The same thing happens if the battery dies once you plug into AC and power it up again, the state at battery death is restored. That way, when the computer wakes from sleep, it restores all open documents/applications in the state they were in when sleep started. If you're using 10.9 or later (is that right? Or was it 10.8?), and the MBP went to sleep before the spilling crisis, it would have saved the file to the disk in 'preservation of state' mode. If that doesn't work, the next step is to replace the RAM - preferably with sticks that you've seen working in another computer, so you can be sure they're good. Then reinstall, reassemble and reboot, and see if anything changes. I like to use a pink pencil eraser to rub the RAM contacts clean of scuzz, and use a soft, dry toothbrush to brush the rubber crumbs off the RAM contacts and clean the inside of the RAM socket. The process for installing/removing RAM on the earlier A1181 Core Duo MacBook is identical. The first thing to try is to reseat the RAM correctly: Have you been playing arond with RAM recently, or has the computer gotten knocked around? Intel-based Mac Power On Self Test RAM error codes When the computer has a RAM issue (like the RAM's failed, or the computer can't detect it, or it can detect it but it's an incompatible type), hitting the power button causes one or more beeps, sometimes accompanied by a blinking sleeplight:

It sounds like something's going on with your RAM.

Macbook pro 3 beeps when turning on