Another entry about spilling liquid on laptop

[dandoe123]

I'd like to start off by saying that I've read a few entries about similar situations, but I thought I'd post anyway to get some more specific help. I have a ibook and last night I wasn't feeling well and I made myself some Theraflu. Unfortunately, I spilled some of it on my keyboard! I tried to clean it as much as I could. Well, this morning the computer seems to work okay, but the keyboard is acting up. The right side of the keyboard, which took most of the hit, won't work (e.g. delete, return, etc.). The left side of the keybard seems to work fine (e.g. Q, A, Z and so on). If I press "H"... HT5 writes instead of just "H". As I had mentioned, the only real problem seems to be with the right side of the keyboard. Anyone know what the problem may be? Thanks.

 

[Makosuke]

First of all, you've probably picked this up from other posts here, but DON'T use the computer until it's completely dry.

What's probably happening is that either there's still moisture in your keyboard, or the theraflu dried and left a conductive path or corroded something that's shorting out your keyboard and causing the weird behavior.

Since it's an iBook, you should be able to remove the entire keyboard relatively easily; I would do this, to make sure nothing got underneath, which could cause WAY more damage.

Once you've got the keyboard out of the machine, give it a good shake to get as much liquid as possible out, and let it dry for a day or two, then try again. If that doesn't work, or if you're feeling brave, get some DI water and rinse it out, then let it dry VERY thoroughly--this'll get any conductive theraflu gunk out of there, and SHOULDN'T (in theory) cause any more damage, since DI water isn't conductive.

If that works, great. If not, time to buy a replacement keyboard and be glad you didn't fry anything more expensive.

 

[dandoe123]

First of all, you've probably picked this up from other posts here, but DON'T use the computer until it's completely dry.

What's probably happening is that either there's still moisture in your keyboard, or the theraflu dried and left a conductive path or corroded something that's shorting out your keyboard and causing the weird behavior.

Since it's an iBook, you should be able to remove the entire keyboard relatively easily; I would do this, to make sure nothing got underneath, which could cause WAY more damage.

Once you've got the keyboard out of the machine, give it a good shake to get as much liquid as possible out, and let it dry for a day or two, then try again. If that doesn't work, or if you're feeling brave, get some DI water and rinse it out, then let it dry VERY thoroughly--this'll get any conductive theraflu gunk out of there, and SHOULDN'T (in theory) cause any more damage, since DI water isn't conductive.

If that works, great. If not, time to buy a replacement keyboard and be glad you didn't fry anything more expensive.

I didn't know the entire keyboard came off so easily. instead i carefully pulled off all the individual keys and from looking underneath those, it doesn't seem like there's any residual liquid. For now, it's just sitting on my desk without the keys and I guess i'll air it out in case there's any liquid I can't see and try again in couple days. Thanks.

 

[appleguru1]

If it's an iBook g3, I have a couple of old keyboards from my now dead one (One relatively new in perfect working condition... and one with a missing space bar)