Hacking Apple's System

by Big Bird

First off, I feel it's important to explain that any sort of liquid damage to an Apple product will void your warranty.

There has been some talk about an AppleCare+ warranty that covers water damage and cracked screens - but the regular Apple warranty does not.  So, I suggest you don't seriously attempt this.  What follows, however, is a true story.

As your typical computer-using bloke, I like laptops.  I have an Apple MacBook Air.  The device is great, and it's light.  One day at a local Starbucks, I had just started drinking a coffee when I knocked that grande cup right into the direction of my MacBook.  Ack!  I was freaking.

The first steps involved turning off the computer and holding down the power button.  I flipped the computer upside down and grabbed a bunch of napkins.  I kept it upside down with napkins all the way home.  Once I got home, the computer went right into a container that held the full MacBook (a bag would work) and I poured all of the rice I had all over the MacBook.

I left that MacBook covered in rice for at least a week, heck, it could have been longer.  I didn't touch it, turn it on, or otherwise consider using it.  Finally, after the week was up, I attempted to turn it on and the machine booted.  I was sad to find out, though, that some of the keys were messed up on the keyboard.

I had to make a choice here: chuck the computer or go to Apple and see what was possible.  I decided to ask what the keyboard replacement might cost - and that would be close to $300!  Wow.  My choice, however loose morally, was to play dumb and see if I could get warranty service.

I first set up an appointment with the Apple "Geniuses."  This was a time-of-day appointment that required I simply tell one of the sales guys in the store that I had arrived.  When I connected with the Genius, I said to him, "I think my keyboard is broken."  Of course, broken keyboards are covered under warranty.

The fellow was nice enough and he tried to remote boot the system by way of a network image to run a diagnostic.  Since this was a MacBook Air, he required the use of a network adapter.  He wasn't able to get the system to boot.  He thought the keyboard was stopping him from that, so he tried an external keyboard to help this process.  Failed again.

It seemed like he was running out of options, so the next thing he did was to take the computer to the back and "check for water damage."  The check appeared to be short and it seemed like he might have just pulled the bottom off the case.  There is no way in the time he took that he was able to pull the top off.  The MacBook Air is not designed to let you in.

So, he came back and said everything was in order and that it would take a week to replace the keyboard and that this would be covered under warranty.  Phew.  A week later, the computer was fixed, problem solved, and Apple's system was shown to clearly be flawed.

Also of note, Apple recently patented a new form of liquid damage detection.  It appears as though they may know that these kinds of warranty services are going on unchecked.