It's a hard lesson, and I feel for you my friend; this could happen to anyone. I hope everything works out for you!
I know, this is of little consolation to those who have spilled liquids on their keyboards, but get a keyboard protector folks, it'll be the best money you'll ever spend to avoid costly repairs. Little accidents happen to the best of us, and 25 bucks can save your bacon.
If you don't want to spend $25, saran wrap does a great job, especially on desktop keyboards, and accomplishes the same thing for practically nothing. It lasts about from 2-6 weeks, depending on the length of the nails of those typing away on it (really), and once you've done it a few times, you get the hang of it. You can do it in such a way that the USB ports on the side are still accessible.
Previously, I would have dismissed this idea because I thought any spilled liquid would still have plenty of entry points to the computer's vitals. But, after this incident, I've changed my mind. For a large volume of liquid, that would still be a problem, but in this case, the amount of liquid spilled would have probably been stopped by a keyboard cover. So now, we each have one.
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Any updates to this thread?
I'm approaching this thing from a different angle: I just bought a water damaged MacBook Air to try and repair as a side project. I figure it would be a neat way to learn about the Air and it's not like I can break it even more.
Already have coworkers who want to harvest the parts if it doesn't work...
I waited about 2 weeks, and then tested the computer. It worked fine, save for the battery. I installed a replacement, and things work great, now. I spent some time cleaning inside the computer using alcohol, since it was iced tea with some sugar, to prevent corrosion. I've run some stress tests by running "yes" in a couple terminal windows for several hours, with no signs of problems. I've been using it on and off, too. I still have a couple sticky keys that I need to attend to, but other than that, all is well. In fact, the "liquid submersion indicators" or LSI are all still white, which really surprised me.
My plan is to still sell the computer (clearly marked as having a spill) but things look a lot better than they first did. I think the biggest piece of advice I would offer is to be very patient. Give the computer plenty of chance to dry out, at least 10 days. It may be overkill, but it may also be the only chance left. That, and get a keyboard cover
