What little I know as a hobbyist. If at all possible, take the keyboard=20
apart. There may be a few small screw, but more than likely, clips along=20
the edges. Try with a small flat screwdriver to pry so they unhook,=20
first one piece outward, then inward at several spots. Probably do a=20
small amount of nicks damage, but that's the price. If able to get=20
apart. wash everything thoroughly with clean water, preferable last=20
rinse with distilled (deionized water). Then blow dry with a hair dryer=20
or heat gun if available. Careful with heat gun not too much heat. Other=20
wise air dry for at least 24 hours. If not able to get it apart, and=20
someone may disagree with this, but I would take a strong stream of=20
water to it, even a garden hose. Then let it air dry for several days.=20
With what has happened so far, probably haven't dried enough, would let=20
it set for a couple of days. The issues are, the keycap switches many=20
times have a small metallic dome, or are very small switches that once=20
water gets in, takes a long time to get the water out with surface=20
tension, etc. And the milk, when dried becomes a cousin to latex paint,=20
and once dried will gum things up. Likely a new keyboard will be=20
necessary, but now days they aren't expensive like 30 years ago.

On 9/12/2010 4:12 PM, V G wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I have an apple wired keyboard and spilled cold milk all over it this
> morning. I dried it off with a paper towel but the milk got inside the
> keyboard and made the keys sticky. So I took it to the sink and washed
> it with cold water under the tap. The water got rid of the milk and
> cleaned out the keys. I then dried it off as much as I could, and
> stuck the keyboard beside a space heater for half an hour to dry it
> off. I then plugged it back into the USB port. The keyboard didn't
> work. Pressing the keys did not result in anything happening. So I
> went to the Windows device manager and saw that the keyboard was
> recognized.
>
> Did I make the mistake of plugging the keyboard in too early? Not
> giving it enough time to dry?
>
> Could the damage be permanent?
>
> I know I should have used distilled/deionized water to clean it off,
> but I didn't have any. I didn't want the sugars in the milk
> precipitating underneath the keys. I'm glad I washed it out when I
> did.
>
> It's a really nice keyboard.
>   =20
--=20
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist
.