Water damaged laptop keyboard tips

[DXTN]

So, about a week ago I accidentally spilled about a glass of water on to my account aspire 5 laptop keyboard, being the tech savvy guy I immediately turned off the laptop turned it around, disassembled it right away to disconnect the battery and dry everything up, that actually saved the display as the internal connector was already corroding. Now, I actually saved the machine, but it seems like some water sipped in between the membranes of the keyboard, rendering it completely useless (but not burnt or utterly damaged).

I can confirm the laptop works as it turns on when I'm lucky enough that the power button decides to work properly (as the damn button is embedded in the keyboard) but holding the laptop at the wrong angle causes the button to be read as been pushed.

Now I've tried to locate a diagram for the board so I can temporarily put an independent power button with no luck (it's a Wartortle_BS if someone has more luck than me).

So, oh wise ltt forum, what can I do? I've tried resting only the keyboard in rice and sealing it with a bunch of silica gel in a bag for 2 days. Now I'm thinking on baking it at 100°C but I'm afraid it would ruin it for good in the process, or giving it a bath in 99% isopropyl alcohol. I'm also searching for replacements in the meantime but I didn't find the right language and the ones I found come separate from the chassis, and I'm not in the mood of removing the damn rivets and gluing the new keyboard.

I'm attaching the picture of my keyboard's label if someone's interested.

Sorry for the long post and thank you for your replies.

 

UPDATE: 

So, after numerous tries with the alcohol and the hairdrier I just had to give up. For the record, If your power button is part of the keyboard, buy the cheapo silicon cover for the keyboard, the damn part is essential for the normal functioning of the laptop. if you spill anything on that you're SOL. 

Now, I had to commision a friend of mine to buy a replacement keyboard in the capital, since I wasn't able to get the part in the town I live... friggin embedded power buttons...

 

UPDATE:

So yeah, I found the replacement and got to the job of replacing the keyboard, that meant melting about 70 plastic rivets to remove it, carefully reshaping them to place the new keyboard and melting them back to hold the new part, the whole endeavour took me about 4 hours, including laptop dissassembly and reassembly. if someone reads this, please get those cheap silicon keyboard covers if you plan to have liquids anywhere near the laptop, cuz having to do this is a REAL pain in the butt

 

[W-L]

4 minutes ago, DXTN said:

-SNIP-

I usually recommend to bath it in alcohol for it to displace as much water as possible, since it's a laptop keyboard most times you won't be able to take it apart much further to try and scrub off the contacts or pads as those may have potential corrosion from minerals in the water. 

[DakotaWebber]

you might be able to buy a replacement keyboard on ebay, worked for my old laptop 

[DXTN]

18 minutes ago, W-L said:

I usually recommend to bath it in alcohol for it to displace as much water as possible

Thanks for the suggestion. Won't the alcohol degrade the plastics? And for how long should I bathe it? Should I use other alcohol than isopropyl?

The contacts on the ribbon cable are ok tho, and I traced the culprit of the power button misbehavior to the three keys at the right to the space bar.

[W-L]

16 minutes ago, DXTN said:

Thanks for the suggestion. Won't the alcohol degrade the plastics? And for how long should I bathe it? Should I use other alcohol than isopropyl?

The contacts on the ribbon cable are ok tho, and I traced the culprit of the power button misbehavior to the three keys at the right to the space bar.

Isopropyl as long as you aren't constantly exposing the plastics and rubbers to it won't be a problem, 99% isopropyl will be ideal. A good bath and adijation for a few mins should do it, you will want to let dry it for at least a few hours. 

 

For the contacts I'm talking about the keys themselves and not the cables as those or other small SMD electronics that can't be access are what may see corrosion. 

[DXTN]

7 hours ago, W-L said:

For the contacts I'm talking about the keys themselves and not the cables as those or other small SMD electronics that can't be access are what may see corrosion. 

Ooh, well there's no non-destructive way to get to those, as they're sandwiched between the chassis and the keyboard armature, and both things are riveted together, as explained in the op water has gotten it's way in between the circuit layers of the keyboard. I'm doing the alcohol thing today and will update the situation