few months ago when I cleaned the keyboard, I''ve forgot whether the power button is a part of the keyboard or an individual module. Could anyone give me some advice on that? Any other suggestions regards to the power button?
Another problem I've encountered recently is lost administrator account (after an attempt to turn the mac on). I can only access the guest account, my main account doesn't even appear on the launch. I can still see the administrator's files, but can't access them as they're locked. Is there a way to get back the account or access the files from the computer?
Many Thanks. Damian

Hi M,
There are other threads here with similar issues. I do not know if a "common" fix has been found. Try an SMC Reset:
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3964
If no luck there, your Mac has a one year hardware warranty and I would contact AppleCare.

T400 mouse issues after spill

Hi,
I love my T400. It is the best built, most trouble-free laptop I've owned. Now I have an issue due to a stupid spill.
I spilled a fair amount of beer over the keyboard and immediately powered down. If I had it to do over I would have uplugged and removed the battery, but hindsight is 20/20 as they say.
At any rate, I unscrewed the keyboard and examined it and below it and didn't find any beer residue except on the keyboard itself. I popped all the key tops off and cleaned the entire area with ispropyl alcohol. There was a lot of dirt and hair in there. I think I went through about 70 double-tipped swabs. I also looked at the underside of the trackpad and didn't see anything that looked like it needed cleaning. I didn't remove any ribbon cables.
I'm using the same laptop right now and it is fully functional with the exception of an annoying mouse issue. I'll refer to the buttons as upper left, upper right, lower left and lower right which should be self explanatory. I've never used the upper middle button so not even sure what it is supposed to do.
The first thing I noticed was that the lower left button didn't work and the lower right button seemed to only work in certain instances. I hooked up a USB mouse and that overcame my problem. I soon noticed problems with that where it appeared a mouse click wasn't registering. I also about the same time remembered the upper mouse button on the laptop and started using that.
Generally, my upper left works for any left click functions. However I've notice in Google Chrome, I can't select a tab to change to it. If I left click the tab close, it does close the tab.
If I left click on my desktop, I get the right-click menu. The upper left button produces the Windows Start menu just fine but it is rare that I can get the right-click Windows Start menu. When I can, it is only with the upper right button.
What I'm guessing from all this is, everything that is mouse-related must run through the same hardware regardless of the input used (upper buttons, lower buttons or external USB device) and different software handles mouse clicks differently explaining the differences (good, intermittent or never) in response.
Here's another example. To run the Windows calc program from the Start menu Run feature, normally I would left click run and get the dialog with a drop down menu for recent programs accessed thru Run. Let's say I'm using calc. Simetimes this works normally. Other times when I click Run, I get a single option "drop-down" menu with that option being "run" which if clicked THEN takes me to the typical drop down menu of recent programs. Other times, I get a context menu which includes the Run option.
With that in mind, I'm wondering if replacing the touchpad assembly is likely to fix my problems or if anyone has any other suggestions other than to not spill beer on your laptop.
Thanks

hey beeherd,
replacing the touchpad assembly should resolve the issue. however, i am unable to guarantee that it will.
you could try that, or use an external mouse?
do a reinstallation of mouse drivers and use this manual : http://download.lenovo.com/ibmdl/pub/pc/pccbbs/mobiles_pdf/43y6629_04.pdf .
open the unit and dry it in a dust free room.
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X220 doesnt boot after spill

Hello,
i spilled water on my keyboard. at first my x220 continued working without any issues but i took the opportunity to take off all the keys and whipe it clean. my computer was in standby at this time. after reinstalling all the keys i intended to start my system and it refuses to boot.
while reinstalling the keys i noticed that the display "flashed up" once what apperead to me as if the computer was switching from standby to hibernating mode. it did this as i was applying pressure to put the left shift key, being just above the vga slot.
when i know press the power button it starts blinking a few times but the screen stays black, no further reaction. if i take out and replace the battery and press the power button, the screen flashes up shortley as it did while replacing the keys of the keyboard and it does so showing a few colored vertical stripes.
what can be the problem here? will it be due to possibly entered water (are they not supposed to be spill resistant) or might i have squeezed the graphics adapter or other sort of hardware when reinstalling the keys? is there anything i can do now? hooking the x220 up to an external monitor doesnt help either. the external screen stays black and the system still does not boot;
thanks for any help. unfortunately i will not be close to any lenovo dealership for support for the next few weeks as there arent any in northern chile.

Hi,
The image you download should just appear as 1 file. You should then use the 'Burn a disc image' option in Power2Go to write this correctly to a disc.
Regards,
DP-K
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Microsoft MVP - Windows Experience

One stuck key on iMac keyboard after spill

I took off all the keys, cleaned and replaced after an orange juice spill (ugh!) - but now just the spacebar will not work. I've tried prodding and WD40 but nothing works. All other keys are fine.

Hi redgen, Welcome to Apple's Users Help Users Forums.
Just the space bar. Amazing.
I saw a thread recently where let it dry for days was helpful. If you don't have a spare keyboard that would probably mean buy a new one unless you can do
w/o the computer for that long.
Adding to your problem is the goo from the OJ. You might want to flush it somehow w water and then let it dry. All very problematic. Bite the bullet and give it up may—ultimately—be the answer. Maybe a spare time research project.

Keyboard backlight won't turn on after spill.

Yeah so, me being a complete idiot, I was holding an open bottle of Snapple right next to me while laying down on my bed browsing stuff when I inevitably spill it everywhere. All over my sheets, clothes, and of course my keyboard. I immediately turned it upside down and drained the liquid, also rubbed the entire keyboard with a wet rag and some rubbing alcohol. All the liquid/stickiness is gone and the keys work perfectly fine, albeit the smell is still faintly there. But the real problem is now my backlight won't work. I noticed it flicker while cleaning it but thought it was nothing.
Any general way on how to fix this? And no, I'm not spending a thousand bucks and wait a month for some dudes to take the whole thing apart and wipe out my harddrive again for no reason.

OK, Wow.
Whenever a liquid spill occurs the first thing that has to happen is the laptop should be shut down immediately. All power must be removed as soon as possible. It is especially important that the battery be disconnected and removed.
All affected parts must be removed from the laptop. No attempt should be made to start/restart the computer since this could potentially damage the logic board beyond all repair.
Then all affected parts would be washed in deionized water and blown dry with compressed air. (In a water spill the deionized water is probably not as critical. Depends on the mineral content of the water.).
This is especially true of the large chips on the logic board. Liquid can wick under them and cause havoc for weeks if not months after the incident.
The logic board should be placed in a drying/dehumidifing oven for at least two days. Longer depending on the spill.
The keyboard is a separate matter as described below.
This is how these keyboards work:
This is the contactor array of a MacBook Pro 2011 13" . You're looking at it from back to front. Those round dots are where the silicone rubber "cones" cause the front array to make contact with the back array, telling the computer which key has been pushed. The width of these (I think deposited silver ) traces is about 0.5 mm.
Now you're only looking at the just the front array. You can see that the contact pads are connected in series. A break anywhere in the trace connecting them would cause the "downstream" keys to stop working.
So here you see a site where ionic corrosion occurred. I know that this particular MBP was exposed to water. So I bought it very cheaply. I was able to clean and completely dry out the logic board and the MBP worked fine for a while but quickly the Q - W - E - R -T - Y - P keys got wonky then completely stopped working. I bought a replacement keyboard for cheap but then found out that it's held to the front frame with around 80 tiny screws. So I was using it with a BlueTooth keyboard. Recently I bit the bullet and for $69 bought an entire top case for my machine. Putting it in meant that the everything had to come out of and off the top case.
So you can see from the amount of corrosion, it doesn't take much to cause a failure. In this case a drop of liquid less than 0.5 mm would, over time with ionic action, cause a failure. There was a post about someone who had their MBP in a leather case and when they opened it up there was a lot of moisture on it. It was winter where he lived and we figured it was condensation. So even without spills this could happen.
So since your problem was with a sugary drink the sugar will be hydroscopic, that is it will attract water out of the air and keep the contact area moist. This will lead to future failures be it on the logic board on on the keyboard membranes.
The backlight being part of that array you've been looking at. (Finally got to it.)

Aluminum Unibody Macbook slightly unresponsive trackpad after scrolling

It has started happening as of late. It's quite bothersome though. After scrolling around or keeping my finger on the trackpad to do anything that takes some time to do, like moving something around really quick in photoshop or anything of that sort, attempting to click will almost always fail on the first attempt. Both tap to click and the physical click fail on the first attempt. It's quite bothersome and I was just curious if anyone knows what it is. Maybe it means its time for a new Macbook, but I'd rather not do that just yet.

What you're saying isn't true actually.
I work for an Authorized Apple Repair Center and we had a lot of customers complaining about the lag and unresponsiveness of trackpads in the latest generation of Unibody Macbooks.
The main issue is within the Flash 10.1 update is sometimes it is bundled with this software called "ClickForFlash" which only displays flash animations when you click on it. This causes a kernel error within Flash 10.1 that for some odd reason, directly conflicts with the operation of the trackpad.
Another reasoning is that in earlier generation (Mid 2009 and earlier) Unibody's, we've noticed that Flash 10.1 has some coding in it that refers to the trackpad's operation. By updating to the Beta Flash "SQUARE", you'll be able to eliminate this problem.
You can download this here:
http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/flashplayer10/
I hope this helps.

Double-click not working on trackpad after Mavericks installation

After doing a fresh installation of OS X Mavericks and zapping PRAM, I noticed that I'm unable to double-click using my trackpad (this is true throughout all applications, not just the Finder). Can anyone advise me on how to remedy this?
My system is a Late 2002 MacBook Pro Retina.
Thanks,
Nicholas

You can type Command-Shift-G and type in ~/Library/Preferences
I had some challenges deleting everything here while logged in, so you'll have to do this from another Admin account.
I suggest just doing a clean install if you have the time. That solved all my problems and reduced my boot time as well.

Macbook Pro running slow after Spill

I was hanging out with my friend,and she spilled a little bit of soda on my macbook pro. Most of it landed on the empty spotby the trackpad so it could easily be wiped off, but some went on a few keys andin the spot where when the macbook closes, it folds in. I hope you know what I mean. But ever since this happened, it's been running at least half as slow as usual. The display lags behind what I do noticably, and when I enter and exit launchpad, it noticably lags. What can I do to fix this?

The warranty entitles you to complimentary phone support for the first 90 days of ownership.
If you bought the product in the U.S. directly from Apple (not from a reseller), you have 14 days from the date of delivery in which to exchange or return it for a refund. In other countries, the return policy may be different. If you bought from a reseller, its return policy applies.

Trackpad after spill

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