After tea spill (unsweetened), 2 keys are mixed up (but working)

Question

For the first time in my life, I was not paying attention to my tea thermos next to my laptop... and made it fall onto the right part of my keyboard (numpad + right side of the keyboard, almost until the 'p' key, if you wanted to know...)

My first attempt was to suck water from top with absorbant paper, without dismounting anything, to remove the biggest part of the water. Then I used some compressed dry air to try to make part of it dry ASAP.

The day after, I dismounted the keyboard (cleaned up there since never done) and pushed some compressed dry air a little everywhere.

I had some random key mixes/activations (like z producing z+ESC, and o continuously activated), but they disappeared after a while.

Now I am stujck with a biggest concern: my u and j key produce 'uj' (sometimes 'ju') output. Very rarely I got some correct 'j' output for j. The keyboard backlight is also unresponsive.

I read an answer of a similar post, and I think I recognise my problem in the fact that some water mujst still be stujck in between some plastic layer, creating a short-circuit.

My first question is about the permanence of my problem: since some earlier problems disappear, is there a chance this one does too? It has been 2-3 days this problem appeared, compare the 1-2 days lasting of the others.

My second question is about the attempt of dismounting the internals of the keyboard: I am a little afraid of it. The keyboard+backlight block is backed with a plastic film, kind-of glued to it. Should I try to remove it or would that expose critical sections of my keyboard, effectively killing it? Will I be able to 'glue' it back?

Or... should I just wait?

I am also considering replacing the keyboard for quite an amount of money if you ask me... if there is no way out of it.

My laptop is an ASUS G51J.

Answer 1

A common fix for tech devices submerged in water is to put them in a bag filled with rice. Rice is incredibly dry and sucks up as much moisture as it can get its hands on, so if your problem is only residual water then what you ought to do is put the keyboard in the bottom of a container and cover it with rice overnight. If possible, seal the container. Rice is very very cheap, so don't be too worried about using a ton. Afterwards, throw out the rice. You may wish to have your keyboard as deconstructed as you can easily get it as well - it will allow easier access to the inside.

If the problem is worse than just residual water you may need to take other steps to get it fixed, but fortunately it is not very difficult to replace a laptop keyboard - you search online for a proprietary one that fits your model and can look up at a later time how to install it.

One note - since it's a laptop keyboard, you might want to consider covering your ports with tape before you do this to avoid getting rice stuck in hard places. Especially the fan opening - you may very well harm the laptop if you let rice get in.

And of course, make sure your laptop is turned off overnight!