Chosen Solution
My neighbor asked me to see what I could do with a MacBook Air, model A1369 EMC 2392. I believe it was purchased in late 2010 or early 2011. It has had water spilled on the keyboard. They dried it out but it did not seem to want to boot up. I took it apart, disconnected most of the cables, and reconnected them to hopefully refresh those connections. After working with it for a while I decided to try pointing a flashlight at the screen, and I determined that it had no backlight. Apparently this model has an LED backlight. I can use the system if I connect to an external monitor. However, it seems to want to go to sleep almost immediately as if the screen was in the closed position. I can keep it going by constantly moving my finger on the touchpad. After reading lots of good information on this web site, I have reset the System Management Controller (SMC) and the PRAM. The resets seemed to take okay but the symptoms have not improved. I am now thinking that the SMC circuits could have been damaged by the liquid spill. This is the first time I have ever cracked open any type of Mac so my experience is very limited and any advice is welcome. If the SMC is damaged, I have no idea if it could be replaced or if the entire logic board would have to be swapped out. Does this system need a logic board? Edit on 7/7/13: I have attempted to add a shot of the system with the back cover removed. I will take closeups of the connectors that could be problems.
Okay, it took me a while to get even halfway decent closeups after some business travel. I have never done much macro photography and certainly never tried to shoot anything like a circuit board. I have marked one of the most corroded areas in this shot.
Here are a couple more closeups. Can anyone mark the connector is for the cover sensor?
The blue is corrosion! What was spilled into the system? You’ll need to disconnect the battery and then using distilled water (not tap!), wipe the areas down removing as much as you can with Q-Tips making sure not to snag anything. In this case you’ll likely need an acid to clean off the copper oxide. Use white vinegar and then go over the area a few times with the distilled water to neutralize the acid. Once you have gone over the logic board (both sides) wipe down the areas again with a good quality of isopropyl alcohol (reagent being the best). This will remove any oil residues and help in drying the water out. Let the board fully dry (give it a good day sitting in a sunny window). If you still have problems with the clean up post some pictures of the areas you are having problems or questions. Good Luck!
The smc must be in a good condition. It is a CPU too, any fried circuit in the SMC will always render it entirely inoperable. The sleep/ wake sensor is in the I/O mini board. Check for any damage. Shorted/fried circuits on the logic board can also affect sensor data feed
I repairing these systems. If the SMC was bad you would not even get a green light on the magsafe. You’ll need a schematic diagram and the boardview (.brd) file to find the part location. You may need to clean the board and possibly have a shorted backlight fuse (Backlight issue). If the battery doesn’t charge (green light) the issue is possibly the Intersil ISL6259A (CSI/CSO) or the diode connecting the adapter to the Intersil.
