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Some water was spilled on the table and came in contact with my wife's Mid 2009 MacBook Pro near the MagSafe adapter causing the MBP to shut itself off. Based on some recommendations from the internet, my wife put the MBP in a bag of rice over night to extract the water. Note: I would be careful so as to ensure rice doesn't end up in any ports or crevices.

In the morning, the MBP powered on, but it displayed "Not Charging" when I plugged in the power adapter. I tried two different power adapters to make sure that wasn't the problem. I also confirmed that both power adapters worked on my Early 2011 MacBook Pro.

Based on various threads, it seemed reasonable to reset so the SMC, so I followed Apple's instructions to reset the SMC. Here are the instructions that I followed:

  1. Shut down the computer.
  2. Plug in the MagSafe power adapter to a power source, connecting it to the Mac if its not already connected.
  3. On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time.
  4. Release all the keys and the power button at the same time.
  5. Press the power button to turn on the computer.

However on step 5, when I pressed the power button to turn on the MBP, it didn't do anything. No lights, no noise, nothing. At that point I noticed that the MagSafe connector wasn't properly seated—the back portion of the connector wasn't in place but portion closest to the front of the MBP may have been making electrical connection.

  • Could reseting the SMC while the power adapter is partially connected have caused the MBP to be bricked?
  • Thoughts on root causes of the problem?
  • Thoughts on solutions?

I have already scheduled an appointment with the Apple Store, so I'll about this when I have more information.

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  • Your MBP wasn’t charging. Maybe the battery is dead?
    – duci9y
    Sep 15, 2012 at 16:11

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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Your problem is likely a hardware problem, and is probably a short. Unless you disassembled the computer before using the rice method, it probably didn't help and you just ended up with a bunch of rice in the trash can. Also (and this is general advice for everyone), the first thing you should do in a situation like this is IMMEDIATELY disconnect all power to the computer, including removing the battery. Failure to do this will keep power going to the machine and dramatically increase the likelihood of a short.

Hardware failures do not necessarily happen all at once, and may not show up for a day or more. It sounds like this is what has probably happened to you. At the risk of being the bearer of more bad news by adding insult to injury, this type of damage also is not covered by Apple Care. Sorry you have to deal with this; best of luck to you in getting your machine back in order!

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I have the same problem. I reset the smc because of intermittent charging and it didn't work properly. I'm certain the problem is now the smc and that's why it won't power on. Because the smc controls the power button. I also have managed to get it to charge but the battery lights don't turn on, also controlled by the smc. Because the reset failed for some reason it might be now corrupted and because it controls the power button I need a new way to reset the smc. I'll remove the battery overnight and maybe that will help somehow

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