Spilled Rubbing Alcohol on laptop keyboard. Is it dead?

[Sash[DSL]]

At one point I spilled some rubbing alcohol on the keyboard of my laptop. I shut it off right away, unpluggged the battery. Turned it back on an hour later assuming alcohol would have evaporated by then. The computer booted fine but made beeping noises it makes when more than 1 key is pressed.
Shut it off again. Afterwards, when everything dried out I turned it on again, everything works no problem.

Several days later I noticed some weird things going on. When I go into standby, the keyboard would stop working when I come back out of it. Caps lock light would not even go on. Reboot fixed that every time.
However, sometimes the keyboard(the entire keyboard) would not work after a reboot. Again, another reboot always took care of the issue. This certainly isnt a windows problem because the keyboard sometimes refuses to work at boot, so I can't even enter bios.

I don't have an issue buying a new keyboard, what worries me is whether the problem could be with motherboard. I checked the keyboard connector, it's fine. I should mention that the side of the keyboard is very flush with the side of the notebook, the keyboard only has 4 tiny holes in the bottom of it and there's a plastic film protector separating the mobo and keyboard. I did not spill that much alcohol on it. So subjectively I doubt that the alcohol could have made it to the motherboard but who knows.

[matkun]

Rubbing alcohol tends to only be 70% alcohol. So you've still got 30% of stuff in there that hasn't evaporated and is gunking stuff up/corroding components.

Either open it up and clean it.. or.. well.. your screwed.

[Fahrenheit]

I would suggest going ahead and buy a replacement KB, most of the time, it should fixed your problem. Also, compared to a lot of other stuff that people spill into their laptops, rubbing alcohol is really not that bad.

[Sash[DSL]]

Rubbing alcohol tends to only be 70% alcohol. So you've still got 30% of stuff in there that hasn't evaporated and is gunking stuff up/corroding components.

Either open it up and clean it.. or.. well.. your screwed.

But that was more than a week ago. :confused:

As far as cleaning it goes - do I just pop the keys off and clean everything under them? Or do I take the entire thing apart(there are screws on the back of the keyboard.

If some of my keys werent working or if the whole thing was unresponsive it would have been clear that the keyboard is the problem. What puzzles me is the fact that sometimes it works after bootup, sometimes not at all

[woof]

Isopropyl alcohol is a mixture of alcohol and water. 70% is 70% alcohol and 30% water. I only use 99% myself to minimize the water content because the alcohol evaporates quickly whereas the water component takes much longer and in the meantime can soak into porous surfaces or run off into areas you don't want it to and cause problems.

Normally the water should evaporate within a few hours in an open space but if it has become trapped in confined spaces it may not be able to evaporate. You could try opening it up as much as possible and leaving it over nite to see if that helps. Maybe set a fan to blow on it. Unfortunately in some cases even if it evaporates the damage it has done may be permanent.

If you have children keep in mind that isopropyl alcohol is highly poisonous, and very flammable, especially the 90%+ stuff.

[matkun]

Is this a laptop we're talking about here, or a seperate keyboard?

[Sash[DSL]]

Is this a laptop we're talking about here, or a seperate keyboard?

It's a laptop. What I also find super-puzzling is that many sites actually RECOMMEND using isopropyl alcohol to clean laptop keyboards. Some recommend submersing the entire keyboard into a 70% rubbing alcohol bath.

[hdom]

Use a 99% rubbling alcohol bath to replace the water with alcohol which dries much quicker.

[Sash[DSL]]

Use a 99% rubbling alcohol bath to replace the water with alcohol which dries much quicker.

So you are saying even after a week there could be water in there now? Is there any chance of that alcohol damaging circuits or something?

[Sash[DSL]]

What I also noticed now running the keyboard with keys popped off is that everytime I go out of standby, caps lock light flashes. As I mentioned earlier, the keyboard ALWAYS works after going into standby twice. In other words if keyboard works at bootup, I go in and out of standby it does not work, I go in and out of standby again and it works like a charm. I have not yet seen it break this cycle.
Also, when the keyboard does not work at bootup, CAPS LOCK flashes once windows bootup logo comes on.

[AzN_RiverdaleCI]

;5959313']What I also noticed now running the keyboard with keys popped off is that everytime I go out of standby, caps lock light flashes. As I mentioned earlier, the keyboard ALWAYS works after going into standby twice. In other words if keyboard works at bootup, I go in and out of standby it does not work, I go in and out of standby again and it works like a charm. I have not yet seen it break this cycle.

looks like you're confined to the cycle then.

[Sash[DSL]]

looks like you're confined to the cycle then.

That's good news in a way. Means I can get away with not buying a new keyboard, at least for now.

The keyboard consists of a metal backplate with those pressure sensitive connectors, a silicone overlay over it and then the keys. Would I ruin the keyboard if I tried to disassemble it and clean under the silicone membrane? Or would 99% alcohol bath do the same trick?

[rabbit]

What I also find super-puzzling is that many sites actually RECOMMEND using isopropyl alcohol to clean laptop keyboards.

What's puzzling about that? I do it all the time. I fold up a piece of paper towel, put it over the bottle of isopropyl, and tip the bottle to moisten the paper towel. The actual bottle doesn't go near the notebook, so there's no chance of spilling onto the notebook, unless the bottle can fly :).

[Sash[DSL]]

What I also find super-puzzling is that many sites actually RECOMMEND using isopropyl alcohol to clean laptop keyboards.

What's puzzling about that? I do it all the time. I fold up a piece of paper towel, put it over the bottle of isopropyl, and tip the bottle to moisten the paper towel. The actual bottle doesn't go near the notebook, so there's no chance of spilling onto the notebook, unless the bottle can fly :).

I am talking about soaking the whole keyboard in the alcohol, not cleaning the keys.

[rabbit]

OKay. LOL, that sounds insane. I just pop all the keys off and wash them in soap/water if I want to do a more thorough cleaning.

[apvm]

I think you should be ok after you air dry it, I spilled water into my portable cassette deck many moons ago, lucky it wasn't plug in, opened it up and let it dry for 2 days, it worked fine afterwards, I think I still have the deck somewhere in the basement.

[Paolo]

get a hair dryer and start drying that keyboard, no seriously do it. The alcohol (AL Cool in French) needs to dry thats been trapped inside underneath