Spilled coffee on MBA, now keyboard and trackpad will only work sporadically

[ice2k]

Hi everyone,


first of all sorry for any mistakes, English is not my native language.

I accidentally spilled four or five drops of coffee on my MBA (2014) keyboard and instantly wiped it up. The macbook worked just fine for a few hours. All of a sudden, both the keyboard and the trackpad became very laggy, as in there was a 5 second delay between my input and the cursor moving / the characters showing up on screen. After a reboot, the keyboard could not be found anymore and I was asked to connect a bluetooth keyboard. However, I am still able to move the cursor in the Boot Camp screen. I called Apple Care and the rep instructed me to perform a SMC reset and to reboot the mac in safe mode. It worked again properly after that for a few hours, until the symptoms started showing up again. They're again working like a charm right now, btw.

Is it possible that this is a software issue or that the problem could be fixed by cleaning the keyboard thoroughly? This is what the AC guy told me since both the keyboard and the trackpad will just randomly stop working and then, after some time, will work again instead of being permanently damaged. He told me to try reinstalling macOS. FWIW, the cursor will not work in the macOS install screen around 50% of the time but every single time in the boot camp screen.

Thanks in advance!!

 

[Audit13]

You need to stop using the Macbook immediately, remove the bottom panel, disconnect battery, disassemble the unit as much as you can, clean the affected areas with pure isopropyl alcohol, and place the Macbook in a sealed bag with desiccant.

Hopefully, this will prevent further corrosion and hardware damage.

I do not believe it is a software issue but rather a hardware issue that will probably get progressively worse.

 

[dear.leader]

You need to stop using the Macbook immediately, remove the bottom panel, disconnect battery, disassemble the unit as much as you can, clean the affected areas with pure isopropyl alcohol, and place the Macbook in a sealed bag with desiccant.

Hopefully, this will prevent further corrosion and hardware damage.

I do not believe it is a software issue but rather a hardware issue that will probably get progressively worse.

Good advice. Definitely sounds like a hardware issue.

Cleaning the parts with IPA may salvage them, and you'd better hope so OP. The keyboard is a pain to replace. So much so that you'll be better off replacing the whole top case with the keyboard already installed.