Heh had this before, not with milk thought but with an entire can of strongbow…
It was a G15 keyboard, it was honestly goosed, nothing would work on it. Being about 3 years old I decided to just try and wash it and if it broke then meh.
Left it in my bath in warm water for an hour, let it dry for 2 weeks.
Typing with it right now, 3 years later.
Its threads like this that make me happy I have a waterproof keyboard.
I don’t think it is possible to break a keyboard with spillage. The current that runs in there is just too low. The problem with wet stuff in electronics is when current is strong. It can pass in so much current because of water that the part will break. Since keyboard is using “as less current as possible”, it just can’t melt anything in there. It will always work no matter what. The problem is that when it is not dry, the water “connects” few lines into one, glitching the keyboard. If the spill is not water, after drying it will leave something behind, like milk. That will also cause the keyboard to malfunction. In that case, you need to wash the keyboard in water.
I hope my hypothesis is correct 
If you spill water in your keyboard, it will short circuit it. Mind you, this isn’t as bad of problem as short circuiting a wall socket (my keyboard runs on 3v) but it may still cause a problem. If you ever hook up a wire then the battery gets very hot. This is because if the lower resistance. Since v=ir according to ohms law, the current becomes very high which means that many more electrons are passing through the circuit every second. Depending on where you spill it may or may not cause a problem. If the spill only connects for example, the two ends of a switch, then no harm is caused because those wires were supposed to be able to connect. On the flip side, if you spill water on the anode and cathode power ports, then problems will come f you don’t remove power quickly because it will heat up extremely fast.
It is true that you should wash out your keyboard if you have spilled milk on it to get rid of the residue. But make SURE that all of the water has completely evaporated before plugging your keyboard back into power.
Also, sorry to say, but your hypothesis is only partially correct. Your keyboard will not function if thre is water on it even though it is a very low current. That water is connecting parts of your keyboard that weren’t meant to be connected and it may just not give any feedback or it will burn up the circuitry.
44 hours after cleaning the keyboard with water.
Yesterday my keyboard had “mashed” 4 keys. Today, the keyboard is working almost perfectly. The only thing I’m experiencing is that keys U and 8 near (the close one) are hard to press, like a lot of keys yesterday. (I mean to register the key.)
Everything except those 2 keys works perfectly. I will try to plug the keyboard in again after 4 hours. Should be fine by then! 
Shorting out has nothing to do with breaking. Shorting out means connecting 2 things that were not supposed to connect, glitching the system. You can plug in a keyboard and spill a bucket of water on it and it will still not break, only won’t work until you dry it properly.
I would wipe it off with a cloth dipped in detergent water and then again with a dry cloth. My keyboard costs $3.26 (according to google)
SHC did you read the original post? By cleaning with water I meant putting it into a bath tub with water, so the inside electronics get cleaned from milk.
You’ll need a small amount of non-foaming detergent too, and use hot water. Agitate the keyboard while it’s immersed for a few minutes. Take it out, give it a good shake, and leave it somewhere very warm and dry for a week. Chances are it’ll never recover but there we go.
Cas
It already works almost perfectly. I don’t know why, but I hope it still hasn’t dried properly. 7&, U and ARROW_DOWN keys need to be pressed really hard to register.
I guess there are some sticky remains in there. As princec said, try to work the stuck keys while washing the keyboard.
My ex father-in-law used to rehabilitate old donated computers for a local charity organization. He used to use good old Isopropyl rubbing alcohol. It was strong enough to clean out a majority of the gunk without being so strong as to damage the coatings on the internal circuit boards and such. As a bonus, dry times should be at most a day (or two if you want to be on the safe side).
Since you’ve already submerged yours in water, you may want to try using a hair dryer on a low heat setting to help speed the drying process up and help get the moisture out of the nooks and crannies.
In Thailand there are these small fish in a tank, that can remove dead cells from your feet (Doctor fish?).
I wonder if this would work on the keyboard too…
They can’t get inside the key mechanic, where the sticky problem is …
Maggots have been used to remove dead cells too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maggot_therapy
Watch, read, hold still for a moment. Imagine yourself with a flesh wound at the doc, remember the maggots, then flail and scream!
PS: maggots have a bigger chance than the fish to clean the insides of the keyboard. Question is how to tget the maggots out there again after they’ve done the work.
Incineration, obviously.
I would just wildly type each key, and then wash the remains of the maggots out.
I’m not sure if that is good for the keyboard. But it’s done against woodworms (not fully incinerating, just heating the wood to about 200°C)
I meant to more like a few thousand degrees, just to be sure.
Soo my keyboard was working almost perfectly. 3 keys were really hard to register. I decided to wash it again. I will post the results in 2 or 3 days.
Will you try the maggots thing ;D
Soooo, it has been about 30 hours after last keyboard bathing. I plugin it in, and it works almost perfectly. It might be me, but KEY_K is not working at 100%. It is working properly, but not completely. Might want to wash it again sometime.
So here is the guide what to do when your keyboard doesn’t work after spilling something else, but water. I didn’t test this, but I think keyboard wouldn’t be trashed if you plugged it in soaking wet. It wouldn’t work, but after you’ve dried it, it would probably work again.
Do this to prevent your keyboard from being bathed. It will take few or more days before it will be working again.
So, first you should think about whether your keyboard has high or low keys. My keyboard has these flat keys, and any liquid can easily get inside the keyboard. You should pop off some key. If you have never done that, try popping out the key you never use, in case you break it. You probably have membrane keyboard, so I will assume you have it. Pop out the key. You will see a membrane(a rubber of some sort, white, kinda transparent.). The problem with spilling liquids on the keyboard such as coffee, milk, beer, lemonade etc is that after they dry, they will leave sugar or something like that afterwards. That is what causes your keyboard to malfunction after it is dry. Your keyboard has this circuit board. That white membrane is in direct contact with that circuit board. Now think. If you spill the liquid on the keyboard, can that liquid run down where membrane is placed in? It might be that liquid can’t even get to the circuit board, in which case, you don’t really have to do anything, unless your keyboard is sticky. Just clean it with water or something.
If you think that liquid can “run down there”, after the spill, you should FLIP the keyboard, keys facing down, so the liquid doesn’t run down on the circuit board. You should try to clean as much liquid as possible on FLIPPED keyboard and shake it so as much liquid gets out as possible.
After your keys are done cleaning, you should just use that keyboard again. If it is malfunctioning, don’t despair yet. Liquid probably got inside the keyboard, on the circuit board. All the things above where to prevent this from happening. Nothing is lost though… Now what you need to do is fill your bath tub (Or some kind of bowl) with hot water. The water shouldn’t be so hot that it melts plastic ofcourse. Hottest water from tap shouldn’t be too hot. You need to completely submerge the keyboard into water. Leave it for 1 hour or something. After that, give the keyboard a good shake a few times and leave it for drying.
I put my keyboard radiator (it’s winter and cold where I live) and just let it dry. How long you should keep drying it depends on your climate/how you dry it. After 24 hours you can try plugging it in and see if it works. If it doesn’t, just leave it for drying some more. After 12 or 24 hours check again. You can check as many times as you want After all the water has evaporated, your keyboard should be working again.
If it doesn’t you haven’t lost anything, because your keyboard wasn’t working to begin with.